First Place for the Havana Bienal by Eyeonmiami goes to the artist, Kcho.
The viewer imagines sharks swimming under the Florida Straits, wearing the clothes of their victims. Molds of sharks in a school are suspended from the ceiling of the exhibition space, that not long ago served as a Cuban jail. As though watching the surface of the water from below, the sharks appear to glide below a baseball bat frozen in space, luggage and detritus of a disaster at sea. It might be our disaster.
The perspective is upside down. Whose clothes are the sharks wearing? The metaphors resonate, including that we are either sharks or we are eaten. But the clothing is too fine to be worn by Cubans fleeing their homeland. You can tell the difference today on the streets of Havana. The bright clothes are worn by Cubans -- more likely than not -- with relatives abroad. Maybe these sharks are the ones who wear clothing sent from Miami. Kcho offers a dystopian vision that is resonant with Eyeonmiami, irrespective of nationality or political position. What survives is not ideology but fashion obscuring our base behaviors, including the capacity for unblinking brutality.
Art Basel Miami provides a forum for the expression of angst flowing through a fire hose from a post-industrial, globalized economy; an economy in which Cuba scarcely participates. The Bienal in Havana offers an even wider breadth of expression than Art Basel Miami. This will come as a surprise to Cuba hardliners in Miami who persist in their own suppression of dialogue.
Taking all into account, the bandwidth for political discussion is wider in Havana than it is in Miami. More to come ...
The viewer imagines sharks swimming under the Florida Straits, wearing the clothes of their victims. Molds of sharks in a school are suspended from the ceiling of the exhibition space, that not long ago served as a Cuban jail. As though watching the surface of the water from below, the sharks appear to glide below a baseball bat frozen in space, luggage and detritus of a disaster at sea. It might be our disaster.
The perspective is upside down. Whose clothes are the sharks wearing? The metaphors resonate, including that we are either sharks or we are eaten. But the clothing is too fine to be worn by Cubans fleeing their homeland. You can tell the difference today on the streets of Havana. The bright clothes are worn by Cubans -- more likely than not -- with relatives abroad. Maybe these sharks are the ones who wear clothing sent from Miami. Kcho offers a dystopian vision that is resonant with Eyeonmiami, irrespective of nationality or political position. What survives is not ideology but fashion obscuring our base behaviors, including the capacity for unblinking brutality.
Art Basel Miami provides a forum for the expression of angst flowing through a fire hose from a post-industrial, globalized economy; an economy in which Cuba scarcely participates. The Bienal in Havana offers an even wider breadth of expression than Art Basel Miami. This will come as a surprise to Cuba hardliners in Miami who persist in their own suppression of dialogue.
Taking all into account, the bandwidth for political discussion is wider in Havana than it is in Miami. More to come ...
1 comment:
Are those similar to the sharks that are lobbyists and their friends here?
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