Delito del Cuerpo

por Dannys Montes de Oca

Asistidos  como estamos por una crisis  de las relaciones entre  saber y poder, entre hombre y ciencia, entre presente y futuridad, el XXI se prefigura como un siglo de grandes cambios en lo referido al conocimiento. Es el elemento ético derivado de un espíritu colectivo de sobrevivencia y trascendencia de nuestra “humanidad” la que nos impele  a tales transformaciones.

En este sentido Delito del cuerpo cuestiona la autosuficiencia de los saberes y el cuerpo instituidos, modelos que han sido instaurados desde grandes campos  (Mitología, Ciencia, Arte) o como disciplinas (Antropología social, Antropología filosófica, Antropología forense; Medicina clínica, Medicina legal; Derecho civil, Derecho penal, Derecho laboral; etc, etc…).  El proyecto hace énfasis en  la investigación del ser que trae consigo nuestra época, en la que no sólo se postulan redefiniciones sobre el sujeto, su identidad transfigurada y la noción de cuerpo sino en la que se está definiendo una conciencia en mutación del discurso científico.

Si se habla de un cambio en las epistemologías tradicionales porque determinadas categorías han dejado de funcionarnos,  las soluciones podrían estar nuevamente en la ciencia pero con una mayor dosis de contenido sensible. Esta parecería ser la tesis de los hermanos Omar y Carlos Estrada. De cualquier modo la naturaleza científica es esencialmente especulativa, se propone como posibilidad, como enunciado en hipótesis que desembocan en el proceso investigativo, desde la observación, clasificación  y análisis hasta la demostración y aceptación del nuevo conocimiento, y en ello comparte más de una cualidad con el  pensamiento artístico. Por otro lado, si el arte ha “muerto” un millón de veces y en todos sus renaceres se ha articulado  teniendo en cuenta los nuevos discursos de la ciencia, el cuestionamiento también se plantea de este otro modo: ¿qué nos está resolviendo el arte y qué nos  resolvería un acercamiento diferente a través de las nuevas “verdades” científicas?

No se trata en este caso de modificar la percepción de lo científico con el fin de  mostrar su naturaleza estética; tampoco de usar sus procesos o sus resultados como filtro, puente de acceso o vía de democratización de las ideas provenientes de la ciencia; ni siquiera de plantearnos una nueva noción del arte, del hecho de observar y participar. Todo ello ya es parte de la Historia del Arte y por tanto queda incluido. Lo particular es que Delito del Cuerpo intenta superar esas relaciones parciales entre arte, ciencia, tecnología y vida cotidiana para llegar a un punto donde participamos de un procedimiento científico y artístico a la vez y donde la metáfora en la que convergen ambos modelos se construye desde el proceso físico real  de convergencia de éstos como saberes.

Por último habría que decir que el proyecto intenta conciliar y dar fe, a través de la participación activa, de las ambivalencias del conocimiento: las  contradicciones entre procedimiento y finalidad, entre esencia y apariencia, entre percepción artística y percepción científica. Las obras tratan de ser impolutas, de apariencia intocable, sin embargo se erigen como objetos de participación, instrumentos híbridos, juguetes de sentido abiertos a crear contextos para el  conocimiento. Aluden a la fragmentación y a la contradicción como posibilidad ontológica de nuestras vidas.

En la experiencia de interactuar con estos “aparatos” podremos hallar cuestiones relativas al conocimiento como visión cosmogónica, universal, o por el contrario, en un sentido particular; la superposición de niveles de información factual devenida caos en su apariencia de sistema;  o la contraposición de los estudios científicos sobre el individuo y la identidad biológica del ser con elementos míticos y azarosos, tanto si lo aproximamos a la tradición mítico-ancestral como al hecho de que la identidad biológica familiar es el  resultado de una infinidad de posibilidades bioquímicas. Se trata, en última instancia, de una incitación a la búsqueda de información, como cuestionamiento de la  evidencia que tiende a sustituir lo que somos.

Dannys Montes de Oca Moreda, es una importante curadora y crítico de arte cubano.

