Cuban architecture, design and fashion Cuba, colonial architecture, art deco, Art Nouveau, La Maison, Sting

ISMAEL DE LA CARIDAD
Clothes for Everyone
When in 2003, at the Casa de la Obra Pía in Old Havana, the Arte y Moda fashion show took place, one of the most stunning designs was Peacock Woman, a creation by Ismael de la Caridad based on one of Zayda del Río's paintings. Still today, this spectacular gown by the renowned Cuban fashion designer is a referent when it comes to translating contemporary Cuban visual art into the codes of the catwalk. read more

EDUARDO PIMENTEL
Havana's Yoga Master
Text by Silvia Gomez

In Cuba—and Havana in particular - yoga means Eduardo Pimentel Vázquez. Known throughout the island for his national yoga television program, Eduardo has managed to convince many Cubans that the practice of yoga, which dates back to 2nd century BC India, may be a channel for the self-knowledge and mind-body harmony that humans have long pursued in the name of faith, philosophy or science.
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A COLLECTOR OF WORDS
Reinaldo Gonzalez
Text by Silvia Gomez

Novelist and devoted researcher of the Cuban social fabric, Reynaldo González has had the ability to listen with his own ears and with everyone else's ears as well. What he has heard, we have heard ourselves throughout time in a language that has been more than familiar. But not all of us knew how to interpret and distinguish the core of these discourses, of this language of symbols and maxims.
MANUEL VÁZQUEZ MONTALBÁN read more

DÉBORAH ANDOLLO
Yemaya’s Daughter
Text by Eva Torres - Photographs courtesy of Déborah Andollo

Déborah Andollo broke 15 world free-diving records over a period of nine years, reaching depths of over 100 meters under the ocean surface. Here the unassuming champion talks about her record setting and current projects In the warm seas that surround Cuba, which border some of the most spectacular beaches in the world, Déborah Andollo used to toss seven coins into the waters before plunging into its depths…

ROBERTO GOTTARDI'S
National art school paradise lost?
Text by Eva Torres

Gottardi arrived in Cuba in 1961 as one of three architects who set out to build the best arts school in the world. Forty-seven years later Gottardi is still in Cuba. He recently resumed work to complete his iconic building.

Post-Revolution Cuba has never had a more controversial building project than the National Art School (ENA). Begun in 1961, it remains unfinished. That is in part due to an unresolved argument over its aesthetic principals, as well as a shortage of materials and economic restrictions. Its most enthusiastic supporters uphold the design as a symbol of bravado and experimentalism. Its detractors dismiss it as artistically random, devoid of real meaning, even elitist.

ALICIA ALONSO
The grand dame of Cuba
Text by Stephen Gibbs - Photographs by Sven Creutzmann

To enter Alicia’s Alonso’s office is to visit an inner sanctum. She works in a small room, tucked away behind the unassuming headquarters of the Cuban National Ballet, on Calzada Street in Vedado. Outside, gaggles of young ballerinas gather. Inside, an army of efficient secretaries protect her from the uninvited.

The room itself is dark, and Spartan. The shutters are drawn. There is little furnishing apart from a single bookshelf and a large mahogany desk. Behind it sits the woman who has been the face of Cuban Ballet for almost seven decades.

RAMON SILVERIO AND HIS BEAUTIFUL MEJUNJE
El Mejunje turns expectations of sun, salsa and Tropicana dancing on their heads
Text by Sue Herrod - Photographs by Adalberto Roque

Tucked away on a small side street in the centre of Santa Clara, four hours drive from Havana, El Mejunje is a unique community centre which has inspired both locals and visitors alike with its progressive and passionate embrace of alternative arts & culture.

ISABEL BUSTOS
Dancing with bits and pieces
Text by Eva Torres

he Chilean-born spitfire that is Isabel Bustos has created a modern dance troop, Retazos,in her own image. Daring, imaginative, and creative it pushes the boundaries in its search for new ways of presenting dance. The dancers may not have the classic dance background or the physique of other Cuban dance groups but Isabel has certainly inspired something within them.

HAVANA'S MOST ARTISTIC BARBER
Gilberto Valladares (Papito)
Text by Herman Valerius

Loquacious—as are all good barbers—Papito speaks at the same speed and enthusiasm as his hands handle the scissors. However, his conversation is not the usual stuff of barbers. Papito talks of his projects: his most recent find in the shape of a rare or valuable piece for a future hairdressing museum, or a new addition to his art collection, To the Last Hair. It’s therefore hardly surprising to find seated in Papito´s salon a popular TV announcer determined to change her look or a renowned Cuban art curator waiting for a traditional and sober haircut.

Raul Cordero - A Creator of ideas
by Silvia Gomez,
November 2006 It was a great surprise when we walked into Raúl Cordero's studio, whose location in a central avenue of El Vedado offers a splendid panoramic view of a district where art nouveau, art deco, grandiloquent eclecticism and sober rationalism blend together in a non-conflicting shape?in the words of novelist Alejo Carpentier—'the style of a styleless city'. While our photographer surreptitiously observed areas.
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Damián Alquiles - A universal ‘Jaruqueño’
by Silvia Gomez
November 2006 . . . most well known for his work with small walking human figures cut out of the bodywork of old cars.These anonymous little men.which follow the route traced out for them by the artist-demiurge-some in the opposite direction-, rapt in thought, alone in the crowd or drawn together in their lonelines.
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Alicia Leal—painting for pleasure
by Silvia Gomez, (from 2007 print edition)
Born in the central region of Cuba—where 16th century chronicles depict the presence of hundreds of demons that possessed the bodies and souls of terrified inhabitants, and the site of an important colony of immigrants from the Canary Islands—Alicia admits her debt to the rich popular tradition that spontaneously, and not consciously, emerges in her work…
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Aguedo Alonso—The maestro of the campo
Águedo Alonso lives in a beautiful house-cum-studio in the vicinity of Club Campestre, approx 30 km from Havana, surrounded by the vivid colours and the imbricate shapes of the exuberant tropical vegetation he loves so much. His intimate parlour quickly reveals our host’s affections: photographs of his children and grandchildren, furniture made of plant fibres, miniature antiques from all over the world, lamps of different styles and epochs, and paintings and installation representative of each stage of his production. With the typical courtesy of the people from the provinces and a friendly smile, this painter and ceramist, recognized as one of the most remarkable Cuban landscapists, welcomed us at his home and quickly took us down the road of his life and work…
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