GROUP SHOW
Back Door
Date
June 26, 2007
Artists
Adrián Fernández, Alex Hernández, Aluan Argüelles, Carlos Caballero, Carlos Varens, Elizabet Cerviño, Frank Mújica & Levi Orta, Gustavo del Valle & Erniel Chacón, Jorge Luis del Valle, Katia Leiva, Levi Orta & Adrián Melis & Yunior Aguiar, Michel Pérez, Naivy Pérez, Oscar Ortega, Raychel Carrión, Rewell Altunaga, Wisquelmis Rodríguez, Yornel Martínez.
Curated by
Rewell Altunaga
Gallery
Higher Institute of Art (ISA)
Location
Havana, Cuba
Curatorial Statement
The void is not nothing,
Nor is it a lack.
Heidegger
What would someone like Derrida think about the possibility of deconstructing something that has simply ceased to exist in its functional quality and has mutated into a kind of ghostly void that speaks of nothing but its own distance, a remnant of its past? This arises when we analyze the absence left by a body and understand that lack as an intangible presence, an unnoticed space forgotten by all, becoming a new body.
I have preferred to revisit curatorial practice as an event, an act in motion—curatorship as thought-in-action or, more precisely, action of thought. Essentially, this offensive exercise of insertion, this mechanism of assault, should aim to destabilize even its own discursive foundation. In this sense, an exhibition that seeks to synchronize the body of the space dialectically with the exhibition itself, understanding everything as a single organism, risks failing in its aspiration for holistic integration in exchange for a profound creative discipline. This latter factor must be essential to achieving solid cohesion between the space and the pieces, treating them as a single work.
Activating an exhibition in which the space acquires full discursive protagonism is something rare in the context of national visual arts. Space is understood not as a container or vessel for works but as a unifying element in itself as a whole.
To some extent, the artwork has always been determined by its environment. However, it was not until shortly before the second half of the 20th century that the relationship between the artwork and its presentation space was consciously assumed as a discursive element. In many relational works, site-specific pieces, land art, interventions, and other post-conceptualist trends, it is evident that the presentation space is the primary trigger of textuality.
Block 2 of the student residence at the Instituto Superior de Arte consists of six dormitory rooms, a waiting room, a bathroom, and a kitchen. The state of conservation of the facility is highly precarious: it lacks windows and doors (except for the main entrance door, which seals the site), the walls have been aggressively intervened with graffiti, and the floor is broken in some areas. Debris is scattered throughout the space, and it is entirely devoid of lighting.
The site will remain entirely in its conventional state for the presentation. The duration of the exhibition will be determined by the real time of its inauguration. Access to the facility will be made through an existing breach in the back of the building, for which a staircase will be constructed and installed.
Rewell Altunaga
Havana, Cuba