This Side Up!, Volume 13, Spring 2001

Imagine: Cuba Libre! (Sun, Sea & Socialism)

Erica H. Adams

³In those days of extreme poverty, the dream of all who were down-and-out in Cuba was to go ³north² to work. My uncle Argelio did go… he sent us a photo in which he was steering a luxurious motorboat… years later I discovered the trick: One would go to a special photographic studio and have one¹s picture taken while sitting in a cardboard boat with a cardboard ocean as the background. In Cuba everybody thought my uncle was driving his own boat.² Reinaldo Arenas, Before the Night Falls.

Cuba Libre (Free Cuba) is a Rum and Coke drink.

We loved Che. Now, 43 years after the revolution, youth thank Castro for their free education and health care, pointing to a John Lennon statue Castro recently consecrated, inscribed ³You may say I¹m a dreamer, but I¹m not the only one…² from Lennon¹s Imagine. Korda¹s iconic Che photo was resurrected alongside the Catholic Church¹s sanctioned return to Cuba during the ŒSpecial Period¹ (1991-96) of deprivation coincident with subsidies lost from the Soviet Union¹s collapse. The on-going U.S. embargo is no small factor. Che presides throughout Havana¹s spectacular landscape: Billboards celebrate revolution and frame Havana airport¹s highway infrequented by Batista era cars, recent imports and horse drawn carts. From store interiors, Che surveys elegant neighborhoods that look like war zones sparingly renovated by Miami relatives or architectural preservationists. Four economies provide the highest standard of living in the Caribbean with erratic scarcities. Plaza de la Revolución¹s Ministry of the Interior¹s facade outlines Che¹s face in bronze replacing frescos then, papier mâché displayed after his death. He faces national hero, José Marti whose 454 foot communist modern obelisk is the highest point of this breathtakingly beautiful city rising from ruins. Apart from tv news, Castro¹s invisible, yet evidently conditions every aspect of daily life. There are no casual conversations concerning Cuba. Strange for Americans who turn every tragedy into a comic routine in less than 24 hours. This incongruous atmosphere appears to have provoked Cuban artists and musicians into becoming among the world¹s most vibrant, human and penetrating heroes: Just in time for Global Capitalism!

The 7th Havana Biennial (November-December 2000) has been anticipated since third world artist¹s flooded the 1999 Venice Biennale¹s predictable Euro-American core from its margins challenging biennials that followed: Cuba accepted. Their theme Más cerca uno del otro (Closer to one another) was a clear gesture towards open communication. And, to the U.S. whose citizens are forbidden to travel to Cuba, as Cubans can not easily leave their island. Isolation is the enemy. Artists are the antidote.

The New York-European art world crowded November¹s art openings and symposiums throughout old Havana, La Rampa, El Morro and Vedado with third world artists, and 25 exhibitions of 1960-90¹s Cuban art, ceramics, film posters and graphics with some first world collaborations. Biennials introduce cities through art: Old Havana, an astounding UNESCO world heritage site contains Cuba¹s hope linked to tourism and dollars. Placing attention on Havana¹s architecture and its preservation through art,installations directly transmitted Cuba¹s voice. Even Frank Gehry spoke at Havana¹s architecture school.

Disenchanted with Marxism¹s ability to describe or reform society, Edmund Wilson¹s 1938 essays ²The Triple Thinkers² offered a third way out: Neither art-for-art¹s sake¹s self cultivated garden, nor its double, art as political action dedicated to social reform, but art¹s third way–an art that functions as a moral guide created from tension between inner and outer worlds.

Unofficial Bienal participants, Cuban brothers Omar and Carlos Estrada de Zayas¹ installation Cronica del Grito exemplified its ultimate offering: Improvisation and clarity born of the urgency to dialogue as a survival mechanism that engages the Œother¹ or, foreigner. Replacing Bienal sanctioned works with their own was a radical context to address, Omar says ³the illusion of the absolute given the permanence of change in which archetypes lose their significance depending on where your context for analysis is.² Omar insists his cardboard horse, The Gallop is ³not political² but ³a very cultural toy.² ³Coercing² the bike pedal stirrup revolves the saddle¹s rotoscope. This creates ³the illusion of movement² in Muyerbridge¹s horse and rider sequence seen through vertical slits. Omar ³manipulates the language of toys to allude to an innocence not limited to children to believe in the illusion of freedom, or better, the illusion of illusion…² Omar insisted art ³doesn’t permit me to be an absolutist because as an artist, I risk being too close to what it means to be a human being. So, I can be virtually free.² In Carlos¹ Theological Reaffirmation, a mannequin hand reaches beyond its suspended tv-dish nave; it¹s disfunctional electrical wire originates from inside a cage whose open door is situated behind a barred window. Imagine.

