An Improvised Wall of Lamentations and Dreams of Cubans
Renown artwork of Martin Steinert in Havana’s Plaza Vieja
A hand has crossed out “Long live Cuba without communism” on the monumental ’Wooden Cloud’ installed in the Plaza Vieja in Havana
HAVANA TIMES – At first glance it looks like a nest, from other angles it resembles an ark and there are those who see it as a mass of boards taken from the many supports that prop up the city’s doorways and balconies. The installation Nube de madera [Wooden Cloud], by the German sculptor Martin Steinert, is currently erected in Havana’s Plaza Vieja and has become an improvised wall of lamentations and dreams of Cubans, but also of the erasures of intolerance.
The piece, which its creator has built in more than 35 locations in nine countries, has landed at the Havana Biennial in the middle of one of its most grey and questioned editions. But unlike other works, finished or hidden on the walls of galleries, Nube de madera includes interaction with the public, whose writings on the planks contribute to give meaning to the structure. So in just over a week since its inauguration, the piece reveals the desire for freedom and its counterpart: the brushstrokes of the censors.
Where a few days ago someone had written “Long live Cuba without communism” the hand of political correctness has now crossed out a word and stated “Long live Cuba without Yankeeism.” The same fate has befallen the last word of the phrase “Viva Cuba libre,” deleted with such cruelty that the goop that hides it looks darker than the power cuts in the early morning and more sinister than the Morro lighthouse without light. The rewriting and erasure of the phrases spontaneously left by passersby warn that not even in the realm of artistic play is there room for individual freedom.
But the censors have not yet been able to cover up all the dreams that bother them. A desperate “May I get out so I can be with my family,” written in green marker, has still been exposed to passing glances. In the chest that carries the desires of Cubans, two dreams stand out: freedom and escape, or perhaps both share the same genetics on an Island where to be free you have to leave, one way or another, the national borders.
However, there is not enough wood to receive the complaints and expectations of a people who have learned, after decades of fear and denunciations, to skillfully put on a mask to evade surveillance. Urged by Steinert to put their aspirations in writing, the lower and middle part of the cloud is almost completely painted with yearnings and expectations. Those who arrive from now on will have to stretch out their arms, stand on their toes and place their efforts even higher.
They will also have to avoid those who cross out and rearrange uncomfortable phrases. Instead of the dialogue that the German artist was looking for, the ball of props has mutated into an object that shows the rewriting of present history. An Orwellian ship, it gives the impression that the order to amend and retouch the words has been given. This Saturday, a man with a severe look inspected each phrase in detail, moving very slowly around. Did he want to leave his own dream or recompose the others? Was he someone who needed to shout even through an installation of ephemeral life or a censor in search of his prey?
Martin Steinert cannot imagine what he has unleashed, but most of those who pass by know how the installation will end: the deletions and amendments will bury, under layers of ink and anger, a good part of the Cubans’ desire for freedom.
Translated by Translating Cuba.