In the Botafogo neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, the house of the "man who rises", a translation of Daros in the Greek language, will bid farewell to the country in the coming weeks.
Submitted at Dec 2, 2015, 11:14 AM
Distracted by the end-of-year hustle and bustle and the impact of events in Brazil and on a global scale, we will hardly notice our departure from the scene on the 13th of this month.
Visitors to the city and locals who manage to redirect their schedules during this short period will feel rewarded for enjoying the Cuba-Fiction and Fantasy exhibition chosen to close its activities in the country.
Its curators selected 140 works from the Daros Latinoamerica collection, including paintings, drawings, photographs, installations, videos and performances by 17 Cuban artists, the majority of whom live and work in Havana.
Themes such as: contradictions, tension between desire and reality, everyday life, the condition of women and Afro-Cuban religions are present in the works of Ana Mendieta, José Bedia, Lazaro Saavedra, Rene Francisco, Tania Brugrera among others.
Highlights of the collection include "Granada de mano", an immense 2m-high wooden piece by the internationally renowned collective Los Carpinteiros (a special room offers more of their work), and "violentad de poder" by Yoan Capote, where the functionality of a ladder paradoxically means instability. In both cases, the interaction between the viewer and the object is immediate and the metaphors of risks and impossibilities are transformed.
Despite the adversities that prevail on the island, such as isolation, freedom of expression, economic restrictions and difficulties even in purchasing work materials, the artistic scene thrives in Cuba.
Much sooner than we could have imagined, Daros will be saying goodbye, leaving behind a legacy of rich experience as a hub for art conceived and produced in Latin countries and of being responsible for returning a beautiful 20th century architectural construction of impeccable restoration to the city's urban landscape.
We will miss our friends from Zurich... as a consolation, from January onwards we will have a website produced by the Institution, making available its virtual library and all the video material produced during its period of activity, treasures such as a conversation with the art dealer Jean Boghici (1928-2015) and the curator of the house Hans Michel Herzog.
