Diango Hernández lived in Cuba until 2003, when he moved to Europe he lived in Spain and Italy, and recently he set up residence in Düsseldorf, Germany. In Cuba, Hernández participated in the Ordo Amoris Cabinet artist’s collective with Francis Acea, where he began a research on the ways of life in Cuban society and its process of material obsolescence. Based on the archaeology of objects and their appropriation, manipulation and re-signification, Hernández gave rise to a collectionist practice of great importance for his work, to the point of comparing his studio to a storage room in light of the number of objects gathered there. This installation unites household objects found in flea markets in Europe, organized as though in a house, calling attention to their hybrid condition, between scrap and art object. It’s “balance point” is the status it has in Cuban society, where the simplest objects are rarely substituted, due to the scarcity of other goods – as a result of the long-standing closed economy. With a metal pipe, Hernández made a line that passes through all the objects, creating a large drawing throughout the space. Set up in Inhotim after a trip by the artist to Havana, the work temporarily incorporated two artworks he found in the city’s second hand stores: a study for a sculpture by Florencio Gelabert (1904–1995) and an abstract painting by Luiz Martínez Pedro (1910–1989).
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