Art News

The exhibition «Beyond the roots», curated by Concha Fontenla, was inaugurated on February 29 this 2024 at the Factoría Diseño center located in Old Havana. With the participation of artists from different generations and manifestations, you will be able to enjoy beautiful pieces located in a multifunctional space of excellent taste and decoration.

The red tree invites you to learn about the theme of the exhibition by reading the words written by the curator and images of the inauguration; where you will not only be able to learn about the topic that inspired Concha Fontenla to organize the exhibition, but you will also be able to learn a little more about the characteristics and meaning of the creation of the space that hosts it.

Curator's text.

Inner journey to the vital extensions that connect us with our origins; place where ancestors converge, intangible structural foundation where the history of peoples branches, adhered to natural, geographical and climatological phenomena that condition our identity and reason for being; place where spirituality prevails... existential echoes that emerge as anonymous impulses only identified by the subconscious. Indo-American, pre-Columbian, European, African, Asian and North American cultures fused with physical and spiritual elements that make up a racial and ethnographic amalgam of immense value. From contemporary visuality, understood as the result of that invisible thread that leads back and forth, we aim to reach the genesis of history, a “living memory” that tunes in with a current contemporary recipient in search of evolution, change… It is about putting into semiotic value and creative process to develop new codes of reading and interpretation that allow crossing limits in the creation of content.

At the same time, Factoría Diseño expands in its space as a living and changing catalog of objects and furniture, from the 20's of the last century, to the most current of “avant-garde” Cuban and international design, ventures and/or emerging projects from which innovation, recycling, sustainability and respect for the environment are promoted. Space enriched with contributions from professionals and intellectuals, activities and visits organized for travelers with concerns about “what is ours”, in different formats… from conferences and events of a theoretical nature to business-type coworkings.

Since its inauguration (February 2022) and with the cane as a symbol - in the construction of the country - Factoría Diseño has tried to promote 100% Cuban architecture, art, design and craftsmanship; rescue and make visible cultural traditions and “ways of doing” present in our historiography, both the incipient Trinitarian religious iconography of the 18th century and traditional manufacturing techniques, updated through design; to later delve into the imprint of Concrete Art or the future of the visual arts and the surprising assimilation and indigenous development of currents of foreign origin. In this determined and transdisciplinary search to connect past, present and future, we fuse interior design, graphics, illustration, textiles, designer furniture; drawing, painting; sculpture, photography; metalwork, objects of art and everyday use... Factory design “commits” to works by contemporary artists with special sensitivity to the vestiges of man and nature, the traces of past history, the memory of those distant voices: source of inspiration current for sensitive creators.