Under the title of The Map and the Fact, the multidisciplinary fine artist Alexandre Arrechea opened few days ago his latest exhibition in New York. A large format watercolor and an original installation in which the traditional and experimental merge each other in unison make up the sample that up to mid-October can be seen in Magnan Metz Gallery, a prestigious exhibition enclosure of the cosmopolitan city. Arrechea once more takes the challenge to show his art to the New Yorker demanding public because that city has become a sort of Mecca of contemporary art. The study and its importance in the artistic work have had great significance for the creator. The dual existence in the same space is the methodology that expresses the natural process of his work. In this exhibition the artist examines the dual notion from a mathematical, existential and historical perspective, creating a visual metaphor of the Pre-Columbian mapping and shows a continent above another, just as a construction used to illustrate the power. Alexandre Arrechea was born in Trinidad and graduated from the Higher Institute of Arts in 1994 and was a founding member of Los Carpinteros group until 2003. His work has been exhibited...

With Francisco Céspedes everything is a mystery, although he offers some clues to be deciphered, says once again "Start over," as in one of his songs, because for him that is what means singing in Cuba. Tomorrow, when the clock strikes nine in the evening, at the Karl Marx Theater he will be presenting his concert Donde está la vida, to inaugurate the VI Leo Brouwer Chamber Music Festival. He will sing before a large audience after a twenty-four year absence from the stage of the land of his birth fifty-eight years ago. Authentic, cheerful, nostalgic and excited at the same time he spoke with OnCuba about a life that could be summed up in his songs and, of course, this longed presentation that have us expecting. Panchohas already, aspeople who love him call him, left alittle behindthosecrazyyears ofVida loca and Remolino,his existence ismore sedate. He has changedhis lifestylebecausehealthissues but not the joyand sympathythat characterizes him. Panchois like a whirlpool; that´s why he likes to renew himself and made "his" to the enjoyment of many, that unforgettablesongof his friendAmauryGutiérrez.He sayshe believesafterthe concert he will feelmore fulfilledpersonally and professionally.You can tellthe joyandspecialshinein his eyes when he is talking aboutCuba. Luckily that...

Eating the sun is the title of the latest film by director Alfredo Ureta that will soon begin filming. It is not a fad that the title is English, as the film is spoken mostly in English due to trade issues and the origin of one of the characters. It is a psychological horror movie, an unprecedented genre in our film industry and fits alongside the works that bypass Spanish and other obvious signs of being Cuban. The film will have ninety-five minutes of footage and will focus on the story of Julia and David with their dog Flash. Both make a couple about to have a baby that will live unsettling experiences during a solar eclipse, after their car breaks down in a lonely place. Precisely the circumstance appeals, according to Ureta, to the magical and foreboding value that is given to the eclipse in pre-Columbian cultures such as the Aztec. The film will feature production by Reymel Delgado, photography by Alejandro Pérez, sound by Osmany Olivares, music by Magda Rosa Galvan and Juan Antonio Leyva, who have accompanied Ureta in previous films. Eating the Sun was filmed on Cuban soil with probable locations located in the Valle de...

The star Demian Bichir, second Mexican actor to be nominated for an Oscar, is in Havana with some of his famous family, one of the most influential artistic dynasties of the Aztec nation. They are in Cuba featuring the Bichir in Havana series. Organized by the ICAIC, the selected films will be seen until September 24th in the 23 and 12 and Charles Chaplin movie theaters in the capital. The exhibition provides an overview of the work of these performers and is a review of the last decades of Mexican cinema with them as thread. The series began with the screening of The Alley of Miracles, 1995's directed by Jorge Fons from the adaptation of the novel by Egyptian Nobel Prize Naguib Mahfouz. As part of the series they also include El mural de Siqueiros, Un dulce olor a muerte, Hasta morir and Crónica de un desayuno, all filmed between 1990 and 2011 The sample also allows us to appreciate the performance of other important Mexican actors like Salma Hayek and Diego Luna. Demian and Odiseo Bichir, with his father Alejandro, said that art, especially cinema, strengthen the historically close relations between Cuba and Mexico. Demian, 51, is known on...

