Cuban performance artist Carlos Martiel uses his body to address the restrictions and limitations within the lived experience of the Black male body. The ephemerality of performance points towards the immediacy that his subject poses and the fragility of continuing to exist is questioned by the passage of time. The perpetual threat on the body shows the persistence of the systems that are in place in our society; systems of violence, ostracisation, and displacement. Martiel approaches these topics from the non-western migrant experience and specifically the identity of the Black male within that conversation. Martiel studied in Cuba and has since been exhibited globally , his works are in public and private collections such as the Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami and Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro.