Cuba 2026

Title: “Hombres Libres / Free men”
Commissioner: Daneisy García Roque
Curator: Nelson Ramirez de Arellano Conde
Exhibitor: Juan Roberto Diago Durruthy

The work serves as a reminder that freedom is a continuous practice and a constant tension requiring the preservation of memory and dignity.
The installation “Hombres Libres / Free Men” consists of a group of sculptures in the form of heads of various dimensions that advance toward the viewer. These figures display scars in relief, created from oxidised metals, wood, plastics, and salvaged materials. This tactile memory refuses to be erased by oblivion. In this poetic approach, freedom does not imply hiding a history of pain, but rather exhibiting it as an assertion of identity.

The artist presents the surface of the pieces as a geographical map of trauma and resistance. The keloid becomes irrefutable proof of survival, suggesting that while the flesh is marked, it remains sovereign. Within this framework, a “free man” is defined as one with the courage to acknowledge their marks and dignify their precarity. The exhibition does not represent victims, but rather constructs a genealogy of survivors who have claimed their own sovereignty.