The master of the collagraphy Eduardo Roca (Choco), as part of the Leo Brouwer VI Festival Chamber Music program, offers a selection of his recent work, this time in three dimensions. Five large sculptures, four in bronze: Ballerina, The Hug, Adam and Eve, Writing Mechanics and Hummingbird, an installation that makes wood dialogue with collagraphy, are part of the exhibit that will leave behind his known prints and paintings that made him from the seventies one of the most significant Cuban contemporary artists. The exhibition can be seen from 6:00 pm on Friday September 26 at the Cuban Art Factory. In the selection are also known including wooden boxes belonging to the permanent exhibition of the Factory. These drawers will undergo various materials by the artist soon to exhibit alongside the bronzes. In the selection there are also included the known wooden boxes belonging to the permanent exhibition of the Factory. These drawers will be worked upon with various materials by the artist soon to exhibit alongside the bronzes. To celebrate his sixty-fifth birthday, which will be on October 13, the creator experiment with procedures of the visual arts that previously were alien to him. This selection summarizes his sculptures,...

Contemporary visual arts will be at the Habanarte Festival 2014 with various activities and performances throughout the city, which will be taken by art from today. They are focused on the impact of alternative forms of information flow in today's Cuba, new artists will open as part of the sixth Hall of Contemporary Art (SACC) this weekend the XL2 (for the two) and Other stories exhibitions. XL2 will open on Friday at7:00 PM at the Center for the Development of Visual Arts and the Library of Cuba bringing together very young artists with different aesthetic proposals. The exhibition organizes a core on art collecting virtual or physical publications, and institutional or personal projects that function as replicators and binders of ideas about art. This opening is complemented by the presentation of the project RZKa and DJ Kike Wolf and Architect vs. Grinch in the Old Square. The other stories, it is also a group show and can be seen from Saturday 13th at 7:30 PM in the halls of the Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center, from where it will move to the Cathedral Square to run through a decade of animation in Cuban audiovisual. It includes video art, commercials, public...

Return to Ithaca, by French film director Laurent Cantet and inspired by a story by writer Leonardo Padura, won the award for the informative section for authors in the 71st International Venice Film Festival. The official jury for the Venice Days section, which included fourteen documentaries and fictional works and was chaired by Argentinean director Diego Lerman argued about the film: "Under very limited time and space, the filmmaker successfully delivered a complex and emotional work on the secrets of the past.” The award is endowed with 20,000 Euros ($ 26,000) to be distributed among Cantet and international distribution company Funny Balloons. The distributor will have to use its share of the prize to promote the winning film. This award is a significant recognition for the film, which premiered in Venice and began its tour through major international festivals. This film addresses universal themes as loyalty, friendship, love, hate, betrayal, fear and disappointment. Filmed on locations in Centro Habana, specifically on a rooftop, with the boardwalk as a backdrop, the story of Amadeo, who left Cuba even when immigration laws were very different, is narrated. "It deals specifically on the chapter of the reunion with the Island of a Cuban...

This September cinema buffs will be able to enjoy several documentaries, two of them in homage of renowned figures of Cuban culture and others on traditions and foreign inheritances in Cuba. Famous artist and producer Isabel Santos will screen her latest documentary Viaje al país que ya no existe, in homage to outstanding photography director Ivan Napoles, who used to be the eyes of Santiago Alvarez. The piece was produced by the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC by its acronym in Spanish) and the Ministry of Information and Communications from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. It lasts 42 minutes and was shot in that Asian nation where they travelled to along with Napoles 40 years after he had recorded the war and the reconstruction of this country. It is a chronicle about the return of his most intimate images. This reunion made him laugh and cry. Over the shackles of the past, there is a new nation, which is quite different in his memories. That’s the reason for the title, its producer told OnCuba, “because it is amazing and shocking that transformation this country has gone through (…) I was surprised with Vietnam today. It was an intense and passionate shooting...

Rubén Cortada is one of actors most sought-after by cameras and journalists in Spain, where he has lived and worked for years. This Cuban actor, who has never lost his connection to the island, is one of the lead figures in the successful Spanish series El príncipe (The Prince), playing Faruq Ben Barek, a complex Arab-born character. With his very unique heartthrob’s voice and powerful feline- like gaze, Cortada has conquered the hearts of Spain with his performances and extraordinary physical attraction. Born on Cuba’s Isla de la Juventud, he has been the face of prestigious brands such as Roberto Verino, Jean Paul Gaultier, Guess, Julipet and Custo Barcelona, and has walked up and down the world’s main catwalks (Milán, París and New York). As an actor, his résumé features the television series Bandolera (2011), El tiempo entre costuras (2013) and El príncipe (2014), making him a Spanish TV star. People describe him as shy and reserved, and in fact, he asked us not to talk about his private life, because he believes “that’s the concern of each person and anyone he or she wants to involve, no matter what you do for a living. Privacy is one of the...

Young Harold López- Nussa is one of the most representative pianists within Cuban contemporary jazz. He discovered the piano by the age of eight and ever since he has never been able to put it aside. Harold, the son of renowned percussionist Rudy Lopez-Nussa and nephew of outstanding pianist Ernan, moves gracefully in classic piano, traditional Cuban music, popular music and jazz, which he considers very important. He is a classic pianist by training, though he combines the mastery of techniques with a need for experimentation by means of the combination of several rhythms and influences that helps us understand how he feels music “sang by instruments”. Next September 17, he will travel to North America to start on a tour until October 15. He will offer about 20 performances in 18 US and Canadian cities. In this regard, OnCuba met with him and talked about the tour. Harold López-Nussa: “It is hard for me to say exactly what I like the most in music, I think will decide over fusion jazz and classic music”/ Image: Courtesy of the interviewee. “We have been preparing these concerts with an US agency I have been working with for two years now. In...

Cuban singer-songwriter Francisco Cespedes will perform in Cuba next September, in response to an invitation extended by Leo Brouwer to participate at the Leo Brouwer Festival. Pancho, as everyone refers to him, left Cuba 24 years ago and he has not performed officially in the island ever since. In Mexico –where he lives–, Pancho has developed a successful musical career as singer and songwriter. He was made popular in 1997, with the album Vida loca, which includes songs of different musical genres that go from ballads to boleros with a touch of jazz. At present, he is working on the production of his latest record Todavia, which will be launched at the Lunario in the National Auditorium of Mexico next September 18 and 19, before arriving in Cuba. As part of Leo Brouwer Chamber Music Festival, scheduled from September 26 through October 12, in Havana, Cubans will be able to enjoy his songs with his characteristic voice and unique cadence, which have turned him into one of the most important figures of contemporary Latin music. “I’m going to perform in a festival in response to an invitation by Leo, one of the greatest musical figures in the world. He invited...

Each time the so-called both shores are getting closer in artistic matters. The cultural exchange between the United States and Cuba grows and takes renewed and growing leaps in various expressions. With the aim of uniting the cultures of both nations and show how related that both are due to the common denominator that is the African heritage as a space for exchange and dialogue the Cooper Fest will take place in Miami, from September 4 through the 11. Travelling to America for Cuban artists has ceased to be a utopia to become an increasingly palpable reality. For about five years ago these links have been strengthened, and within a few days twenty artists from dissimilar manifestations will cross the 90 mile strait. For the first time this year they will arrive together at the American nation to star in the event that brings together the African roots, the Yoruba religion and religiosity the two peoples share. The Sintesis Group, the dance Retazos and DanzAbierta companies, visual artists Noel Morera, Nicomedes Diaz, Carlos Alberto Rodriguez, Alan Manuel Gonzalez, Alejandro Calzada Miranda and Juana Morales will participate in the Copper Fest, part of the American foundation Copperbridge (CBF) . It will...

