Territory (second stage)

2005 Double bedroom, at the Biennale Manifd'art - Quebec, Canada.

A large construction made in situ to real scale that represents a double bedroom and bathroom of a large house built with waste material obtained on site. In each zone of the exterior tour labels with the reference image and poetic texts.

Photographic register

© Norton Maza

An island kitchen, large spaces and all kinds of appliances: microwave, refrigerator, extractor fan? All built and arranged just as it appears in the interior decorating magazine. It's just like that luxury kitchen, except... it's made of cardboard.

In Territory Norton Maza takes on the role of builder and decorator of high-end houses made from discarded materials. The imitation of the privileged home in a precarious version, at 1:1 scale, visualizes the cruelty of the magacines that show the splendorous villas of the rich. Even in the dreams of the working class, their replicas are made of paper and broken wood.

This project has been exhibited in four stages and in different venues: the kitchen at the Pančevo Biennale in Serbia; the double bedroom at the Manif d'art Biennale in Canada; the boy's bedroom at La Souterraine in France; and the girl's bedroom in the room without a wall at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Chile. In the different phases, the imitation furniture is accompanied by a label. They are not prices, but poetic phrases that serve as a guide for the viewer to avoid getting lost in the unrealizable dream of capitalist society.

The imitation of the first-rate house on third-rate surfaces reveals the longing to imitate the dignified existence of those above. The artist's own biography offers us other cross readings: his puberty in Cuba and his wandering life in different countries and cities. Cuban colonial architecture, made with poor raw materials, and the nomadic career of someone who moves around with his home in packing boxes and suitcases. The demarcated “Territory” is the ephemeral, recycled and temporary presence of the developing countries, of the proletariat and of the artist who investigates the disastrous consequences of economic inequality.

Text: Juan José Santos