Cuba. Havana. Fusterlandia
For me, a lover of mosaics and ceramics, Fusterlandia turned out to be the main attraction of Cuba. Like in Barcelona - Park Gü ell.
Fusterlandia is an unusual town-museum on the outskirts of Havana in the Haimanitas district. Not even a museum. Rather, another reality. Which appeared thanks to the Cuban artist José Fuster.
It all started in 1992 (or 1994). Cuba was going through a deep economic crisis due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Fuster began to decorate the walls of his, and then the neighboring houses, with bright multi-colored mosaics. He continues to decorate Haymanitas with the proceeds from the sale of his paintings and sculptures. A visit to the Fuster manor is free. True, a box for voluntary donations modestly hangs on the wall. In addition to mosaic architecture, the artist in his workshop creates works that are sold, and not cheap. And he pays the country taxes in the amount of 50% of income. And he does not want to go anywhere.
Fuster's grandfather was a Catalan who moved to Cuba in the 1940s. So not only creativity makes our Cuban related to Antoni Gaudí .
On the grounds of Fuster's house:
The whole house is a work of art. You can climb to the balconies and terraces.
"Be happy and laugh":
Floors, stairs, ceilings - ceramics and mosaics everywhere:
A bench suitable for photo shoots:
A kaleidoscope of colors that uplifts the mood. The gaze moves from plot to plot and does not want to stop.
Fantasy land with Cuban essence.
Naive (naive style) but not childish:
Unlike Gaudí , Fuster does not avoid straight lines. But smooth, of course, are present. And also at the same time there is a variety and repetition of motives. Roosters, palm trees, crocodiles.
Flying cat:
In the vicinity of Fuster's house. Now he and his students have already decorated more than 80 private houses and public buildings.
You can walk around the town at any time, but Fuster's house is sometimes closed to unorganized tourists. Because they began to massively bring organized. We were from 13:40 to 14:30.
And then for more than an hour we walked around and along a long fence, on which there is also a mosaic - plots from different countries, mainly Latin American.
"Cuba's best friend" Hugo Chavez:
Since the craftsmanship of the fence mosaic varies from country to country, a hypothesis has arisen that it is the foreign followers of Fuster who are trying.
In general, Fusterlandia is one of the best manifestations of Cuban culture.
