The destruction of urban space in Cuba: representations from the visual arts

Abstract

Urban planning and the visual arts constitute alternatives to interpret, represent and configure the environment. The destruction in the urban space of Cuba is not presented as a process of transformation/updating of spaces, such a fact inextricably entails an absence of what was previously created. The study analyzes the capacity of art to resignify in the face of disarticulating processes of the subject/object/referent triad. A sample of three works/projects by Cuban visual artists that address the concept of destruction in urban space is analyzed. The exploration carried out by these creators from the symbolic establishes a space to transcend the immediacy and literality imposed by political power. In the Cuban context, where the destruction of urban spaces is not shown as a transformation that transmits continuity of what was previously created, the visual arts constitute a channel for critical expression and recovery of historical memory.