The Jungle

3D video, recreation of the gallery of the University of the Arts (ISA). Havana, Cuba. 2017.

In collaboration with Fabian Alejandro Gonzalez.

 

“I think that from my childhood there was something in me that was leading to this painting. Henri Rosseau, you know, painted the jungle in his sleep, the hungry lion, the apes, with flowers and huge snakes. He was a magnificent painter, but not the same kind of painter that I am. He doesn't condemn what happens in the jungle, I do. Look at my monsters and the gestures they make. The one on the right offering ass, as obscene as a whore. Also look at the scissors in the upper right-hand corner. I've used poetry to show the reality of acceptance and protest.” - Wifredo Lam –

                                                                                                                    

In “the Jungle’’ the camera in first person, takes a journey in an abandoned and dark space full of plants, mist and insects. A cold atmosphere is maintained consistently in the abandoned space.

I try to convey a generational mood. Representing a ''reality'' that constantly turns between protest and acceptance through a very peculiar surrealism. In a primary way I’m interested in showing a perspective that lies behind the surface, that which is hidden, and only the mysticism acquires prominence. With visuals similar to those of video games, I try to find points of interest that reflect the possibility of a trophy, and to feel power in another reality. The jungle as a place and environment of survival, a competitive space to ascend to different levels.    

Somehow I suggest the new world as the real one, the one you don't see but it’s there. It doesn't necessarily need interaction, the idea that it was always there emphasizes that we live in constant simulation. A simulation of a truth, one that is now in constant re-actualization and from which we have lost our role, presenting us with a recreated universe from which we cannot escape. It is not a fiction only suggested from the technological paraphernalia, it is a possible way to understand our context.