Figures 4 (above) and 5. (right) José Manuel Fors (Cuban b. 1956),
Vestibulo, detail, 2007, installation, courtesy of the artist.
Mayan calendar. While Fors’ photographic objects and
installations have a “vintage” feel, his art is constantly
looking for new ways to explore the possibilities of visual
language.
Fors studied art at the Academia de Arte San Alejandro,
and then museology at Havana’s Instituto de Museología.
His education emphasized the conceptual aspects of art as
language, but also the use of space along with the material
presentation of objects. Fors, who worked as a curator at
Cuba’s National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana for ten
years, creates many of his pieces with the exhibition space in
mind. He studies the setting and then develops a vision that
best fits the space. This is why his installations are usually
made in situ, as is the case of Vestibulo, (figures 4 and 5) and
Fragmented City (figure 6).
In Fragmented City, like in Atados 2 (Bundles of Memory 2)
(p. 27) and A la sombra de los maestros (In the Shade of the
Masters) (p. 31), Fors uses two complementary forms of
conceptualizing material: the collage and the synthesis,
Figure 6. José Manuel Fors (Cuban b. 1956), Fragmented City, installation, size varies, courtesy of the artist.
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