Trade and migration has always been very important for the development and consolidation of local cultures.
During the 57th edition of the Venice Biennale of Venice, in the independent space of ICI Venice, was presented the personal exhibition of Cuban artist Susana Pilar (Havana, 1984) titled Un chino de paso de Venecia, fireplace in Cuba (A Chinese passing through Venice while headed to Cuba). From 8 May to 26 November 2017, in this unusual space, the continuity of a very personal investigation is performed where the artist immerses the visitor in the memories of his Chinese trisnon, who arrived in Cuba at the end of the nineteenth century.
The central work of the exhibition Un chino de paso by Matanzas ... (A Chinese passage for Matanzas ...) enters the spectator into the collective memory of the artist's family through text, earth, color and textures, restoring a past and recovering the knowledge accumulated by several generations. The work is a sensory path realized by reading the poem written by the artist since 2015 as a tribute to the memory of his ancestor Arcadio Chang. They also listen to the dialogues with Matanzas's relatives, with their mother and with researchers trying to reconstruct the history of the family and its origins. The members of the family whisper and create the body of the assembly. I rewrite the memories of the Chinese grandfather who emigrated to Matanzas.
This immersive installation highlights the little knowledge of Chinese influence in Cuba, where social blending and transculture are at the heart of the Cuban society. The elaboration of the poem written by Susana as a tribute to the memory of his grandfather before, during and after the exhibition are similar to the creation of an endless film; an ever-evolving poem. Long silk bands placed in space welcome handwritten poems with Chinese ink, a tribute made to his memory and that of all Chinese immigrants. The red floor - even part of the installation - has the same tonality as the ruins of the Unión de Reyes Casino in Matanzas, a meeting place for the Chinese community in that city, where Arcadio might play at Mah Jong and smoke the ' opium.
At the entrance there are boxes of light titled Lo que count abuela ... (What the grandmother told ...). Another way to describe your ancestor who has disappeared and without a face. She, through the story of women in her family, tells the lineage of Chinese Arcadio Shang, starting with her daughter and coming to herself, then fifteen. At this point Susana continues one of the lines of work that distinguish her - always self-referential - by giving the individual lightbox its height and leaving the eyes of women photographed in the eyes of the spectator
For about an hour, on the opening day, Susana realized the intercontinental Dibujo intercontinental performance where she tried to drag a vessel tied to her torso with the weight of her body. The painful gesture caused by the effort, the pressure and the cold frightened - and at the same time sensitized - all the passers-by of the tumultuous Campo San Simeon Grande.
The book, written by Susana himself, with a handwritten poem and not far removed from a library featuring documents on the artist, books on overseas Chinese migrations issued by studies at Ca'Foscari University in Venice. All of this is closely linked to the cultural exchange work carried out by ICI Venice that is reflected in the reality of Venice and the world of the world.
Tracks of lost stories, travels in the fatigued heads of their relatives who try to remember their childhood from places they knew and who wanted to share, questioning the character of the inevitability of oblivion. Crossword memories, words present, missing words ... a story that has many distortions and aspects that are still to be discovered.
"Un barco entra a Matanzas...
y yo desde la distancia te miro , tu mirada pasa a través de mi, y se posa...”
Susana Pilar, Poema al Tata (poema in corso 2015-2017)