The Mother of Invention

During the 90s, Cuba suffered a deep economic crisis due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was supporting Cuba economically. “Special Period in Time of Peace” was the euphemistic term that the Cuban government employed to name this dark time in its history. The first stages of the Special Period were defined by the loss of nearly all of the petroleum imports from the USSR. This provoked a breakdown of the transportation system and agriculture. Very quickly, everything started to become scarce, even the most basic products such as toilet paper or food of any kind.

My photographs show the inventions made by common Cuban people in order to survive. By recreating them, I’m trying to perpetuate this sort of material legacy that the Special Period left behind and that remains in people’s memory, but not in the form of a tangible archive. I shot them on a white background generating an oneiric atmosphere where the objects are decontextualized. My intention is to capture the surreal spirit of the epoch and the reinvented objects.

These ersatzes, born out of necessity and poverty, are monuments of a painful time worthy of being preserved and commemorated. After all, they are proof of the inventiveness and survival skills of the Cuban people.