Ruta Floyd - Pink Floyd Web Fans España
OUT OF THE BLUE EXHIBITION
IVAN SOCA PASCUAL - HAVANA (CUBA) www.ivansoca.com
CUBAN ART FACTORY - HAVANA (CUBA) SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 - OCTOBER 30, 2014
26th street, 11th street corner
forbidden
Havana Cuba)
SCHEDULES:
Thursday to Saturday: 20 to 4 hours
Sunday: 20 to 2 hours
MUSIC WITHOUT BORDERS
The FAC (Fábrica de Arte Cubano) in the city of Havana (Cuba), , is being held the photographic exhibition Out Of The Blue by the photographer Iván Soca Pascual, inspired by the music of Pink Floyd and with the title of a song from David Gilmour's second solo album.
The exhibition consists of 14 photographs taken by the author in Cuba in the last 10 years.
Within the acts, Iván Soca, accompanied by guitarist Rafael Berlanga, DJ Iván Lejardi and the group of actors Gigantería, has performed two live performances for the public.
Put in contact with Iván Soca, very kindly explains the meaning of his work.
Good morning Iván, what was your first contact with the music of Pink Floyd?
"My parents were diplomats and I had to travel with them to the European continent when I was three years old.
I was living in Prague for 7 years and after traveling a lot we went to Leningrad.
I had a level of appreciation, I really liked electro-acoustic music, in fact I studied an engineering degree in contrition of computer machines.
And my main authors were already the Pink Floyd masters, but I also really liked Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull, in short, a lot of musical metra. But I was more inclined to electro acoustic because of my training.
In Russia they liked Jarre a lot, Kitaro and I was looking for something else.
I learned of the existence of a certain Barrett and there I stayed. Then Gilmour,_cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d, then Waters... connected with them from my youth."
COMING BACK TO LIFE
What has been the influence of your music to create the photographs for this exhibition?
"I am a surreal man, I am withdrawn although I have many friends. I like to look from afar, perhaps because of that European formation I look coldly, with certainty and time, I learned that in Europe.
I look at things without attacking them and I respect a lot when I look. So since I started in the world of photography, although my strength has been the Cuban and foreign musicians who have visited us, I always look for another type of photography, I am looking at the external details, even of the musicians
There is a photo from the exhibition that was born, for example at a concert by Silvio Rodríguez, the one with the hummingbird. How would a hummingbird get to a Silvio concert? And how did it get to where I was? So they are signs and I leave them to myself. I also had the decision to go help people in need while hurricanes hit us and that gives a lot of surrealism.
It's very sad sometimes, but very comforting the unexpected.
Out Of The Blue is that, it is a selection of photographs from a gigantic series that I have called SURREAL SELF-PORTRAIT, they are inspired by the guitar solos of maestro Gilmour, but in reality what moves me to do them is the music, what instrumental, I am a lover of the guitar, classical, acoustic, electric, and all its manifestations.
Some of the images in Out Of The Blue are desolating, sordid, but at the same time full of surreal music, elements of great love for others, great respect for feelings."
TIME
What did you want to represent or manifest in the two live performances?
"I play classical music, a record by the London Philharmonic performing Pink Floyd.
There is a clock projected on a movie screen, but the clock is ticking backwards at 6 p.m.
The clock starts ticking normally and I appear.
They enlighten me and I say a few words, which are the lyrics of Out Of The Blue, it makes me feel that they are written from me, every time I transpose it to my reality, I feel that Gilmour wrote them for me and I propose my theory of the time I have an hour in my favor and I will use it in conjunction with the gray men, who are a kind of thieves of my time, but who are my allies tonight.
Remember that my theory and it is the message is that THERE ARE NO OPPONENTS OR ENEMIES, THERE IS ONLY COMMUNICATION.
With these words I finish my text and from there an introduction begins.
All dark and the gray men appear I begin to relate to them by putting a wall between us, but leaving them on the side of my guests.
I leave the wall and they help me set up the exhibition, while on the wall that I put together in just 2 minutes
The surreal art of my photographs is being projected.
Then when we have set up the entire exhibition, people applaud a lot, it is to have reached a pact with my supposed enemy, which is not such.
And I want to remove the wall. It's time for Run like hell and I enter my wall and the men in gray help me knock it down. Then Comfortably Numb and Another Brick In The Wall.
And then we put Out Of The blue with the whole gallery on and people appreciate the works, we distribute the catalogs and posters, which I always give to everyone who comes to my presentations, And finito."
OUT OF THE BLUE
Who are the gray men?
