12:57 minutes
The two works in the Kadist collection, Observador Pasivo and 3600 besos por hora by Diaz are culled from a vast compilation of videos and performances for the camera. These are very successful in transcending the local into the global and/or universal. Memory, surveillance, and the routine and/or familiar, life in terms of both the political life and the social collective life shared by the constant reminder of the shut-off island psychological landscape.
Context is everything when it comes to the work of Humberto Diaz. Context in the limitations of technology in Cuba, context in the construction of an audience that is grounded on the idea of a shared experience, and context in the daily struggle to find the poetic in the everyday and the quotidian. Out of context they still resonate with authenticity and a genuine feel for the poetic, video as a tool for formulating quick ideas, observations and notations within one’s own environment.
The two works in the Kadist collection, Observador Pasivo and 3600 besos por hora by Diaz are culled from a vast compilation of videos and performances for the camera...