HAVANA SCI-FI

Installation (2003/05)

Curated by Adolfo V. Nodal for BRAC

As Havana Sci - Fi and New Crop Havana, this show, curated by Adolfo V. Nodal was exhibited at The Bronx River Art Center in NY, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Washington DC and the International Biennial of Art "Absolute LA" in Los Angeles, USA between 2003 and 2005. The show was a survey of eight young artists pursuing professional careers in Havana, Cuba at the moment.

The exhibitions presented painting, sculpture and installation pieces representing the vanguard of thought and preoccupations that were strongly reflected in their frank and unvarnished artistic output.These artists, who represented a variety of points of view and backgrounds, were considered the new breed cutting their teeth in the international milieu and bohemian cultural atmosphere that was found in the City of Havana at the beginning of 2000. 

This exhibition of individual art works, which also functioned as a total installation, offered a gritty vision of art that was preoccupied with scientific process, ancient ritual, cycles, endless repetition, constant change and existential cause and effect relationships. The work screened through an esthetic-scientific eye and biological, religious, and ecological concerns. They also offered a preoccupation with human representation, sexuality and censure. Havana Sci-Fi/New crop Havana revealed a surreal perception that filtered the viewpoint of these young artists and belied the effects of rapid social evolution and changing values in Cuba at the dawn of the 21st Century.

Omar Estrada