Havana¹s streets offered art-as-public-service-announcements offsetting government billboards promoting ³Sun, Sea and Socialism.² Seeing Otherwise, New York team Jennifer Allora (USA) and Guillermo Calzadilla (Cuba) billboard series depicts Cubans facing the distant Œother¹: From El Morro prison facing Havana¹s Malecón seawall. And, facing Miami, 80 miles from Malecón where Cubans exit every July and August on rafts. Nearby,in La Rampa,the Batista era hang-out fast becoming lush life central, Argentine Grupo Escombros installed their ŒGift¹ waste container labeled Radioactive; Infectious Substances; With best wishes for our friends from Third World countries,from the rich nations.

Bottles washed ashore without messages became a common Cuban motif: Kcho¹s sitcomish installation crowded bottles against a pier while Carlos Estévez Carasa, who still lives in Cuba,lined-up alchemical drawings over a limitless incantation of empty bottles.

Overall, Cuban artists¹ dialectic and materialism included a disproportionate number of life-sized works with mannequins, bottles, cages and cast-off materials. Esterio Segura Mora¹s corrosive, exemplary works were minimally lit in dank, cavernous El Morro, once a prison. Icons of exhaustive improvisations in communication are etched with acidic clarity: Submerged in darkness, Voices Heard From Something Moving in the Water¹s blue-jeaned mannequin stands encased in a winged cage as a soundless loudspeaker grows from his mouth. A wire emits from another mannequins mouth. His breath powers a fragile luminous bellflower floating at the ceiling¹s confines of Where Silence Stops Silence. Upstairs, a narrow ramp descends into a wall of corroded typewriters. Under their crushing presence, a mannequin sleeps on rotting stacks of newspapers apparently haunted by his [Mora¹s] futile, Space Occupied by a Dream. An infinite labyrinth of dreams enclosed dreams: Where to go from here? In a strange reversal of an out-of-body experience, another Cuban artist suspended a life-sized, tattooed wooden effigy of a Taino indian over an absent body schematically rendered in glass plates. Etched lines mar its ghostly shell with electronic circuitry replacing the human one. Will to survival and to communicate is our most powerful human possession: Cuban artists have illuminated the way.

* Erica H. Adams es una activa Artista Visual norteamericana, Editora, Curadora y Profesora adjunta al The School of the Museum of Fine Arts de Boston, USA.

Havana Sci-Fi

Curated by Adolfo V. Nodal

The Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is pleased to present “Havana Sci-Fi”, curated by Adolfo V. Nodal, a survey of eight young artists pursuing professional careers in Havana, Cuba today. This exhibition presents painting, sculpture and installation pieces representing the current vanguard of thought and preoccupations that are strongly reflected in their frank and unvarnished artistic output.

These artists, who represent a variety of points of view and backgrounds, are the new breed cutting their teeth in the international milieu and bohemian cultural atmosphere that is found in the City of Havana today. Hailed from various parts of Cuba and as well as from other countries. They are a mirror of the so called “Generation 2000″ of emerging artists that are part of Havana’s exciting art scene. The group of young artists in this show are the new cutting-edge of Cuban Art, still largely under the radar in Cuba and almost unknown in the USA.

Through these eight artists, we can see a panorama of artistic tendencies that are closely connected with the place that is Cuba-specifically Havana-and in strong relationship with intellectual life throughout the world. Although Cuba is embargoed by the US, these artists are remarkably worldly and part of the trends and ideas that are global and of our times.

This exhibition of individual art works, which also functions as a total installation, offers a gritty vision of art that is preoccupied with scientific process, ancient ritual, cycles, endless repetition, constant change and existential cause and effect relationships. This is raw work that is screened through an esthetic-scientific eye and biological, religious, and ecological concerns. They also offer a preoccupation with human representation, sexuality and censure. Havana Sci-Fi reveals a surreal perception that filters the viewpoint of these young artists and belies the effects of rapid social evolution and changing values in Cuba at the dawn of the 21st Century.

