ELLEGUA

Sounds and photographs from Santiago and Havana
By Diana Ivanova

If you want to live in inner peace, you have to be an idiot, right?

Pedro Juan Gutierrez
“Dirty Havana Trilogy”

I have been to Cuba three times – in 1997, 2001 and 2005. Each time I went through something confusing. For example: a woman in Havana blessed me after finding out that I was Bulgarian and told me about a Bulgarian family who saved her from starving in the early ‘90s; a man in Santiago told me about the woman of his heart, who was Bulgarian too, and kissed my hand; an opposition leader in Havana asked me: “Why did you forget that you are free and we are not?”
I always came home confused – I don’t know what to do with those stories and questions. Then they mingle in my memory with the sounds of the streets of Havana and Santiago and start echoing with concern.
My real concern is caused by the discovery that our past and our memories are important to someone.
These are the streets where I lived and walked for a long time in Cuba. When I look at them, I remember my own confusion. There is nothing certain on the street. In Cuba even the God of Streets and Faith (in the religion of Santeria) is one and the same – Ellegua. Actually this exhibition is dedicated to him.

Photographs from Santiago and Havana
100x70
Sounds from Santiago and Havana
Diana Ivanova, 2005

Technical sound supervisor: Antonia Guleva

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