Cultural Exchange in La Habana
Post by America Salomon
A view of the Old Havana municipality.
From February 16-21, 2015 I had the exceedingly good fortune to travel with a group of High Museum Director’s Circle patrons and staff to Havana, Cuba as part of a people-to-people cultural exchange program. While in Havana, we of course visited essential historical sites, museums, galleries, and other cultural landmarks, but perhaps the most poignant feature of our program was the direct interface it offered us with contemporary Cuban artists in their studios.
Juxtaposing these artists’ work, which ranged from deeply intimate photographic installation to bitingly satirical interactive art, against both the artists’ individual views on their society and the sights around us locally allowed us a tremendous insight into everyday life in Cuba and—truly—into the spirit of the changing times for a people.
With artist José Manuel Fors, a soft-spoken man whose studio sat in an equally unassuming subset of Havana, we saw work that spoke to the importance of the family unit and identity in a place where contribution to a shared social unit and identity is given paramount importance. His pieces layered fragments of family photographs, relics, and found objects to this end, drawing on the viewer’s sense of memory and nostalgia.
Conversely, artist Abel Barroso addressed social issues in Cuba and the developing world in a more overt, if somewhat whimsical manner. His sculptural pieces seemingly recreated the forms of any number of common items, but—on closer observation—were laden with humorous commentary on issues such as immigration, poverty, and social inequality. “Third world iPads” made of wood—as much of his work was—required rough, manual movement of scrolling sheets of canvas to activate their “touch screen technology,” while pinball machines documented the voyage of an “immigrant”—a wooden pinball—from the third world at the base of the machine to the first world, the desired goal furthest and least attainable from the pinball’s point of origin.
It would be a detriment to paraphrase everything that we learned in our interactions in just a few words, but I hope that the following photographic glimpse into some of our most resonant experiences might shed just a little light on the perspective we gained into Cuban art, people, and culture at large. Enjoy!
Pictured: (Clockwise from top left) Ever-diligent art students at work in the Instituto Superior Del Arte’s printmaking studio; “A Group of Cubans who Left Manzanillo are Rescued at Sea” by Kcho explores a theme of obsession with escape by sea;  Inside the studio of artist Ernesto Estévez, Director’s Circle members see the work of an artist bringing nature to his urbanized surroundings; Ernesto Estévez bids farewell to his visitors from the High; A street view in the Centro Habana municipality shows patrons contemplating their other-worldly surroundings; “The Thinker” by Kcho revisits the artist’s metaphorical consciousness of the sea.
(Photographs by America Salomon)
