IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 3 ENGLISH | Page 34

The Counter-Cultural, Problematic of Identity

in Rhetoric about Gender, Race and Group
in Contemporary Cuban Art

class and gender in Cuba and the world

Ms C. José Clemente Gascón Martínez
Assistant Professor, “Enrique José Varona” University of Pedagogical Science
Plastic artist and art critic
Havana, Cuba

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E

ver since the 1994 balsero [rafter] crisis, it
seems as though it was going to be the thematic focus that creative production in
contemporary Cuban art was going to take. La
Regata [The Regatta] had left a dramatically
evocative mark on an undeniable fact, and the
endless stream of crafts made of anything that
would float and set out for an imagined horizon
became eloquent symbols for a dispersion towards an uncertain future, and also of opting for
survival.
It is difficult for contemporary Cuban art to let go
of topics about the deteriorating physical and social environment, marginalization, and the migratory phenomenon. The role of its legitimacy in the
international market, the problems individuals
face from the everyday condition, and the permanent challenge with which everyone lives have
given way to other mechanisms that have readjusted to survival. They are a