Kcho

Alexis Leyva Machado, known as Kcho ( * 1970 in Nueva Gerona, Isla de Juventud, Cuba ), is an artist and lives in Havana, Cuba.

Biography

Kcho graduated between 1983 and 1986, the Escuela Elemental de Arte de Nueva Gerona and continued his studies between 1986 and 1990 in the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Havana continued. Since then, his work is internationally respected and exhibited.

The Kcho is one of the most important artists of Cuba and has large share of the international attention that is given to the young Cuban art since the 90s.

Work

He became famous when he treasures and everyday objects rearranged and designs with large installations, with their multi-layered portraits of his homeland. He especially likes to be used for boat hulls, sails and ship models, which refer to the geographical and political insularity of Cuba. His work revolves unceasingly for transport by which the short Meerweg can be overcome between Cuba and the United States or by the United States to Cuba: A tower of semi- rotten boats (para olvidar el miedo ) about the artist won the 1995 prize of the Biennale Kwangju, and La Regata (1994 ), a designed out of every boat boat -like elements form was already visible in various museums of the world. Even in his latest work, he does not leave the subject, so he set about at a Havana Biennial in the Convento San Francisco on a wobbly boat dock and surrounded him with a sea of ​​empty Transfusion and bottles of liquor. And of course we remember from these dangerous lands from such stacks or interpretive classifications of often badly seemingly improvised water companions of all the reports of Cubans who secretly to achieve when attempting the coast of the United States of America, met their death in the sea floods. Kcho but reflects therefore the most unrealizable aspirations of the Cuban exile after returning to their home. One of his most extraordinary installations was in 2005 focused on about 400 square meters of space in the Attersee Kunsthalle exhibition Casa 5 - Las Playas Infinitas.

Political activity

Since 2003 Member of the Kcho day biannual Cuban Parliament, the Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular. He is known for his unconditional admiration of Fidel Castro. In February 2012, he said at a meeting of Cuban artists and intellectuals: " All that we are arises from the work of Fidel Castro. " In July 2012, he described it during a debate on the new tax system in the Cuban Parliament the duty of the Cuban artists " to work for free and willingly unto the people, without receiving any remuneration from public funds. "