Hamlet Lavastida


2008 stencil on the wall, Havana. 


Hamlet Lavastida born in Havana, 1983; live in Havana.


UMAP
This work are deeply immerse in the socialist iconography. I think that is an effective way to understand the ideological reiteration in Cuba, the propaganda text are in each place, in newspaper, billboards, TV, and all the kind of books, but in some cases of the history are premeditated forgotten by the official propaganda, that is the case of UMAP (Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Produccion). Sort of a tropical concentration camp for homosexuals, dissidents and all kind of religious believer, it was a perfect example of the repression to intellectuals and one of the aspect in the recent history that the government don’t want to admit in his official version of the revolutionary Cuban history.

Of course that it was not he only forgotten thing by the official propaganda, is accurately. In this point when I introduce my work, I try to re-discover our psychological identity taking the historical conflicts as an example of our political lacks. I consider my self as a kind of archeologist of certain events of the communist convulsion in Cuba, in many cases I try to expose part of our recent history but a few group of people are interest in this confrontation between past and present.

I think that our political identity is so sick that the Cuban citizens have apprehension to be immerse in this illness an d they don’t want know nothing about political or historical lessons.

Hamlet Lavastida
November 17, 2009, Havana.



My work is part of the aesthetic and ideological universe of socialist political discourse with the support of texts as an aesthetic apologetic and critical experience in factors deriving from direct problems having to do with elements endowed with power, whether simulated or represented, where simultaneity between text and image functions as a remnant within the ideological discourse itself.

My work intends to subvert the idea of agreement with fashionable slogans or trends, thus it is an alternative masked in the codes of official discourse, projected towards what is social and immerse in ways of relationship and interaction, whether belonging to linguistics, aesthetics, ideology or the media.


Education
2009 Visual Arts Faculty (ISA) Havana.
2005 Cátedra Arte de Conducta by Tania Bruguera, Havana.
2002 San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts, Havana.

Personal exhibitions
2009
Ich geriet hinein in diese schweinereien; Graz-Reininghaus, Graz, Austria.
2009
The wrong museum, private residence at calle 13 entre 2 y 4, Vedado, Havana.
2006
El estado somos nosotros, private home at Tejadillo 214, Havana.
2002
El arte como vehiculo nos conduce a otra parada,
San Alejandro Fine Arts Academy, Havana.

Group exhibitions
2009
Crossing Cultures_Cuba, Graz-Reininghaus, Graz, Austria.
Estado de Excepcion X Havana Biennale, Galeria Habana, Havana.
2008
5to Salon de Arte Contemporaneo, Center for the Development of Visual Arts, Havana.
Curadores Go Home, Espacio Aglutinador, Havana.
7 th Gwangju Biennale “Bomba Logica”; (Curated by Tania Bruguera), South Korea.
Lanca Cuba, Gentil Carioca Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Yes We Are Porno, Espacio Aglutinador, Havana.
Nippon International Performance Art Festival, Tokyo, Kawagushi Moriya, Nagano, Japan.
2007
Vostok, Provincial Visual Arts and Design Center, Havana.
Critic Mass, Center for the Development of Visual Arts, Havana.
Neither in Favor or Against, all the opposit, School of Arts and Letters, University of Havana.
CCA7, Workshop Big River, Trinidad and Tobago
Up; Fresa y Chocolate Film Center, 23 and 12 streets, Havana, Cuba.
Vista al frente; Collateral Exhibition, 9th Havana Biennial.
2005
La toma de la Habana por otra cosa, Morro-Cabaña Complex, Havana.
Five-Year Mural Painting, ISA, Havana.
2004
Centrífuga, (Curated by Tania  Bruguera) Center for the Development of Visual Arts, Havana.