Currently the Havana Art Scene, fueled by four decades of enduring cultural development strategies by the Castro Government, has witnessed a solid ten years of international promotion due to increased tourism. Although relations between the US and Cuba remain severely strained, which has hurt cultural development on the Island, Havana is, culturally as vital as ever, with many active cultural venues and a full schedule of activities, events and critical discourse. Havana is one of the most thriving bohemian cultural centers in the Americas. This selection of Cuban visual artists, like Cuban music, continues to re-generate itself with new emerging talent, mixed with artists and ideas from the outside world. Those that would think Cuba is isolated intellectually are mistaken. Cuba is a place that generates new culture and fresh ideas just as regularly as the warm tropical waves lap against Havana’s humongous seawall– the “Malecon”. There are eight of those warm waves of talent.

Los Animistas is a collaborative team consisting of a visual artist working with a media producer, a biologist, and a taxidermist that creates studies, installations, photography and other presentations that reflect existential, ethical and ecological issues while using native Cuban wild life (like vultures, bats, scorpions and crocodiles) as the work’s primary metaphor. The work is a stark jolt to our conscience regarding the natural cycles of life, our ethics in society and our relationship to animals and natural processes presented through a scientific, bio-esthetic point of view.

Fidel Ernesto investigates reality itself and holds it out as a poetic metaphor of beauty. He produces direct interventions that almost always require the complicity of the viewer. Here he uses a techno-mechanical process to quantify the dust form grinding an already crumbling rampart and to amplify otherwise-undecipherable texts hidden in the gallery walls or his own writings that blend into the space. His is a vision that sees what is there already whether it is the patina of an ancient surface or the sunlight tracking on the floor.

Omar & Carlos Estrada, two brothers that form an art squad who share a special interest in science in a Neo-Renaissance tradition. Their installations of pseudo space suits, sound installations and quasi-scientific objects show a sense of experimentation, invention and exploration. Their work employs elements of motion and surprise and otherwise responds in a variety of ways to the viewer. They have also been involved with medical aesthetics and its similarity to the cultural phenomena. They recognize the beauty of medical representation in and of itself.

Jose Emilio Fuentes works with memories of his childhood that reflects elements of his more early history in his wall installation. In this extremely sad and powerful work, the side of childhood diseases, violence, rudeness and despair weave together with the naive thoughts of children’s drawings about sex, death and other tragedies.

Alain Pino uses photography like an engineer develops structures. Each idea builds a work of art that exists as an amalgam of structural details sometimes focusing on the commercial manipulation of human beings by media and multi national corporate interests. Other photo pieces address the issues of migration especially the tragedy of the Cuban Rafters and their often unsuccessful attempts to reach American soil, ending up in the bottom of the Florida Straights. This is one of Cuban Society’s most catastrophic and enigmatic problems. Pino addresses it with a time-motion photo installation that harkens back to Eadweard Muybridge’s scientific movement studies of men and animals in the last century. In Pino’s Cuban Subjects, the moment of human drowning.

Ernesto Pina has created the fictional character of an adolescent girl who is in a period of growth in which teenagers discover their bodies but still think like children. Mr. Pina offers the viewer a choice between a stern paternal approach to this over-endowed flirty girl or a game of forbidden seductions. These psycho erotic haikus follow a narrative thread that gives the girl’s character emotional definition and provides a pseudo-clinical artist’s account of what should, more appropriately, be a serious psychological study by a medical doctor.

Harold Vasquez works within the limits of the medium-whatever that medium happens to be. In this exhibition, the artist offers videos and ruminations on time, how it is measured and how it impacts the viewer. He accomplishes this beautifully by filming a girl as a vividly still image that stops the clock when she looses her pose. This piece is as much about time as it is about exploring new boundaries of traditional portraiture.

Adolfo V Nodal, Curator, is an established producer and promoter of arts and culture in the United States with special emphasis on Cuban culture. He has held leadership positions in arts institutions throughout the US and has promoted Cuban Artists of all disciplines over the last 20 years. From 1989 to 2004 he was General Manager of the City of LA’s Cultural Affairs Department. He is currently in private practice in the area of Cultural Development. Mr. Nodal co-authored and produced the book MEMORIA: Cuban Art of the 20th Century in 2003. He resides in Los Angeles, California.