2023-04-18 05:17:35
SHOWBIZ
The Cuban artist has prepared a visual and sound experience to transport the public to her hometown
Published on
The Cuban artist exhibits for the first time in Madrid. (Screenshot: Vanity Fair – YouTube)
Rachel Valdés has presented her first individual exhibition in Madrid. Born in Cuba, she made a diverse selection of her works around a central theme: the immense empty pools that inhabit the landscape of Havana, her hometown.
The visual artist, who has conquered the heart of Alejandro Sanz, has compiled watercolors, digital drawings, photographs, among others. In total, she presented 21 pieces of different formats with a permanent accompaniment by a sound installation that reproduces the sound of a downpour.
This is a plastic experience that is shown to the public for the first time, after an entire decade of work to bring it to life. The pieces present in Pools They come from experiences lived by Valdés in the past, specifically in the Cuba of the 90s.
What the habanera manages to capture is that at that time abandoned facilities were noticeable, such as the sports center where she gave her first swimming classes, and she carved this memory with her hands. “It really caught my attention how that place almost always had empty pools. Those rectangular shaped holes seemed to me like buried buildings, enormous depths. Today I see them as a kind of monuments to oblivion, temples that invite introspection and contemplation”, said Rachel.
The Cuban artist became known internationally with large immersive installations and giant abstract paintings; but in Pools, Valdés returns to drawing and watercolor. “Drawing for me has always been the basis of everything. When developing an idea, I start from sketches and previous drawings. Let’s say that the perspective, the mathematical calculation and the staging of a three-dimensional form within a two-dimensional space, is something that has fascinated me since the beginning of my studies”, he narrated.
The artist, who graduated in 2010 with a gold diploma from the San Alejandro National Academy of Fine Arts (Cuba), has her own studio in Havana. “In general, the interest that moves me in my work is to create spaces, environments that induce you to live a unique sensory experience, that transport you to another version of reality. I almost always work with scenarios, places that I create, platforms that I invent in confluence with the stage, ”she assured in an interview published on her website, where her works can be appreciated.
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