Cundo Bermudez is considered to be the last master of the Cuban vanguard. He has recently returned to Cuba along with his valuable work. The Cuban Art National Museum of Fine Arts will exhibit, till October 13, a comprehensive sample by the title of Pasion and Lucidez, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of this artist who was born in Havana in September, 1914. Twenty five pieces finished between 1940 and 1964, in small and medium formats andwith different techniques make up the sample. They are complex and simple at the same time. Portraits related to his frequent motifs in watercolor, tempera, acrylic and oil over cardboard, wood and canvas can be appreciated by Cubans and they can get the feeling of observing the work by a contemporary artist, who has recently emerged, due to the lack of promotion this internationally famous painter has had in Cuba. This, the first big exhibit in Cuba of the works by this prominent artist, was described as a historical rescue by its curator Roberto Cobas. “Cundo deserves the validity and strength of his pieces be appreciated by the critics and the public. He must be placed at the same level of Mariano...

("Over the age of 50, I’m still a woman eager for working..." / Image: Taken from the Carlos Barba’s blog.) Popular Cuban actress and producer Isabel Santos has just ended her latest documentary Viaje al país que ya no existe, which pays tribute to photography director Ivan Napoles, who used to be the eyes of Santiago Alvarez. The material, which lasts 42 minutes, will be premiered next September 17 at the 23 y 12 Movie Theater, in Havana. The piece, produced by the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC by its acronym in Spanish) and the Ministry of Information and Communications from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, will be screened during the International New Latin American Film Festival as well as another four films in which its producer plays part. Isabel Santos and Jorge Perugorria in the shooting of “La pared de las palabras”, directed by Fernado Perez. Isabel, one of the most outstanding Cuban actresses, plays different roles in La pared de las palabras, by Fernando Perez; Vestido de novia, by Marilyn Solaya; Regreso a Ítaca, by Laurent Cantet and 25 horas, by Carlos Barba, which will be premiered soon. Since 2006, she decided to get behind the camera to give...

Several abstract Afro-American artists are going after the African inheritance in US culture. Nine of the most representative creators in this pictorial trend will exhibit their pieces till October at the Universal Art chambers in the National Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibit, entitled, Abstraction and Afro-American artists, includes 38 pieces by Nanette Carter, Willie Cole, Jayne Cortez, Víctor Davson, Melvin Edwards, Bill Hutson, Howardena Pindell, Senga Nengundi and Ben Jones, organizer and curator of the sample. With the purpose of boosting cultural exchanges between both nations, about a hundred US artists, museum directors, curators and intellectuals, along with the participants at the exhibition,travelled to Cuba in order to visit art schools and galleries, attend concerts and meet with Cuban officials and experts. “In the US there are lots of creators aware of the strength of black culture in Cuba. That’s why, we have come to nourish from this island and its cultural referents. The link artists from both nations are establishing is really strong and I hope our work will contribute with bringing increasingly together both peoples, because we are not that different, mostly in terms of recognizing that African imprint in us”, noted Ben Jones during the opening...

Gabriel Sánchez Toledo (Cabaiguán 1979) is a different landscape painter. He proposes a universal piece, hard to contextualize in time and space. He claims that identity goes beyond hills and royal palms. In our visual contemporariness we are used to the paths through the colorful tropics, the intensity of light and the green in our fields. Gabriel’s proposal moves away from folklore, commercial topics and stereotypesthat repeatedly appear in the postcards tourists take home as souvenirs. A portion of his latest works will be in exhibition at the Galiano Gallery till the end of August. Tierra de nadie (Nobody’s land) is the title of six medium and large canvases and nine sketches that act as prelude for the main pieces. This artist works with sketches as if miniature canvases, which he later take into a larger piece and he finds it interesting to be able to share this process with spectators, as he stated for OnCuba. Despite his youth he is known as one of Cuba’s most singular landscape painters. He has participated in about 30 collective exhibits in and out of Cuba and his works is part of institutional and private collections. He is the son of renowned artist...

