3 kuubalaista taiteilijaa / 3 cuban artists
Monday, May 18th, 2009
Nosotros que hemos mirado con ironia e indulgencia los objectos abigarrados de fin de siglo.
A crude translation: we who have seen with irony and indulgency the motley objects of the end of the century. The word motley refers to the colourful costume of the harlequin character in commedia dell’arte. Motley: exhibiting great diversity of elements; heterogeneous. Who is speaking, and what are these motley objects?
The sentence is written with charcoal on the gallery wall, in the middle of childlike drawings of people, or a nation. Is it the artist, or the nation that is speaking?
Translation always alters the meaning. Or more precisely, the objects themselves are different in different languages. I could not understand what abigarrado meant when the artists translated it as baroque. The word baroque takes me to another century than the one that is at stake here.
Similarly the connotations of motley, the harlequin for example, are not intended by the artists themselves. All the same, the exhibition can be introduced like this because translation comes to be the theme of the show.
The motley objects of the end of the century are different for us here in Finland than the ones for the people of Cuba. Our irony and indulgency are different. Even the nostalgia is different. And contrary to common belief, the visual language of fine arts is fortunately not universal and same for everybody.
Maykel Linares installation El fantasma de la ilustracion translates as The Fantom of Illustration. Aliuska Rodrígues: La Marcha del pueblo combatiente is The March of the Fighting People. The paintings of Niels Reyes are called: La noche en Karelia, Baño de sol, Una conversación para empezar, En la plaza, Jardín de la Infancia. In english: A Night in Karelia, Shower of Sun, A Conversation to Start With, At The Square, and The Garden of Childhood.
Jaakko Karhunen