Boa Mistura at the Bienal de la Habana 2015

Boa Mistura, the collective of Spanish artists renowned for its Street Art with a social value has created an artwork that spans a whole suburban neighbourhood in Havana for the Cuban capital's biennial event.

The artists from Boa Mistura, Madrid-based creative group, were invited by Cuban artist Alexis Leiva Machado (Kcho) to work on the project “Museo Orgánico Romerillo” as part of the 12th Havana Biennial. 


Romerillo is a suburb in Havana where, thanks to the determination of the government and the initiative of Kcho, art has become not only a means to decorate the urban fabric but also feeds the spirit: art as a commodity available to residents.

A challenge that is right up the alley of Boa Mistura, collective that have always used their artwork to inject new, positive life into places, also involving the locals in their artistic creations.
In Romerillo, they based their artwork on the poem “No sé” (I don't know) by Cuban writer, artist and illustrator Samuel Feijóo (1914-1992), something very close to their art that is born from the power of the written word in urban contexts, giving these a new or rediscovered identity.



25 key points taken from each line of the poem were written on walls and facades around the neighbourhood, made from a range of different materials. Boa Mistura chose to frame the white lettering with different coloured rectangles to highlight the medium of the work and to stress these key points.



Words that taken individually have their own abstract autonomy, as if they were paintings, and that together create a poetic harmony – a symbol of what art can do in the broadest contexts, as we can see in the work of Boa Mistura.

Christiane Bürklein

Boa Mistura for the Museo Orgánico Romerillo exhibition space
Location: Havana, Cuba
Year: May 2015
Images:: Courtesy of Boa Mistura
Link Bienal de la Habana http://www.bienalhabana.cult.cu/
Link articles Boa Mistura: http://www.floornature.com/blog/boamistura-in-panama-somos-luz-8585/, http://www.floornature.com/blog/social-and-sustainable-street-art-andldquoluz-nas-vielasandrdquo-7709/, http://www.floornature.com/blog/street-art-promoting-culture-boa-mistura-in-algeria-8266/, http://www.floornature.com/blog/street-art-by-boa-mistura-during-scarpia-xii-ecosystems-of-art-and-of-society-8823/

Below is the complete poem in Spanish and English:
NO SÉ
Samuel Feijoo


I DON’T KNOW
Samuel Feijoo


Mis raíces son profundas
porque viví
en el desierto


My roots are deep
because I lived
in the desert


La arena
y el sol. Sed.
Fuego.
Abajo,
desesperada,
mi raíz
mordía
la roca,
mordía,
mordía...
Llegó al agua.


The sand
and the sun. Thirst. 
Fire.
Downwards,
desperate,
my root
bites
the rock,
bites,
bites…
Reached the water.


Mi raíz es
mi
vida-madre.


My root is
my 
mother-life.


Y
no
sé
qué
es que
supo
horadar
la
roca.


And
I don’t
know
what,
knew 
how to pierce
the rock.