Karina Pino Gallardo

Born in Matanzas City/Cuba in 1985.

After graduating from an acting program at the the National School of Theater (Havana/Cuba, 2003), Karina Pino Gallardo subsequently completed a Bachelor’s degree in theater criticism and research (theatrology) at the University of the Arts in Havana in 2010.

Pino Gallardo worked as an editor at the Tablas-Alarcos Publishing House (Havana, 2010–2016). Between 2012 and 2022, she simultaneously directed several plays and performances in Cuba and abroad, as well as coordinating interdisciplinary projects between Cuban artists and institutions.

Her creative and scenic work focuses predominantly on social issues inside and outside communities, illuminating transdisciplinary intersections and exploring the power of memory, the document, the object, and the image. She currently works as a freelance artist with her collective The Trailer, which she founded with Alessandra Santiesteban in 2020.

Key works include Juragua, the path of blue waters, a project about community, environment and theater (2022) (concept/co-direction), Nuclear City, Cienfuegos/Cuba; I want to be a female animal (2021) (direction/text/performance), Carrozzerie n.o.t. Theater, Rome/Italy; Cartographies of daily life (2021) (concept/text), Nau Ivanow Factory of Creation, Barcelona/Spain; Inhabiting the gesture, a project about art and social architecture (2020) (concept/co-creation), Havana, and Nora’s body. Scenic essay on emotions and flesh (2017) (codirection/text/performance), Galería D’Nasco Studio, Havana. She received a grant for the project Ignorance is Strength? Artistic Expression and Biopower in the Post/Pandemic Age (2022) from the European Alliance of Academies/Akademie der Künste in Berlin/Germany, as well as being the recipient of a Fleetstreet Theater Residence (2021) in Hamburg/Germany with The Trailer collective, and receiving a fellowship from the International Forum (2019), Theatertreffen, Berlin.