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Entre el sorprendente caudal de acciones que identifican el ideario político de José Martí, una hay que ilustra el sentido visionario y el significado actual de su trabajo como mediador social: la reconciliación. En 1891 este fecundo pensador vislumbró para los cubanos una república voltairiana llena de faltas, porque “se compondrá de hombres”, pero pródiga en posibilidad y virtud. Su muerte prematura en 1895 nos privó de los detalles ejecutivos de su programa. Al interpretar el sentido de sus actos y la proyección de sus escritos, no es difícil entrever que el maestro estaba urdiendo un plan de reconciliación civil capaz de unir y desestresar, en un mismo fluido de interés común, los extremos contrapuestos de la naciente sociedad cubana postcolonial.
Inti Hernández, fascinado por la atemporalidad del proyecto martiano, decide en el 2012 interrogarlo y entenderlo como un lugar de encuentro donde lo que importa no es la dualidad sino la posibilidad de su trascendencia. De ahí la forma que nos propone, un banco a la manera de un ocho acostado, paradigma de la flexibilidad y el equilibrio y, acaso, una de las metáforas que mejor encarnan esa sociedad que hace 121 años soñó Martí: “con todos y para el bien de todos”.
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Inti Hernández, Bancontodos (serie Lugar de Encuentro), 2012, 575
x 430 x 300 cm
bronce y madera contrachapada. Foto: cortesía del
artista
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Bancontodos (Encounter Place series)
Among the vast wealth of actions that identify the
political ideas of José Martí, one that best captures his visionary sense while
proving the enduring actualness of
his work as social mediator is reconciliation. In 1891 this prolific thinker
for Cubans envisioned a Voltarian Republic, rich in possibilities and virtue,
yet full of faults as it will be “composed by humans". His premature death
in 1895 robbed us of the practical realization of his program. When interpreting
the ideas in his writings and the intentions of his actions, it is not
difficult to see that ‘el maestro’ (the master) was concocting a plan of civil
reconciliation. He envisioned a reconciliation that would leave the stress
behind and unite in one fluid motion, the common interest of the opposing
tendencies of the nascent postcolonial Cuban society.
In 2012, Inti Hernandez revisited these ideas and, fascinated by the timelessness of Marti’s vision, began to interrogate it. For Hernandez these ideals take the form of an encounter place - where the possibility of transcendence is more important than the duality of its nature. Embarking from this point, he proposed a bench shaped in the form of a lying eight, a paradigm of flexibility and balance; as a metaphor, perhaps the one that best embodies the society envisioned by Marti 121 years ago, "counting on everyone and for the good of all".
In 2012, Inti Hernandez revisited these ideas and, fascinated by the timelessness of Marti’s vision, began to interrogate it. For Hernandez these ideals take the form of an encounter place - where the possibility of transcendence is more important than the duality of its nature. Embarking from this point, he proposed a bench shaped in the form of a lying eight, a paradigm of flexibility and balance; as a metaphor, perhaps the one that best embodies the society envisioned by Marti 121 years ago, "counting on everyone and for the good of all".
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Inti Hernández, Bancontodos (Encounter Place series), 2012, 575 x 430 x 300 cm,
cast bronze and plywood. Fotos: Juan Carlos Betancourt
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