Groundbreaking books in museum exhibition

Those who wish to fully enjoy Vívidas Alas (Vivid Wings), an exhibition of 11 unique books in which artist Marialva Ríos addresses love, violence, power relations, marriage and other topics connected to the works of writers from the Americas and the Caribbean, should not visit the Pharmaceutical Museum of Matanzas in a hurry.

Agustina Ponce Valdés, director of Ediciones Vigía, remarked the value of the authors evoked therein, describing them as “irreverent, trailblazing and challenging women of the 20th century, and also those who grew up writing verses while reading Martí, all of them upright women, mothers, homemakers, artists, lovers and beloved, women of their time, paradigms of this time. (…) Centennial women who sang and keep making music with brushes or words, 11 books brimming with color, theatrical texts that draw a no less imaginary curtain to show us another Marialva with an untidy bedroom full of paper and buttons where coffee stays untouched by accompanies the book".

The wisdom of intense literary figures such as Frida Kahlo, Alfonsina Storni, Gioconda Belli, Anne Sexton, Carilda Oliver Labra, Fina García Marruz and Dulce María Loynaz is presented along with the artisanal experimentation of designer Marialva, who is aware that objects do not need a voice to speak.

Scissors, ribbons, spoons, chains, shells, flowers, buttons, pins, a high-heeled shoe re-contextualize in Marialva’s literary bodies the most diverse common objects and natural elements to provide a highly symbolic visual discourse.

The exhibits are placed on the vintage furniture of the dining room of the house once owned by the Triolet Figueroa family, founder of La Botica (The Pharmacy). If the mirrors reflected anything from back then, they would show decades of images, with the oil lamp of Vigía as the most recent one.

There is remembrance everywhere, from the host wood to the tableware used beyond that century, and now also in the invited pieces that arrive with their own history as memories of many components merged into unique copies that give art vivid wings.