Cuban Digital Art & Exhibitions: Hunger, Resistance, and Resilience

The talking pot entitled “This is Not a Pot” is imbued with cultural, political, and religious significance.  This guide highlights four intersecting ideas on hunger and food insecurity conveyed by the artist via this piece. At the center of the image sits a large aluminum cooking pot labeled with the words, in English, “This is Not a Pot” – the label is placed upside down.

The dual role of the pot speaks to Pacheco’s artistic versatility, who, limited in sanctioned methods of protesting, is forced to creatively hold the state accountable via the strategically hidden transcript of the cooking pot in order to convey the severe state of food insecurity and lack of free speech on the island. 

The microphone peering into the pot within “Silente” transforms the otherwise empty pot into a witness of scarcity during the crisis of the COVID-19 global pandemic. See the report by Carmelo Mesa-Lago for more information about food insecurity in Cuba: https://cri.fiu.edu/_assets/docs/cuba-economic-crisis.pdf

The production of the image during the 2020 COVID-19 crisis is connected to the deepening of food insecurity during the pandemic.

Rivaling the significance of the microphone, within the context of Cuba, the empty cooking pot is utilized as a tool in mass demonstrations over food scarcity as cooking pots, transported outside of a home and brought into the public sphere, are transformed into a defiant reference to hunger and deep exasperation. As a tool of protest, the empty pot is struck with metal spoons as protesters en masse flow out of their homes, chanting while striking the empty pots. The microphone angled to capture the “voice” of the pot references the powerful use of the otherwise unremarkable cooking pot through which to engage with the state about their inability to feed the population.

“Silente” includes a single flower resting within the pot. The flower is a variety of daffodils called Narcissus Cuba, germinated in 1962 shortly after the Cuban revolution. Daffodils are a fine, tall, vigorous, solid plant, and this variety is a brilliant, large cupped flower bred from Narvik x Sun Chariot, with a wide overlapping round perianth of deep golden yellow, the large expanded bowl-shaped crown is orange-red right down to the base.

The incorporation of the Narcissus Cuba flower within the piece makes way for a complex critique launched by the artist combining the narcissistic actions of the state in allowing desperate conditions of food insecurity to persist, as well as a nostalgic gesture to the mid-twentieth century promise of Cuban revolution which inspired the naming of the new variety of daffodils in 1962.

As the flower within the pot represents the complexity of the Cuban state and the Cuban revolution within 20th and 21st Century history and politics, its lone presence within the pot also vividly marks the absence of that which is most associated with cooking pots—food. The daffodil stands in for the material lack of food and the presence of revolutionary utopian ideology.

Additionally, the single flower within an empty pot conveys a sense of deep food scarcity and isolation. The microphone expresses the hopes of the artist that someone, or some entity concerned with the wellbeing of human populations, is able to hear the voice of the subaltern and respond to the hunger and isolation being endured.

The image provides a reference to Lucumi religious approaches to the amelioration of hunger. From the religious mythology and philosophical tradition of Afro-descendent Lucumi practitioners, the significance of the flower is magnified by its association with Cuba’s patron goddess within the Yoruba Lucumi tradition, the goddess Ochun, believed to ameliorate hunger. The goddess is at times referred to as the goddess of daffodils, and within the Lucumi mythology, she is the goddess who feeds humanity by traveling far to seek an audience with the supreme Orisha, called Olofi (head of the gods within the tradition), on behalf of starving populations. When she arrives, alone and exhausted, she asks for food to be provided to humanity. An interpretation of this image, in line with the Lucumi tradition, takes into account the formal setting of the auditorium and the Narcissus Cuba daffodil as a reference to Ochun’s formal intervention to end hunger. The empty pot, the daffodil, and the peering microphone actively communicate the food insecurity endured by a hungry population waiting to be heard.

These multiple references within the “Silente” yields a complex understanding of hunger and the protesting of food insecurity on the island. The image’s use of references to the Cuban revolution and nation, such as the daffodil Narcissus Cuba, speaks volumes to the state’s inability to “fill the pots” with food. The piece also references the resilience of the population—turning empty pots into a tool of protest, and the artist’s attention to culturally significant Lucumi religious associations which double the symbolic value of the use within the piece of the Narcissus Cuba daffodil as a reference to the goddess Ochun, believed to be an advocate against hunger.

The image of Ochun, the goddess associated with daffodils, represented by Roberto Fabelo during her travel to meet Olofi with the goal of saving humanity from starvation is captured by the sculpture, Viaje Fantastico located in Old Havana.

