About HANGOVER, ZEN AND SUSPENSE. Intervention within the framework of the PLASTILINA project.
This intervention arises as a response to the curatorial intentions and the purposes of uniting generational interests within the framework of the Plastilina Project presented to the Centro Hispanoamericano de Cultura in Havana. In which a dozen artists who had recently graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte or who were still participating in the conceptual aura promoted in the workshops of said institution participated..

Continue reading

The work is the transposition of a stumbling bride “going down the stairs” that could find its most immediate references in Duchamp’s “Nude Going Down the Stairs.” It is an ephemeral sculpture that aims to take the very structure of Duchamp’s bride to a new structure laid bare, recontextualizing it through an interpretation mediated by the material reality of the surrounding environment.

In this sense, a reflection is proposed on the means of production of art in Cuba, and specifically in the Higher Institute of Art, which, given the lack of conventional materials, resorted to the use of garbage and the recycling of objects and materials from everyday life, promoting sculpture and ephemeral installation, Conceptual Art, Arte Povera, as elements of possible mixture to conceive the aesthetic artifice, which under this veil would leave aside the pretensions of a snobbish and bourgeois art.

"Plasticine" invades the Hispanic American Center?
By: Arlette Castillo

Ironically, plasticine is not the primary material of the exhibition, however the works of Michel Pérez (Pollo), Niels Reyes, Yeny Casanueva, Orestes Hernández, Yornel Martínez, Junior Acosta (Jimy), Odey Curbelo, Irving Vera and Alejandro Campins come together like mortar to take over the spaces of the Hispanic American Center.

Continue reading

The exhibition is not conceived under a defined theme or concept, although the group's formation recognizes a generational harmony between these young artists who have recently graduated or are still students at ISA. According to Campins himself, who is responsible for the curatorship, "we are not concerned with the gross metaphor when it comes to producing. We rather pay attention to the possibility of digressing and poeticizing from the genre and about the genre, from the material and about the material. It is about seeing the image, the history, the materials and all the contents that can be attached to the work, as raw material that we have available for alchemy; not to direct attention to a fixed idea."

Perhaps because of this creative game, not at all naive, we as spectators feel a childish breath in most of the pieces. This apparent wandering on the margins of playfulness seems to be given by the lack of prejudice of this generation with identities and the multiplicity of cultural influences in contemporary society. Thus, almost all of them project themselves from their beginnings towards a universal reading that moves away from the supports of conceptual density and social chronicle.

The proximity to the universe of the intuitive is also revealed by the presence of contrasts; whether between the dimensions of the pieces, the variety of materials, the sometimes precise, sometimes casual stroke, or the use of colour, taken almost pure from the oil tubes. Such is the case of two large-format works by Michel Pérez (Pollo) and other small ones in the room, as well as the ephemeral sculpture by Yeny Casanueva on the landing of the elegant staircase of the building that could only be enjoyed during the first days of the inauguration.

Also in this mixture of sharpness and analytical tangentiality, they allude to problems of modern man “Eugenics” by Niels Reyes (2007) with its version of the doctrines for the improvement of the human species, Campins with the ironic image of a gigantic gorilla wearing a watch on his arm, or Yunior Acosta with a picturesque ox skeleton in the middle of “Siesta” (2007) in the middle of the gallery.

On the second floor we find the installations of Yornel Martínez and Irving Vera. The former uses variations of yellow to construct an almost stage-like scene of the unstoppable passing of time with “The Suns and Shadows of Time” (2008). Nearby, Irving Vera shows a selection of his assemblages full of wit and sense of humour. He is able to concentrate very witty narratives in these rustic little things, assembled with domestic objects, electric cables, rubber, paper, old toys and fragments of many other things.

Cada pieza es la consecuencia directa del proceso de aproximación a la creación de estos jóvenes artistas, con certeza una propuesta interesante para ver en estos días en el Centro Hispanoamericano de Cultura.

Plastilina
Curatorship: Alejandro Campins
Orestes Hernández, Irving Vera, Odey Curbelo, Niels Reyes, Michel Pérez, Yornel Martínez, Yeny Casanueva, Yunior Acosta and Alejandro Campins consider the possibility of digressing and poeticizing from the genre and about the genre, from the material and about the material. It is about seeing the image, the story, the genre, the materials and all the contents that can be attached to the work, as raw material that we have available for alchemy, not to direct attention to a fixed idea.

Continue reading

Orestes Hernández, Irving Vera, Odey Curbelo, Niels Reyes, Michel Pérez, Yornel Martínez, Yeny Casanueva, Yunior Acosta and Alejandro Campins consider the possibility of digressing and poeticizing from the genre and about the genre, from the material and about the material. It is about seeing the image, the story, the genre, the materials and all the contents that can be attached to the work, as raw material that we have available for alchemy, not to direct attention to a fixed idea.

ZEN HANGOVER AND SUSPENSE
Photo gallery:

To see the complete curatorial project Click here!