Havana, a solo show by Leandro Feal, is focused on a photographic series that documents life surrounding the Roma bar, exploring Cuban counteculture.
Why the Roma bar? Because it is one of the few private meeting places in Cuba that has become known as a counterculture haven,a site where the Cuban artistic avant-garde assembles, a place known to international artists, celebrities and local intellectuals. Roma has been elected as the establishment where local culture, with all its political and economic undertones, can confront itself wtith cosmopolitan new ideas.
Places like Studio 54, or Andy Warhol’s Factory, or the Factory from the rave scene in Manchester, or the cafe Lhemitz from the photos by André Petersen, or the mythical bars of the Movida Madrileña are proof of the importance of this kind of sites in the process of gestation and expansion towards new cultural sensitivities.
Parasol Unit hosted a screening of the artist video work "Hotel Roma", followed by an in-conversation with Leandro Feal, Andreas Siegfried, and Parasol Unit director Ziba Ardalan.