Image source: Joey Gannon. Used with permission under CC BY-SA 2.0, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0.

The pot within Pacheco's digital photography "Silente" was utilized by the artist prior to 2011 as part of a public protest performance piece:

The digital video chronicling one of Pacheco's protest performances above is accessible via the digital platform Instagram. 

Within this protest performance, Pacheco utilized the pot as a helmet while being digitally recorded and posting his poetry in defiance of the Cuban government’s anti-congregation and unsanctioned speech laws.  In 2020, the pot emerges as the centerpiece of the Silente image.  For the artist, the versatility of the lone pot allows it to double in utility.  In 2011 within the digital protest video it served as a "warrior's helmet' on the artist's head, in 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 food and censorship crisis the pot became the centerpiece of Pacheco's digital photography as it sat on a flat surface, functioning as a symbol that referenced food scarcity, protest vehicle (as detailed above) and mythological religious reference. 

Commentary by K. L. Cespedes

La Fijeza returns to the themes of hunger and scarcity explored in 2014 by Pacheco as part of his digital documentary performance "Gastronomia Absoluta." The image above, "La Feijeza" expands the artist's engagement with themes of hunger and food scarcity on the island.  The image represents the food insecurity and isolation brought on by Covid lockdowns. Distinct from other representations of hunger, "La Fijeza" is distinct for its exclusion of rice and replaces the plate with the body of the artist.  The absence of rice and the plate is symbolic of extreme scarcity.  The lone fried egg represents a culturally quintessential Cuban reference to severe food insecurity.   The lone egg atop the artist’s body conveys a heightened desperation and isolation as the resource of the accompanying rice within the colloquial phrase "un plato de arroz con huevo" which is used to communicate hunger, is via this representation by Pacheco removed the rice as a marker of growing scarcity than previously expressed via the cultural colloquial phrase.  The image of the shirtless lone artist and the lone fried egg is produced to signal a growing food security.   La Fijeza, stands in stark contrast to Pacheco's 2014 digital video within the "Gastronomia Absoluta" series.  The darkness, isolation, and reduction in what is available to feed the population within La Fijeza chronicle the worsening conditions between 2014 and 2020.  Juxtaposing the dark sparseness and isolation conveyed via La Fijeza in 2020 and the filmed performance piece in 2014, which was produced during a sunny day in a populated park in Havana, visually represents worsening conditions of scarcity   By 2020, the artist's representation conveys the message that only the egg remains.  Gone, alongside the bowl of rice accompanying the lone egg from this image is the animated debate of residents discussing politics and history.

Commentary by K. L. Cespedes

Further Reading:

More than a satirical representation of a banal school or worksite lunch, Pacheco's “Cartas Sobre la Mesa” captures what at first glance is a simple work or school lunch tray, typically only serving a set menu of watery beans, a small amount of rice, bread, supplemented okra and avocado in this image.  Often the same lunch is served and consists of the food held within the shallow wells of a dented aluminum cafeteria tray.  The tray’s compartments, dictating the allotted space and maximum portion to be dished out, impose both control and keep the runny beans away from the lone piece of bread or, in this case, a piece of avocado.

“Cartas Sobre la Mesa” is a phrase that captures, as it does in English, the telling of truths, which in this case are horrifying. Within this image the faces stand in for substitutes to the quintessential beans served in the shallow wells of tray.

Eating the cafeteria food is the only option many have, para matar el hambre” (kills the hunger).  Pacheco’s piece captures the lack of agency and lack of autonomy over what is served onto the student’s/worker’s tray.  The lack of choice speaks volumes about the magnitude of the scarcity being collectively endured.  In “Cartas sobre la mesa” the artists portrays the resignation of the population in the face of hunger, as well as the terror of food insecurity—as represented by the faces, clearly cognizant that they are about to be consumed.  The work serves as an example of a metaphorically imposed cannibalism–where for the state to endure the population, in an effort to “kill hunger,” has to feed on itself. 

Commentary by K. L. Cespedes

Pacheco’s image “Literar II” offers a complex representation of the colloquial phrase utilized when there is extreme food scarcity, "hay que comerse un cable" (one will need to eat electrical wires).  The image is metaphorical. As a poet, performance artist, and visual artist, Pacheco moves seamlessly between mediums and in this piece visually represents the colloquial phrase “comerse un cable,” a metaphor which translates to "eating a cable" typically utilized when communicating a resignation over the lack of food, lack of opportunities, and resources.  The phrase typically announces a survival strategy of restricting oneself to what meager food or other options are available, regardless of whether these are good, desirable, or safe.

Commentary by K. L. Cespedes