"Since I was a child I also loved reading, now not so much for time. One of my main authors was always Michael Ende and his Neverending Story.
Then Momo, who marked me for life.
Upon my return from Europe I met many troubadours because I made my spiritual alliance with them, Silvio, Pablo, a Noel, Vicente, Sara, but especially one, Augusto Blanca.
This one had Momo taken to the trova and there I was convinced that all the precepts of Princess Momo and time were very valid for my interpretation of life.
The gray men for me are beings who do everything possible so that your dreams are not given to you, they are those who inspire bureaucracy, they are the ones who steal the time of humans, they set traps for memory, in short... I wanted to bring these characters closer to my wall as a sign that we must dialogue, we must accept the contrary and together set up my exhibition in real time.
The gray men appear with a giant concrete block, no one is waiting for them, they start to scare people away until they reach my edge. There we make a kind of pact and they help me build my wall.
So when the wall is assembled they help me hang the pieces that are 2 meter by 1.30 meter fabrics and they interact with me and my guests from the public."
MEN IN GRAY
In your opinion, what is the most impressive moment?
"There are two moments.
One is Bring The Boys back Home.
Where I link it to a list of names, but this time it's all my friends who don't live in Cuba, almost 1600.
It is a parable in time.
Like that wall from the 90s in Berlin and the same theme.
The other moment is almost to the end when I project on my wall half a minute of the fall of the wall as well as the concert in Berlin and the gray men are watching and trying to push my wall.
That happens seconds before I literally bring her down on top of the audience."
RUN LIKE HELL
What are the themes chosen in the representation of the Pink Floyd discography?
"Intro which is Shine On Your Crazy Diamond.
Then follows In the Flesh mixed with On the Run.
Then comes High Hopes who has a huge solo.
Then Bring The boys Back Home.
Run Like Hell continues, which is where I take the opportunity to deliver catalogs and posters to everyone, chat and hug brothers.
Then on the wall we project Tear Down The Wall from Berlin 90, I tear down the wall, there is a pause of very intense applause and Comfortably Numb follows and connects with Another Brick in The Wall, it's the end.
The whole room lights up and Out Of The Blue."
And to finish Iván gives us these words.
"I want to thank Gilmour because it is the soundtrack of my life and to you because it is important that you exist, because everything is in your hands and especially in the hands of time... Everything, absolutely everything is in the hands of time."
THE MEN IN GRAY, IVAN SOCA, RAFAEL BERLANGA AND IVAN LEJARDI
Ivan Soca Pascual. Santiago de Cuba 1966.
Linked to Cuban music since the 90s, he has worked directly with cultural institutions such as Casa de las Américas, Pablo de la Torriente Brau Center and its program "A Guitarra Limpia", the Ibero-American Center for Song and its program "Canto de Todos”, The Cuban Institute of Music and musicians in general. As a photographer, his works have been placed in a recognized place, as he treasures very important collections of musicians such as Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Santiago and Vicente Feliu, Augusto Blanca, Carlos Varela and many of the troubadours of the Cuban Nueva Trova Movement. He has also worked a lot in the Jazz area with projects by very important musicians such as the Elmer Ferrer Band, Aldo López Gavilán, Harold and Ernan López Nussa, and in popular dance music he has been the current and official photographer for 10 years of Juan Formell and Los They go they go In the area of Chamber Music, he is a photographer for the Leo Brouwer Festival, the most important Cuban classical and contemporary musician of all time. Since its inception, he has always conceived his work to show it to followers of different areas, counting in his favor with more than 30 personal exhibitions. He treasures a large collection of photographs in the surreal area entitled SURREAL SELF-PORTRAIT, of which there is a very special part of them inspired by Maestro David Gilmour's guitar solos and entitled Out Of The Blue. He is also a photographer for special coverage or work on board, in which he has been able to work exclusively with musicians such as STING, Audioslave, Kool and the Gang, Air Supply and Ojos de brujo, among many others.
IVAN SOCA IN REHEARSALS
From this page we thank Iván and his collaborators for their courage and audacity to show Pink Floyd's music in culturally inhospitable territories for it. One of our biggest surprises in recent years is that something unimaginable some time ago, that an exhibition of this category and magnitude could be held in places where this musical style is so little rooted. Thank you Iván, for being a pioneer in your land.
The exhibition coincides with the VI Leo Brouwer Chamber Music Festival, where Jordi Savall, one of the greatest performers today, has performed, for example.
Leo Brouwer is one of the most important Cuban musicians in the history of Cuban music.
You can view more photos of this wonderful exhibition through the page of Iván Soca and his collaborator Jorge Luís Borges.