Fran Delgado calls himself a committed artist. He is committed with his principles, his hybrid faith and his roots. He claims to have more plans than time to put them into practice; yet he made room for meeting OnCuba as prelude to the concert he offered yesterday afternoon at the Rampa Art Fair, at the Pabellon Cuba. With a deep influence from traditional trova songs, son and other Cuban rhythms, he performed the usual tracks that made him one of the most popular Cuban trova singers of all times and others from his latest album SOS which is not finished yet. Many people say that most singers and songwriters relax as they come of age, in what stage are you in at present? Indeed many things change with age. While we are younger we are like sponges absorbing the world and reinterpreting it. Some people relax when they reach a certain status and get into some sort of bubble. Fortunately, I have never had that chance of going so far in a bubble. When we are younger we are more daring and less prejudiced subconsciously. We get everything we hear and perhaps melodies are better with the freshness of the...

“A cinematographic project is complex, it is not the same as an editorial process, you cannot imagine how hard it is” told OnCuba writer Leonardo Padura Fuentes (1955), who since 1999 caressed the idea of taking to the cinema the stories of his famous character Mario Conde. The film Regreso a Itaca, by director Laurent Cantet, will be premiered this month in the Film Festival in Venice. The movie is based on a passage from La novella de mi vida, one of Padura’s most popular pieces. It deals with topics such as fidelity, friendship, love, hate, betrayal, fear and disappointment. The story takes place in locations in Centro Habana, with the Cuban Malecon as backdrop. Thus Cantet and Padura tell the story of Amadeo, who left from Cuba when migration laws were very different, something they tried to move to present day, they both stated. “It is specifically about the chapter on the reunion with the island by a Cuban who migrated to Spain and decided to return 15 years after. I think many people are going to enjoy this film because it will identify my contemporaries. It tackles the issues we had to go through back then, issues that...

The Wax Museum of Bayamo just turned ten years. Unique of its kind in Cuba, the popular facility receives more than a thousand visitors every day and is one of the preferred options in the summer. Coming soon they will add to its collection the sculptures of recently deceased Gabriel García Márquez and Juan Formell. Both wax replicas are still in the workshop of sculptors. The first will be unveiled next August 13 while the second will be appreciated from the month of October. These sculptures are modeled of polychrome wax and are the work of brothers Rafael and Leander Barrios Milan, and their father and teacher Rafael Barrios Madrigal. The artists primarily engaged in creating birds and other animals with this technique, in recent times have also been inspired to work with human figures, and to conduct demonstrations to the public that visits them in their gallery. Many personalities already have their sculpture in famous wax museums. Among the most famous of its kind in the globe are Madame Tussauds, which opened in 1835 in London, UK. There are also wax museums in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Shanghai and two in the United States. Wax museums are not a new...

"The artwork should impress you without touching you," said the legendary artist Salvador Dali (1904-1989), Surrealism icon whose graphic works displayed in five decades, can be seen these days in the House of Universal Art of the National Museum of Fine Arts. The series 1971 Memories of Surrealism, including the selection, the title of the exhibition organized by Alex Rosenberg, president of Salvador Dalí Research Center and friend of the artist, who brought to Havana part of his personal collection and from other private collectors. Fantastic Voyage, with only one work dated 1965; Dalí plays a Currier and Ives, 1971; The twelve tribes of Israel, 1973; The Divine Comedy, 1960; and Los Cantos de Maldoror, 1934, are the other series that will be on display until the end of October this year. In January, we marked a quarter century of the death of the Catalan genius who cultivated fulfilled multiple artistic fields: Painting, jewelry, design, sculpture, film, theater and engraving. Although the latter term is less known in his creation, there are notable examples such as ninety-five lithographs today the Cuban public can enjoy. During the inauguration they had an allegorical performance on the legacy of the celebrated artist in...

