Belkis Martín, from Havana in 1965, studied mechanical design. Her link with the visual arts began at the Concha Ferrant gallery in Guanabacoa, when she was the administrator of the institution. Since the year 2000 she began working at Los Oficios gallery, owned by the artist Nelson Domínguez, of which she would become director. She has coordinated and produced, in collaboration, exhibitions of plastic arts in Cuba, Chile, Spain, Italy, the United States and Switzerland.
Up to now, he has had two personal exhibitions of his photographic work: tunes, 2019. Milander Center for Arts & Entertainment, Hialeah, United States; and dismembered2022. Studio-Workshop Corralfalso 259, Guanabacoa, Havana.
In this way he communicates his artistic motivations:
“I am a constant observer of my urban and natural environment. It worries me to see how they are permanently transformed and how man influences those changes. I look very patiently at each place I pass through; I delve into the details of those corners that call my attention and look for different visual perspectives, to then build a symbolic dialogue.
“I am interested in the cosmogonic link that is established between my daily environment and the elements that make it up: flora, fauna, man, architecture. However, I am not satisfied with seeing the images as they exist, but I want them to carry, through my photography, an additional spiritual charge, an allegorical connotation that at times may seem close or foreign, and even both.
“The moderate experimentation and transformation of the image by means of technology allows those closed planes, discovered at random and captured by me, to change their organic nature. In this way, what is vegetal or terrestrial can seem marine; the stony forms can acquire a human physiognomy; shady or rotten environments can become splendid corners; buildings destroyed by time can give new clues about their sense of persistence and evocation. It is about the constant mixing or dissolution of one physical content in another.
“Since I look at the image for the first time, I have been intuiting the possible compositions and complementary tones that I would obtain by taking them to the negative. In this exercise I discover unique textures and shapes, which cause me sudden states of mind and sensations, which I am interested in sharing with the viewer.
“The practice of photography has helped me to consolidate this process of perception and study of apparently ordinary objects, scenes and events from different angles and perspectives.
“I started taking photographs when I founded Artcrónica, a magazine dedicated to the visual arts of America and the Caribbean, with my husband, the art critic and journalist David Mateo. At that time, I dedicated myself more to documentary and reporting work on those events that we attended as journalists, and which we later reflected in our publication.
“The photography I do now has a different focus, although I don’t stop working for artchronic as a reporter and assistant. It is a creative photo, which is based on the landscape genre as an expression, and which passes through the filter of my sensibility and aesthetic concern. I pretend to look at the environment that surrounds me in a different way; I dwell on the details in order to understand how they develop and evolve (for better or for worse). I think that this principle of intimate observation, of detailed, patient rummaging, has been an aspect that has conditioned me a lot, and about which I have gradually become aware”.
The series
We asked Belkis to present us with a group of images that he considers significant in his recent work. And, by the way, that he comments on his genesis:
“The series began to appear when, when reviewing the images, I began to feel that they were expressing or speaking for themselves on certain topics and places. This is how it first appeared garden insidea collection that I developed by meticulously observing the garden and patio of my house, because I am passionate about vegetation, nature.
“I still dream of finding that ideal place to live and continue taking my photos of the environment, of the ecosystem, both near the countryside and the sea (both fascinate me).
“Although garden inside From the beginning, she was induced by a figurative look, the intention of capturing condensed, compact spaces did not stop being seen early on; which could sometimes induce an abstract sensation.
“Then, without meaning to, the second series began to appear: appearances. This was intended to make an approach, a zoom, like someone looking through a magnifying glass; offer symbolic testimony of those microspaces that I discovered when walking through the neighborhoods of Guanabacoa, the municipality where I was born.
“The photos gave the impression of being landscapes taken from cosmic space, transforming the photographed objects or corners; raising the scale apparently and abstracting them to the maximum. That technique that I use for my photography was then consolidated, and that has to do with the use of the negative of the image. With this I reaffirm that habit of wanting to see everything in another way, from another point of view.
“The Serie Low tide It was almost all made on the west coast of Florida, where I had the opportunity to travel a few years ago. I discovered an enormous variety of shells and snails that I had never seen in Cuba; I was impressed by the infinity of textures and appearances of these marine elements. The photographic process became a kind of exploration exercise or biological inventory of the area. Although I have leaned more towards rural and urban settings, that is a series and an intention that I would like to take up again at another time.
“water site arose from the need to transform, even if only from the metaphorical intention, the ruined, wild environment of the place where I live in Guanabacoa. The streets that yesterday were well cared for and busy, today are full of holes and sewage leaks. These waters are dragging all kinds of objects and substances, becoming increasingly dense in its composition. I direct the lens of my camera precisely towards that filthy, toxic density. In this set I work a lot on the contrast of light; In many images my shadow even appears as an added compositional value, and as a symbolic alternative to my desire for involvement and commitment.
“In Gaunt there is a conscious intention of wanting to extract from the emblematic residential and institutional architectural sites of Guanabacoa —increasingly destroyed— forms and textures that give another symbolic reading of them; that speak above all of the value and historical memory that they contain, and about the tension or anguish to prevail in the face of abandonment and neglect. Let’s say that it is a form of protest, of resistance to the “dehumanization” suffered by the architectural heritage of Guanabaco.”
