Rejas

REJAS

Rejas is the result of a workshop that Gonzalo Borondo carried out through the Art Exchange Festival and in which he involved young artists from La Habana, Cuba.

The initial proposal, to create a site-specific installation in the neighborhood of San Isidro, is conceptualized over several days in which Borondo shares time, conversations and walks with the artists, trying to learn about the political and social reality of the country.
The resulting installation consists of a thin, breathable fabric on which the pattern of a grille is printed, in allusion to the strong presence of grilles in the area. In the same way, this structure draws, at the same time, a limit, and the possibility of transgression, raising a question about isolation and exclusion that alludes to the reality of Cuba and the tense relationship maintained with the United States.
Thus, the negative of the pattern is printed on the floor with black paint through a collective process. The fabric, which, after being used as a stencil, reproduces the contours of a fence, is suspended at a street intersection. The sun can be seen through it, and the shadow it casts on the ground then acquires characteristics opposite to those of a grille: the reflection undulates with the wind, appearing as something mobile and dynamic, which can be crossed. The work also proposes a return to the community when it acts as an awning in an area, La Habana, which is often hit by intense heat waves. Rejas then generates a shaded space, giving the neighborhood’s inhabitants a place to rest.

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