Sometimes we look at the past and imagine it untouched, pristine, unchanging, forgetting even that the notion of history has been imposed on us, built from power and therefore defective and uncertain. So a kind syndrome of suspicion is needed, that forces you to be alert, to understand that behind every story doubt, ambiguity and the desire to know the truth remains. However, is it possible to find that truth? On these issues and their involvement in the narrative of Latin American history debates the next solo exhibition by the Cuban artist Hander Lara, which will run from September 29 until October 31 at the Art Gallery Galiano.
A direct contact to the vestiges of what once were the great pre-Hispanic cultures served the young designer to realize the one-sided perspective from which the story is structured. The gaze of the other, the powerful Western, rested upon us to determine the course of our civilizations. Hence, Hander images attempt to show, not a hidden or silenced view of the American subject itself, but the genuine and accurate dual and dialogic approach.
Photography serves him as a basis for structuring his speech. These are snapshots taken by the artist himself, directly to monuments of Mesoamerican cultures which are then intervened with images that respond to the legitimate Western culture. Hence, on the ancient masks, votive objects and rituals, Olmec heads or other symbols of American history intertwine also astrolabes, maps and compasses from Columbian enterprise, bygone European engravings and fragments of frescoes concerning the Catholic religion as well as old patterns of the celestial vault. The end result is a complete picture that attempts entirely to stimulate reflection on the evolution of American civilizations had it been a different story, even toughening our perception of the visual expressions understood today as art but filled a separate function in the dynamics of pre-Columbian life.
Conquistando el rostro de Dios (Conquering the face of God), a title that nominates this new display of Hander Lara, establishes an overlap between two different ways of understanding the world. Is a liaison between the analytical and the rational with the sacred and spiritual that can be considered in the background of many of the great conflicts of humanity. This is a polysemous exhibition in essence, crowded with allegories and visual metaphors, so that each viewer can establish their own reflection. This has been one of the purposes of the young Cuban artist.
–Claudia Pérez