After 15 years of silence beyond my control, I return to the galleries of my country with an exhibition that is a cry from the soul, “You don’t know me”.
At the heart of this exhibition lies the work “Day by Day”, an installation that is my declaration of resistance and resilience. A work that was born to speak without fear: 469 used and sooty pressure cookers.
It’s not just any number. They are the representation of the days of struggle, wear and pressure. It represents infinite repetition, the days that follow one after another, almost like a sentence. It is a non-round number, suggesting that the cycle has no clear end.
Each pot tells a story of fire, resistance and invisible work. Soot is not dirt, it is the trace of life that has been cooked inside.
At the center, purity and vulnerability. Motherhood as an act of love and dedication, sculpted in the eternal coldness of marble, but surrounded by the burning heat of everyday life. It is the ideal besieged by harsh reality.
This work speaks of the invisible ties that oppress the woman, the family, the creator. The pressure cooker is the perfect symbol of an environment that contains, that endures, but that is always on the verge of explosion.
It is a tribute to all mothers who raise with courage between exhaustion and hope. Who go out of their way “day by day” between duty and love, between fatigue and tenderness.
There is no room for the idealized. This work is a reflection of raw reality, of what has been experienced, of what has been sweated. I didn’t want a polished metaphor, but a truth with stains, marks and memory.
It was an epic search. Tour Havana, ask, insist. Each recovered pot is a testimony of perseverance, just like the daily struggle of the Cuban. This work was not only thought out, it was sweated.
The rejection of a “beautiful” and decorative life and art
Art is not only to decorate walls, it is to stir consciences, to question ourselves, to reflect what hurts and what heals.
If it doesn’t raise questions, it doesn’t fulfill its function. “Day by day” is not comfortable, but it is honest. It is a mirror of our society, of our contradictions, of our strength. It’s the metaphor we all understand.
Making this work and exhibiting it was an act of rebellion. It is my way of saying that the artist must be free to create from the truth, even if that means swimming against the current.
This exhibition is more than art; It is my legacy, my truth exposed without masks.
I invite you to see it, to feel it and, above all, to talk with it. Because now… you already know me.
PS: And now come another 15 years of ostracism.
