---

Donis Llago (*1985, Havana)

Artist Statement:

The work GOOGLE, from the series TRANSPARENCIAS, 2020. It becomes a metaphor of what social networks and virtual reality represent for man in the face of the contingency experienced as a result of Covid-19. How we were forced and conditioned to use these means of communication as a lifeline, both as artists to show their work and as viewers to keep up to date with the new prerogatives that this situation has brought to art in general.

On the other hand, the Google logo made with the most identifying architectural structure of Havana, which is the boardwalk, gives the work a unique meaning. The boardwalk is the limit of the city and at the same time the limit of free knowledge, seen from the point of view of practical and objective reality. Beyond that wall the eyes and human commensurability do not reach the power to conquer the space that it delimits. Therefore, the meaning of the piece itself lies in the possibility offered by technology and interconnection for the human being. Google, the Internet, digital platforms and all online art galleries and circuits offer creators and the public the possibility of staying psychotechnologically connected and immediate to any event, despite being geopolitically in a single place, alluding to the same concept. of the icon of the boardwalk in the shape of a giant fish tank, where it allows you to live, fly, dream, and allows your sight and mind to pass, but not the body.

The Malecón welcomes everyone: the distracted walker, the fisherman, the child playing between the legs of a grandmother who seeks in the transparency of the sea the presence of what she has lost, the one who dreams of a path above the waters, the one who flee the imminent collapse of the city and many who seem to be waiting for something. Real space is not the object of representation but the site where an illusory universe is woven, a universe fueled by the anxieties and dreams of thousands of people. From these shared obsessions a parallel world is emerging; virtue lies in the will to bring that world into reality. The distance between the real object and the imaginary object seems to cancel out; everything is real, everything exists in the imagination of Cubans.
What did Lezama call it? The longings and frustrations of the islanders who allow themselves a moment to sit on the wall to try to console themselves with the imagination of the outside or the wishes of the tourist who tries to conjecture what he will find inside? The cursed or the blessed circumstance of water everywhere?

Of course, there is no satisfactory answer: the process of intellection of that space is an extremely bookish process. It is interesting here to put the accent not so much on the myth but, precisely, on the process of mythification. So he participates in a mystifying practice, instrumentalized from the need to respond to an ideology. That is why this vision of the boardwalk can coincide with the contemplation of a fish tank, where the vision is clear, direct, isolated in its singularity, it does not accept misunderstandings; That is why the wall becomes a letter, a word and renounces being only a passive element, conducive to contemplation. The project accommodates itself in the capacity of art to transmute its own object, or rather, it reproduces the paradox of an attempt at figuration that wants to couple itself to its object, disfiguring it. This is how a discovery is actually taking shape.

---

Frank David Valdes (*1985, Havana)

Artist Statement:

Fables is a series of works that speak to us in a figurative sense, developed as a symbolic representation of absence as a concept and manifest of an emerging reality. The figures assume positions as patterns from the formal and conceptual. They propose to reevaluate the dialogue with the past, present and future from a self-referential sensitivity. Given the circumstances and conditions, we could say that they are a mirror of time. Each event triggers a storm, a bit of the butterfly effect. These notions or qualities are alluded to by devices of creative intermittence: family, memory, ideals, freedom, existential narcissism are a laboratory of impulses. Stereotypes and their conceptualization are being registered a little, the need to alert systems of archetypal representations seen in a subjective context, enhanced by the crisis.

---

Osy Milian (*1985, Havana)

Artist Statement:

The current situation has led human beings to reinvent themselves and create solutions to these new problems.
Daily life with its speed regulated by schedules, did not allow time for personal introspection. As the programmed schemes dissolve, we find ourselves with a window of free time.

The choice to open it for self-knowledge and meditation can lead us towards personal enlightenment, being able to more clearly identify the reason for our happiness and our purpose. ¨ Polo ¨ reflects an environment alien to our context, taking us to another place. Being out of date is sometimes the best option, since the constant bombardment of negative news can subjectively influence our psyche.

Shifting our focus to a more optimistic outlook can turn things around.

---

Adrian Socorro (*1979, Matanzas, Cuba)

Artist Statement:

In ‘El perro de Oggún | Oggún’s Dog’ the play focuses on the individual in isolation. The self-sacrifice as a social being of entrusting oneself to a confinement at home, where that space of retreat and rest can become at the same time as a zone of reflection and self-absorption. EL PERRO DE OGGUN is a work that addresses sacrifice as a theme, supporting the title from Afro-Cuban religions, as a symbol of resistance to quarantine from faith.

‘Partir de la granja | Start from the Farm’ addresses resistance and uncertainty. The desire to escape, to escape from everything.

---

Lisandra Isabel García López (*1989, Cuba)

Artist Statement:

In my works I build, in an almost autobiographical way, an introspective world where my imagination and my fantasies are displayed. This self-referential component is marked by an evasive attitude that does not translate into apathy, but rather in a conscious reconversion of my reality. Specifically in Dangerous Relationships, I use the traditional concept of the nude, the use of the mirror, and the appropriation of a modern work in art history: Dangerous Relationships or Dangerous Friendships, by René Magritte. I integrate the image of this painting into my underwear with the intention of establishing a parallel between the past and the present. In this way I intend to transfer its sensuality and delicacy to the present, rescuing certain values, sometimes absent in contemporary life. In the context of the crisis generated by Covid-19, that space for introspection and reflection marked by social distancing has become vital. Dangerous relationships invites us to look at ourselves, to probe our personal world, our environment, our intimacy, our body, our ideal of beauty; and finally, to meditate on what will happen with regard to interpersonal relationships “when it’s all over ”.