NO MAN IS AN ISLAND – CUBAN YOUNG ART
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
John Donne (1572–1631), from the poem featured in Ernest Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Cuban contemporary art today raises timely questions about the relationships between the international and the national, or between the center and the periphery, offering a particularly intriguing and fresh perspective.
Cuban culture—as part of Caribbean culture—is a synthesis of interactions among diverse races and cultures. “Caribbean culture is a kind of time machine that has brought together people representing different stages of sociohistorical development from various parts of the world,” notes Cuban writer and critic Gerardo Mosguera. He continues: “We belong equally to Eastern and non-Western culture, placing us in a privileged position when it comes to both absorbing influences and creating syntheses.”
In the Caribbean, everyone has contributed “not only their race and the moral code inherent in their ethnocultural identity but also the inner consciousness corresponding to their specific historical phase.” This explains, for example, the natural coexistence of diverse mythological modes of thought—modes that live in everyday practices and converge with the Western pragmatic rationality Mosguera identifies as “the minority’s compulsory gift to the majority.”
That multifaceted combination manifests itself in contemporary Cuban visual art as a kind of visual counterpart to the Latin American, Márquez-like “magical realism.” This approach is characterized by a deep engagement with cultural tradition and the utilization of familiar, everyday popular culture. However, it is not driven by a nostalgic yearning for roots or adherence to folkloristics. Contemporary trends in international art are equally embraced as practical tools in creative processes where cultural interaction is an unquestioned foundation. The “problem” of originality, in the Western sense, simply does not exist. Instead, the unrestricted right to borrow and appropriate gives rise to the paradoxical originality of Cuban art, as reflected in the current exhibition.
The recognition of one’s own culture and its possibilities has sparked a genuine “renaissance” in young Cuban art. While this renaissance’s fascination with all things mythical might be interpreted, in the words of Cuban poet and critic Osvaldo Sanchez, as “the need to replace the rhetorical (artificial) with the ritualistic (transcendental),” it does not settle for the role of either conformist or adapter. On the contrary, it claims the right to pose questions, present alternatives, experiment, and create anew. Most importantly, this renaissance reflects the captivating blend of myths and magic, kitsch and irony, ethics and criticality—a mix that challenges the taken-for-granted equation between Western culture and modernity.
The exhibition demonstrates how young Cuban art, from its own perspective and with self-assured openness, defends the demand for a new, multi-centered internationalism based on equal interaction. It claims its own right to influence and shape this internationalism. Yet, as Mosquera reassures: “You need not fear; I am confident that the result would not resemble today’s Western culture.”
NO MAN IS AN ISLAND – Young Cuban Art exhibition features fourteen artists aged 26 to 37. The participating artists are Alejandro Aguilera, José Bedia Valdés, Adriano Buergos, Magdalena Campos, Consuelo Castañeda, Tomás Esson, Antonio Eligio (Tonel), Flavio Garciandía, Rogelio López Marín (Gory), Glexis Novoa, Marta María Pérez, Segundo Planes, Ciro Quintana, and Carlos Rodríguez Cárdenas.
The exhibition has been organized within the framework of the cultural exchange program between Finland and Cuba, with support from the Finnish Ministry of Education and the Cuban Ministry of Culture.
The organizers of the exhibition are the Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales in Havana, the Pori Art Museum, and the Artists’ Association of Finland.
An illustrated publication accompanies the exhibition, featuring articles by Gerardo Mosquera, Osvaldo Sánchez, and Antonio Eligio (Tonel) in Finnish, Spanish, and English.
Publication:
ISBN 951-9355-27-8 No Man Is an Island, Kuuban nuori taide
Pori Art Museum 6.5.-17.6.1990
Editing: Marketta Seppälä
Graphic Design: Hilkka Kuusijärvi
Translations: Päivi Sihvonen-Hautecoeur, Santiago de la Torre Moral, Sari-Hanna Hänninen, Roger Luke, Alan West
Photographs: Ramón Martinez Grandel
100PRINT, Pori 1990
Translated with ChatGPT