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PROJECTS | |
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Agua Benita | |
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Agua Benita René Francisco June 2007 Benita Rivera is an old lady who lives in an alley of the 60 Street between 19 and 21, Municipality of Playa. The roof of her small house has been damaged for many years and has serious troubles with filtrations so the rainy seasons have terrible consequences for all Benita’s belongings: household furnishings, appliances, many of them lost because of this situation. Benita is retired; this and her illness (rheumatism) make her life to elapse in the interior of her home. She earns her living ironing clothe. I used to wash, but the lack of water in this alley has limited my possibilities. Is a hard problem, it is not easy; water comes every other day and I barely have where to store it. Several ideas came to my mind to make this project in Benita’s house. As an outline I describe it (Object of the work): To repair the roof in the least damaged zones of the house (bedroom and living room). To throw down the destroyed roof and to make a new one (kitchen and bathroom). To make waterways around the ceiling that leads the water to the containers or tanks of reserve (cistern). To install a pump or a motor that leads water from the cistern to the kitchen and the bathroom. To install at the kitchen a drinking trough, with a filter that make drinkable both the rain water and the water that comes every two days (Havana’s water is famous between tourists for the level of impurities and pollution it contains). To install a washing machine and a clothes lain that facilitates Benita to earn her living washing clothe, and also alleviate her sorrows. Beside Benita’s bed there is a painting where an angel appear to some children next to a large river. That painting has been there powdery for more than twenty years. I would like to think that the image of the portrayed angel functions as a presence of the fantasy that art could provide by assisting in this interchange between the artist’s interaction on daily life, between reality and dream. It is my wish to construct with certain aesthetical taste the material aspect that solves Benita’s troubles, and to make a video documentation of the process. I also like to introduce a little of that fantasy I mentioned before. As a deliberate fairy tale the angel of the painting appear to Benita in a day of torrential rain, opening the works and the repairs of the roof, conducting that water that arrives every now and then.
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) Benita ) outside view ) the way Benita lives ) Benita ) Benita ) Benita ) water containers ) hanged dresses ) roof ) kitchen ) roof views ) house view ) water container |
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