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Imagined around glasses of rum at a kitchen table in La Havana by a group of 4 artists, writers and friends*, Biblioteca para lomo-lectxres / Library for spine readers is a collective exercise to overturn the frustration around censorship in Cuba. Referring to the “lomo” – the spine of the book on which the title is written – it borrows its name a fictional character invented by author Héctor Zumbado (1932-2016): the lomo-lector, a symptom and epitome of a fast-paced modern era where browsing gestures have replaced informational density. But in a context of explicit State surveillance, the potential of the lomo is also one of dissimulation: regardless of the content, a book is firstly what it pretends to be by its cover. Following and reversing that idea, Biblioteca para-lomo lectxres is an ironic library carrying the titles of books that could never exist without being banned. With the original aim of attacking political correctness, it works with choteo, a specific type of Cuban humor using sarcasm as a means to subvert a higher authority and its emblems. It is also a rehearsal in hospitalities, each iteration (Havana, Geneva, New York) adding new spines to its shelves by involving different participants and members of the Cuban diaspora. For this edition, artist Lester Álvarez Meno will welcome visitors of Shmorévaz to compose, design and place imaginary book titles – assembling intercultural stories in a piece of fictional furniture.
*Lester Álvarez Meno, Kevin Ávila, Roman Gutiérrez Aragoneses and Santiago Díaz M.
A project by Lester Álvarez Meno & Kevin Ávila, presented as part of Hiatal – a curatorial program by Daniela Fernández Rodríguez that aims to connect tactics of resistance through collective practices and poetic situations of new Cuban artistic generation in the diaspora of Europe.
Curated by Daniela Fernández Rodríguez & Salomé Burstein, assisted by Alexis de Bonis.
Thank you to Françoise Adamsbaum, Nicolas Couturier, Yann Trividic, Carol Buro and the Cuban Arts Group for their help & support.
