Cuba: Fatherland or Death. A wrenching examination of an island and its abyss

Patria o Muerte. Cuba: Fatherland or Death, on view at the Coral Gables Art Cinema, is one of those films that you should not miss. This is an excellent documentary on the social, ethical and civic reality of Cuba at this minute. Several individuals who inhabit the Island tell the camera the routines of their daily life, their anguish, their frustrations, their dreams, their truncated illusions. And they do it with admirable honesty and bravery, in a way that it is almost impossible not to shed a few tears. Yes, we are dealing with a deeply human artwork, from which transparent and intense emotions can be breathed, as well as great pain for the lost homeland (a shattered country, sunk in the mire of absolute loss of the most genuine human values).

Bloggers, members of alternative musical bands, a writer rarely published on the Island, a singer, a graffiti artist, a painter, an architect, a transgender, a housewife are just some of the characters that draw a complex and polyhedral landscape, almost surreal, difficult to understand for those who do not live the drama from within.

This documentary is impressive. Shocking and heartbreaking. It is hard to see on the screen the most intimate essence of several generations that have lost all utopias, and live in an immovable present, without a projection of future, without being able to elucidate the "why" or the reason for their existence in the world. This is sad, devastating. It is a Cuba where ethics has become a fairy tale. A country where evasion seems the safest key to success.

And all of the above is presented in a compact script, very well

structured, where nothing is left over and nothing is missing. That is why the 57 minutes of time pass with great speed, without monotony or boredom. Rather the viewer remains eager to see more, much more. Filmmakers handle the virtues of synthesis, ellipsis and tropological subtlety in a prodigious way. Likewise, the movements and degrees of camera angulation, the cuts and changes of planes, as well as the soundtrack, speak of an impressive dominion of the cinematographic trade. Not to mention photography, without doubt full of intelligent and daring visual metaphors, which end up becoming genuine poetry.

There is no political rhetoric in this documentary. What matters here are the lives of the citizens, those anonymous heroes who struggle in the midst of their stormy and harsh everyday reality, while others decided to leave. It is not a democratic model or a political proposal that is the subject of discussion. It is, however, something as simple as a house that collapses before the eyes of a child who does not understand anything, or the indifference of a humble woman who has lost all desire to live, without even understanding the causes of her lethargy.

We are, in short, before a complete film work. A masterpiece that sweats talent and honesty. For my part, I could not contain a single one of my tears. I have cried a lot, yes, when I see my effigy in the mirror.

PATRIA O MUERTE: CUBA, FATHERLAND OR DEATH was directed by Olatz López Garmendia; executive producer: Julian Schnabel; co-producer: Miguel A. Sirgado; cinematographer: Claudio Fuentes Madan; editor: Ismael de Diego. The film´s debut on cable TV will be on MONDAY, NOV. 28 (8:00-9:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.

Píter Ortega Núñez

Art Critic

Miami, November 2016

ART REVIEWS, BY PITER ORTEGA / PEDRO ÁVILA

Angel Delgado in Miami: Amazing adventure at The Fountainhead Residency

Cuban artist Angel Delgado (Havana, 1965) was recently awarded The Fountainhead Residency / Miami for the month of April 2016. During a visit to the studio where he is working, I could see the value and dimension of the works in progress. This is a large group of sculptures and objects based on a central theme very typical of his creative career: the human head.

The artist has created serialized and standardized heads in plaster of Paris. A legion of humans prefabricated without defined facial features, which seem to come out of a mass-cloning factory. Heads and faces that intrigue us because of their cold presence, due to their silence and irremediable isolation. Men or women with appearance of androids, connected to electrical devices, trapped in glass containers or under the pressure of heavy bricks. What we can see is a terrible physical homogenization that certainly speaks about the homogenization of thought and egalitarianism of ideas.

These individuals, attached to common objects like clothes hangers, chains, etc., disturb us by their indifference, their skeptical and incredulous presence. They represent a cry of protest, a warning about our loss of spiritual and human values. They are suspended in a strange temporal and spatial circumstance. They are the bane of our consciences. The nightmare of our civilization.

In short, excellent works by one of the most courageous and sincere Cuban artists of the past 25 years, whose mythical performance "Hope is the last thing we have lost" (1990) still remains in the memory of all Cubans, wherever they are, marking a before and after in the history of Cuban art.

Eric Stephenson: man, machine and future time

 
If you are near Wynwood, and you are a lover of good art, you should make a stop at "N'Namdi Contemporary Gallery". There you will discover a fascinating exhibition of American artist (based in Chicago) Eric Stephenson, which is titled "Moments of Gravity".

The show is composed of sculptures and drawings of medium and large format, in which the artist uses materials like welded stainless steel, aluminum, cast bronze, graphite on paper, among others. The main theme revolves around the human body, especially its anatomy, its relationship with movement and gravity, its eroticism. They are, in many cases, dancing bodies, which exhibit strong movements, contortions, falls, flight. Sometimes these movements seem as frozen in time, as if it were a frame extracted from a film.

Usually we can observe sharp and bombastic angles as well as multiple and decentered perspectives. Hence the aesthetics of the artist drinks largely from the cubist art tradition. In another vein, the artist is very interested in investigating the relationship between man and machine, man and industrialization, present and future time. His figures seem androids belonging to a future time, a time in which maybe man will be dehumanized to the point of merging with the technological/industrial universe.

That is perhaps the greatest charm of this exhibition: probably the artist alerts us about the dehumanization and loss of spiritual values ​​in contemporary societies. His men-machines, which sometimes resemble origami toys transmuted into metal, maybe have a great mission to accomplish: to make us aware of the world in which we live, and the danger of losing our identity because of the industrial, technological and digital avalanche that we are experiencing. Beautiful message, undoubtedly.

Sometimes, in front of the artist's works it is difficult to realize if the figure represented is male or female. There is some ambiguity or sexual ambivalence in the artist's works. Which is interesting as gesture: probably the artist tries to speak of human beings in a broad sense, beyond gender or biological sex. It is an issue that concerns all of us, regardless of distinctions.

Eric Stephenson has a great artistic experience both as an artist and as a teacher; he holds significant awards and a great impact within the American cultural scene. This exhibition at N'Namdi Contemporary Gallery, with its beautiful bright metal sculptures and wonderful drawings, is a proof of the unquestionable talent of the artist, as well as the value and importance of his art. So do not miss it! N'Namdi Contemporary Gallery, 177 NW 23 Street, Miami. The invitation is already done!

 

ART REVIEWS, BY PITER ORTEGA. BEATRIZ GERENSTEIN

ART REVIEWS, BY PITER ORTEGA. MAIKEL DOMINGUEZ