A vitrine in the Ludwig Foundation in Havana, Cuba, contains a collection of small objects that Francis Acea and Diango Hernández have been gathering from Cuban households in the last few years: vases built of bottles cut into pieces, shoes made of heated up plastic garbage, kerosene lamps made of glass containers where the labels give the time when Havana will be with out electricity, …
Luxury is rarely experienced by contemporary Cubans. In fact, it seems so remote that even the idea of design, as we understand the term, seems like a luxury. Cuba is a society that has had to rely on selfsufficiency to survive – blockaded by America and isolated from a dwindling community of sympathetic states, it remains an anachronistic emblem of the once noble ideals of …