CITIES, TRAVEL AND UTOPIA

City, a term that alludes to the place where contemporary human experience unfolds. It is the space-time where individuals interact, create, indoctrinate, perpetuate, relate, and leave their mark for posterity. Additionally, it is a hypertext in which one can verify the dynamics, cultural norms, values, and complexity of the society that inhabits it. The city functions as a kind of historical document through which, by means of its buildings, avenues, squares, and monuments, it is possible to understand the culture and life of the individuals who have inhabited it. Therefore, the city is a metonymy and metaphor for the society that lives in it, a container of its cultural identity and a reflection of social life. The proposal of these two Cuban artists revolves around cities, spaces that have been visited during their travels around the world. Vicente Hernández and Luis Enrique Camejo reinterpret reality through their painting and present us with a new city, the result of their imagination and lived experiences. Therefore, in both artistic approaches, it is possible to observe the real-imagined city binomial, as the artists start from a real image of each city, which nevertheless appears before our eyes in a different way. It is a kind of staging that attempts to rescue fragments of collective memory and the imaginary of each city. If the city is the quintessential space for the development of human life, it is also the habitat of these two Cuban painters who have dedicated their artistic expressions to reflect contemporary urban reality.