CUBA: AFRO CUBAN ARTIST MANUEL MENDIVE PAINTS DANCERS FOR PERFORMANCE AT ARTS AND SCULPTURE EXHIBITION AT MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

Record ID: 863955

  • Title: CUBA: AFRO CUBAN ARTIST MANUEL MENDIVE PAINTS DANCERS FOR PERFORMANCE AT ARTS AND SCULPTURE EXHIBITION AT MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
  • Date: 10th November 2002
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF DANCERS WITH PAINTED BODIES AND HEADRESSES DANCING SMV OF DANCER WITH PAINTED FACE DANCING VARIOUS, DANCERS DANCING WITH WOODEN SCULPTURE
  • Embargoed: 25th November 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HAVANA, CUBA
  • City:
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAEDOJ5ARIGCBDSWZ6RMKS3JY33
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Afro-Cuban artist Manuel Mendive has painted the faces and torsos of 80 Cuban dancers for a performance at a sculpture exhibition at Cuba's Museum of Fine Arts.
    A sculpture exhibition commemorating the centennial of the birth of Afro-Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam recently featured a performance of dancers with faces and torsos painted in vivid colours by artist Manuel Mendive.
    Many of the 80 dancers, who performed in honour of the exhibition at Cuba's Museum of Fine Arts, wore masks studded with sea shells and carried fish and pails of sea water as they danced to African rhythms at the Havana waterfront sea-wall, the Malecon.
    Others carried wooden effigies in a procession to the museum.
    They splashed water at the audience and chanted "Con el agua del rio, con el agua del mar, yo me llevo todo lo malo, todo lo malo, todo lo malo, con el agua de mar." (With the water of the river, with the water of the sea, I do away with all evil, all evil, all evil with the water of the sea."
    The performance included a fully-naked black dancer who moved between Mendive's large wooden and metal sculptures.
    "This is dedicated to water, to daily life, to thought.
    It's also dedicated to spirituality. It's central, important in the life of Wilfredo Lam," explained Mendive.
    Mendive, a follower of the Yoruba-based Santeria religion brought to Cuba centuries ago by African slaves, said the figures represented spiritual energies.
    American actor Danny Glover, who was recently in Havana, attended the performance.
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