ART CITIES:Habana- Anish Kapoor

Anish Kapoor has created some of the most memorable works of our times. Since the early ‘80s, he has produced bodies of work that push the boundaries of sculpture through an exploration of the nature of perception in relation to space, form and mass. His works raise philosophical questions about the world and our position within it, have led to comparisons with alchemy.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Galleria Continua Archive

Anish Kapoor has presended his work two times in Cuba. In May 2015, the artist took part in the XII Havana Biennial with  “Wounds and absent objects”, a site-specific installation, the second time was the exhibition “Follia! 25 años de Galleria Continua”, a collaboration between Galleria Continua and Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, whee he exhibited the work “Endless Column” (1992).  Anish Kapoor returns in Habana for his first solo exhibition in Cuba. The exhibition project is designed specifically for the gallery’s spaces. Its pace is set by 5sculptures that investigate the relationship between fullness and the void. Due to the way in which they are colored, their concavities’ dimensions are not intelligible, gazing at them fosters a sense of vertigo because, “The void (…) has many presences. Its presence as fear is towards the loss of the self, from a non-object to a non-self”. A negative space for Kapoor does not yield an absolute void. In fact, the artist states: “The void does not really exist because we are constantly filling it with our expectations and fears. My sculptures that are called empty objects therefore contain a possibility. They stimulate a philosophical thought but are not the answer to anything. They simply present a condition; you have to do the rest”. Kapoor’s research casts its fundaments in non-forms and auto-generated objects, man and self-awareness, the mind and the experience of things, and the universality of time and space.

Info: Arte Continua Águila de Oro, Rayo 108, entrance Zanja y Dragones, Barrio Chino, Centro Habana, Duration: 29/11/16-26/3/17, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.galleriacontinua.com