NORMAN FOSTER: RECORDING HAVANA

摘要

Havana. Autos & Architecture has its origin in a visit to Cuba that I made in 2012. My wife, Elena Ochoa, and I attended the XI Bienal de Arte de La Habana and spent time with two artist friends, Marco Castillo and Dagoberto Rodriguez, otherwise known as Los Carpinteros. They had created a major event called Conga Irreversible to coincide with the Arts Festival. Imagine a scene in the heart of the city through which scores of dancers, all immaculately dressed in black, are parading. The traffic is halted as they move, not forwards but backwards. While I was photographing this extraordinary happening, two impressions came together as I looked through the camera's viewfinder. First there was the backdrop of ageing buildings and cars, like a time warp of suspended decay that is unique to the island. Cuba is a veritable museum of classic American automobiles, mostly from that golden age of the 1950s. In their colours and condition there is a visual rapport between the architecture and the autos, both miraculously surviving the ravages of time.