EILEEN F. ALMARALES NOY
CUBAN ARTIST BASED IN GERMANY

WINDOWS SHOPPING

Photography
2018
24 X 46 Inch


Photograph taken in the showcase of the La Manzana de Gómez building that was reopened in 2017 as the Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski and is located in Havana, Old Havana, Cuba. The "visual ecstasy" in this case points to a disconnection with the objective reality of the most immediate Cuban society. Survival is a difficult task in Cuba today, given the economic crisis of recent years and the growing daily inflation, where the Cuban national currency has no value in the face of foreign currencies, making putting food on the table a daily challenge for Cubans.  

 




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"The Home of Cuban Luxury", slogan of the aforementioned hotel, intrinsically manifests the idea of a fallacy within a system and a government that is preached under the bases of socialism.  Social equality is just one of the many stories in the pile.  Capitalizing on the idea of social equality in a lapidary attempt to subject an entire society to adopt small habits of consumerism: Windows shopping in a museum for consumption.

This building is located in the center of Old Havana, where the ruins of the surrounding family houses are the ornament of the rich landscape that tourists enjoy from the Gran Manzana spa.

The Manzana de Gómez, although initially in the twentieth century, had an exclusively commercial use, later with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution it has had mixed use with educational centers, commerce and offices. In 2013 a project was announced to convert it into a private hotel.


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