Hamlet Lavastida, Idealista Prize for Contemporary Art 2022
May 26, 2022
"Penitenciary Republic" is the artist's award-winning project, which can be visited at the idealista stand at SIMA (Madrid Real Estate Fair) from 26 to 29 May.
Hamlet Lavastida (Havana, Cuba, 1983) is an influential Cuban artist persecuted by the Castro regime. He was exiled from the island in 2021 for his fight for civil rights and democratization of the regime.
Lavastida is the winner of the fourth edition of the idealista Prize for Contemporary Art 2022 with his project “ Penitenciaria Republic ” which offers a reflection that focuses on certain notions of ideological language within the Cuban context. Issues such as cultural politics, design, public sphere, archaeology and historiography are addressed from different media such as video, collages, performances, public interventions and installations.
The exhibition, curated by Elisa Hernando and coordinated by Arte Global, consists of 21 illustrations of a selection of architectural structures used by the penitentiary system administered by the Ministry of the Interior MININT to confine the prison population in Cuba, which includes not only common crimes but are the penitentiary centers where the Cuban regime has imprisoned political prisoners, artists, intellectuals and cultural personalities critical of the regime for the last six decades. Lavastida unwittingly developed this project and was eventually imprisoned in 2021 in one of these centers, in retaliation for his public exhibition as an artist demanding the opening of rights and freedoms in Cuba.
The idealista Contemporary Art Award is an initiative of the leading real estate marketplace in Spain, Italy and Portugal with which the company seeks to recognise the talent and vision of young creators and seeks to encourage and support contemporary artistic production.
