IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 3 ENGLISH | Page 45

Some artists achieve artistic maturity in the midst of period circumstances in which it seems the most difficult years have gone by. Yet, it is during this same period that human nature, with its fits and tensions, a speculative image’s power of suggestion, and seductive and destabilizing eroticism, rallies its gaze to end up launching a strong criticism of censorship’s mechanisms and the purposeful ideological ignorance that guarantees that those in power can remain there, with a technical skill that brings to the canvas the source of references, illusions of truth, the dilemma of the private and public, the revelation of intimacy and the intimacy of its brutal and virtuous importance with ease, free of prejudices, obstacles or reprimands. Of particular interest is that the poetics debated between pleasure and pain, the Eros and dialog with one’s identity from the position of the most impetuous intertextuality that constructs the artistic text, inter-subjectivity, and decentered dialogism characterized precisely by its ability to convoke and frontally challenge the spectator. It is a challenge perceptive of an assumed obliqueness. The race issue enters into the artistic discourse with a different view, as part of a subaltern culture from the most disadvantaged population group in Cuban society. It focuses on the black person as a marginalized subject with economic disadvantages, traumas and his or her own demands. They are once again revealing their selves before the tourists’ gaze, adjusting their carnival’s colors with skepticism for the Internet, which is seen cautiously, and with the responsibility of taking on development with a critical, questioning and manipulating eye regarding the digital platforms that are available. The nineties was the great forge in which identity was shaped, until it took its true form. Thus, not unlike what happens when muddy water is decanted, these identities began to get to where they needed to be, and became a beacon for a new orientation. Like a life lesson, what was authentic in Cuban art emerged and triumphed, although painfully and with difficulty, in the midst of a plague when the trumpets were heralding despair and the end. This is precisely when Cuban art had its greatest impact. We are now awaiting other discursive itineraries for the new millenium. Note: 1-A generalized term for refering to the everyday struggle for survival in a situation of extreme want in which any transgressive act against decent behavior and civil morality is justified. Short bibliography: -Ribeaux Diago, Ariel. “Ni músicos ni deportistas,”, Arte Cubano 3 (2000). -Blanco, Caridad. “Conversatorio sobre los resultados de la segunda edición del II Salón de Arte Cubano Contemporáneo”, Arte Cubano 1 (Nueva Época 1999). -Mateo, David (1999). “II Salón de Arte Cubano Contemporáneo: Ideas cruzadas”, Arte Cubano, No. 1, Nueva Época. -Saavedra, Lázaro (2001) Enema para la memoria. Disponible en: www.cubarte.cult.cu/reseña -Marrero, Neira. Catálogo del proyecto de exposición “Jao Moch”. II Salón de Arte Cubano Contemporáneo (1998). -Gutiérrez, Pedro Juan. Trilogía sucia de la Habana (Barcelona: Anagrama, 1998). -Valdés Figueroa, Eugenio. Belkis Ayón. La revelación de un secreto (1994 http://www.ayonbelkis.cult.cu/ 45