FUSTERLANDIA
HAVANA'S NEIGHBORHOOD OF ART
I remember being in high school and learning about mosaics. My classmates and I made a beautiful mosaic piece with egg shells for art class one day, and I didn’t think about mosaics again until I visited Fusterlandia in Havana.
What is Fusterlandia?
Fusterlandia is the creation of fellow Cuban Jose Rodriguez Fuster, who is originally from the small fishing town of Caibarien in central Cuba but has lived in Havana for the past twenty years. His art, inspired by Picasso and Jean Dubuffet, is innovative in its presentation and unique in Cuba. Some of his favorite themes include mermaids, fish, palms, roosters, and various representations of the Afro-Cuban religion Santeria. These are then mixed with quotes of Ernest Hemingway, Onelio Jorge Cardoso, Alejo Carpentier and then displayed over several blocks of the Havana neighborhood of Jaimanitas.
What began as an artistic inspiration now covers several blocks and at least eighty dwellings. Thanks to Fuster a stroll along the streets of Jaimanitas is today a surreal and psychedelic experience. It is a “Cuban style” Park Guell. Upon returning to Cuba from Europe he created his dream in the tropics, a-la Gaudi and Brancusi, whose works inspired “La Puerta de Fuster.” Fusterlandia is truly a marvel of today’s Havana.
Fusterlandia is at the western end of Havana, right off 5th Avenue, and just past the Marina Hemingway, and is open daily from 9am to 5pm. By Dina GomGar