The National Hall of Landscape, Illustrated Décima and Popular Crafts, inaugurated within the framework of the Cucalambeana Fiesta, exhibits -in the Provincial Council of Plastic Arts- a multiplicity of works of various styles, themes, and techniques, consolidating itself as a vital space within the revelry. Likewise, landscape exhibitions brighten up other institutions in the city of Las Tunas.
In the words of the catalog corresponding to the National Salon..., the art critic Bárbara Carmenate expressed: "...it becomes a true sample of patrimonial identity by exhibiting Cuban experiences, ways of life, typical ways of acting, of doing; items that satisfy the daily demands, confirming that the utilitarian and the aesthetic can coexist, without detriment to one or the other function.”
A selection of the best creations presented in more than 350 community events of the “Cucalambeana” held this year participate in the National Hall; although, in my opinion, it could be more demanding in the selection, because while some pieces stand out greatly, others deserve better treatment from the formal and conceptual.
However, the variety is the mainstay of the great expo, appreciating paintings, dolls, fabrics (crochet, yarey, guaniquiqui...), and -even- a unique installation in the form of bird's nests. The footprint of children's workshops was also glimpsed in that section.
A special moment corresponded to the awards ceremony in that Hall, carried out with the presence of the member of the Council of State Juana Yamilka Viñals Suárez, the Governor Jaime Chiang Vega, the First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party in the province Manuel René Pérez Gallego, the provincial director of Culture Darlenis Urquiola, among other authorities.
In the category of Crafts, the winners were Liliana Machado Galván, Margarita Ayala Conde, Luis Mario Milanés Casas, Mirtha Zayas Montero, Yaxzandro Cuba Amador, and Érika Leyva. As for the Landscape, the authors Roberto Vázquez Hechavarría, Carlos Gutiérrez Sánchez, Luis García Hidalgo, and Iván Antobarchi Hidalgo rose with garlands.
For their part, concerning Illustrated Décima, among some thirty works, the duos of artists made up of a poet and an illustrator, respectively, Antonio Luque Álvarez and Martha Cruz Hernández, Adalberto Hechavarría and Bernardo Montoya Rodríguez, Misleydis Rodríguez Palmero and Katherine Barbón Pérez, Bienvenido de Ávila, and Niurka Casanova. Likewise, the piece made by Daimí Silva was recognized.
In this context, the Seal 45 Aniversario del Sistema de Casas de Cultura (system of Culture Houses) was also awarded to cultivators, groups, and institutions with an outstanding task for the defense of our idiosyncrasy. Petit Dancé and Raíces Soneras groups; the Tomasa Varona Provincial Culture House, and its communal counterparts "Olga Alonso" and "Anita Cruz;” and the defenders of our identity Anais Ray, Ernesto Guevara, Ramón Batista, and Argelio Puig.
Likewise, some institutions in the historic center of Las Tunas exhibit landscape samples. One of these proposals is shared in the Provincial Committee of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), under the name of Thus, so natural... Its author is the consecrated creator Wílber Ortega Aldaya. According to Bárbara Carmenate, "...in the iconography of this relevant artist from Las Tunas, the formal and theoretical codes that sustain the landscape genre take on multiple connotations since his ingenuity and creative capacity exceed what is traditionally conceived, awarding him top rungs in the cultural field, both in their homeland as in other geographies.”
At the same time, the provincial branch of the Nicolás Guillén Foundation hosts the Confluencia Expo, the result of the event of the same name, created and promoted by Aldaya. According to Bárbara, it is about 14 pictorial works "filtered by feelings or subjective points of view that invite the public to delve into these bucolic scenes, to make them part of a sensation that goes far beyond the pleasant contemplation of the painted canvas…, to an emotional appreciation."
Likewise, the El Cucalambé Ibero-American Center for Décima hosts the exhibition La Pachamama, by Roberto Vázquez Hechavarría, which consists of 15 works and glimpses of elements such as bohíos, wetlands, peasants, and Cuban fields in all their dimensions on the canvases.
By enjoying these invitations, the spectator can only affirm, as the plastic artist Luis García said: "...great are those who cling to nature, defend it and fight from their space (...), those who dressed in green believe in the recovery of the planet (...), to those who through their work help in the recovery of mother earth.” Visual arts within the Cucalambean Fiesta are, without a doubt, necessary facets for the defense of the Cuban identity.