The Cuban artist and photographer Alejandro Calzada Miranda opened yesterday at the CU-1 gallery in downtown Miami, a personal exhibition under the title Contemporisha composed of twelve photographs. As indicated by the title of the exhibition, the artist explores with these recent snapshots in the spirit of the deities of the Yoruba pantheon, and how they are taken and interpreted in contemporary times. This religion and its deities, the Orishas, have inspired dissimilar creators throughout art history. As unmistakable symbol of Cuban identity they rise wrapped in the mystical legends or patakines that have transpired to date. From Juan Roberto Diago to Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal, there have been many artists who have referred to religious iconography to deploy their pictorial discourse. Manuel Mendive, Eduardo Roca (Choco) and Nelson Domínguez, among others, have been other significant exponents of this theme that persists to reach the wisdom of the hands of the African roots and the relationship between man and his faith. In the art of photography examples have been less, perhaps due to the arcane of certain ceremonies and rituals that from ancient times prohibited the dust that came off the old magnesium flashes of cameras. They have changed many things...

The anthological piece Sabado Corto by Hector Quintero, is celebrating its 30th anniversary with its premiere by Teatro D’Dos last weekend at the Raquel Revuelta Cultural Complex. Sábado corto is like any other Saturday between seven and nine in the evening. It includes a number of characters that end up in a necessary meeting and the possible spiritual achievement. The main character is a woman whose dreams are filled with ingenuity and transparency. These are the characters designed by the author, they are transparent and from their natural manners they intend to give a different color to daily life. The piece will be on stage for a considerable part of the summer and will have another season in forthcoming months. OnCuba met with the director of Teatro D’Dos, actor Julio César Ramírez, to learn more about this proposal: “When we stage Contigo pan y cebolla, last January, we couldn’t imagine the return of this playwright would be so fast. We did have the feeling that a strange taste, close to rejoicing, would take over the cast. Those characters represent a close relative and every dramatic situation is translated into permanent references; the fact is that moving away from a healthy...

Almost half a century of artistic work by Puerto Rican creator Antonio Martorell brings the exhibition Imalabra to the Universal Art Building of the National Museum of Fine Arts (NMFA). The exhibition includes a selection of works by the prominent Puerto Rican artist in his 46 years of artistic production. It is part of the tribute Cuba pays to the painter for his 75 years of life, and is the second by this creator in the art institution that took him 11 years ago for the first time. Great friend of our country for decades, he acknowledged during the opening that this is the most comprehensive exhibition he has made during his career. In dissimilar forms ranging from paper to plastic you can appreciate the works included in the selection. His pieces retain their charming and idealistic breath of his cretaor. Playful elements can also be seen that have characterized his proposal. In the work of Martorell we find great diversity and eclecticism. He describes himself as a free electron that does not fit any generation of artists. The pop art and expressionism have been present in several of his creative stages. A painter, graphic artist, set and costume designer,...

A polemic performance called Unminuto de libertad de expression, by artist Tania Burguera, is exhibited in one of the most prestigious contemporary art museums in the world, the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The piece is supported by a video system which recorded a performance at the 10th Havana’s Biennial in 2009, where the artist placed a podium in the Wilfredo Lam Contemporary Art Center so that spectators could speak their minds about any topic for one minute. Those who decided to go up the podium and speak were escorted by two uniformed officers who placed a white pigeon on the speakers’ shoulders. This interdisciplinary artist who tackles political and social issues was chosen for a scholarship by the Guggenheim in 1998 and today she has returned to the museum as part of the collective exhibit Bajo un mismo sol, under curatorship by notorious Mexican specialist Pablo León de la Barra. The collective exhibit also includes The Francis Effect, another piece by the artist among the 50 works by Latin American creators chosen. The sample brings together pieces by 37 Latin American artists who deal with diversity and the current historical situation in which they have developed their works. The...