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The heritage seen by Larramendi
18November
News

The heritage seen by Larramendi

The Palace of Lombillo -Plaza de la Catedral, Old Havana- hosts these days the exhibition Cuban Heritage Cities, by photographer Julio Larramendi, an artist's tribute to the tenth anniversary of the Network of Offices of the Historian and the Curator of Heritage Cities of Cuba, which, according to the Historian of the City of Havana, Eusebio Leal Spengler, who presided over the inauguration of the exhibition, emerged with the objective of «working more and more together the Offices of the Historian and the Curator who work with great commitment in our country. It was necessary, vital, to create the conditions for this idea to come alive. Learning from ourselves, exchanging our experiences was a fundamental premise. We were sure that each of them would be greatly enriched by the fertile exchanges ».

The artist of the lens had words of praise for the work carried out by these offices, and praised those of Matanzas and Cienfuegos. The first of these villas recently celebrated its three hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary with an arduous task of restoring buildings and social spaces. The second is ready to commemorate, in April 2019, his two hundredth birthday, and also rejuvenates.

«We put between three and five photographs of each of the cities and we managed to do a wise curation with resources based on quality: printing, catalogs, banners ... We celebrate in a dignified manner not only the tenth anniversary of the Network, but the extraordinary effort that historians and conservatives, and especially the people of each of these cities make to look as they were at the time», said Larramendi.

The president of the National Council of Cultural Heritage, Gladys Collazo, mentions in the catalog of the sample the different actions that the Cuban State has undertaken for more than forty years in order to create an awareness of the value of these cities for the culture of the nation, and the contribution of exhibitions like this one to the efforts in the matter of patrimonial conservation. «This exhibition -says- gathers diverse images of these cities, of their present, of the actions that are carried out for the conservation of their urban aspect; It is a testimony of the functional adaptation of the spaces to modern life and the improvement of the living conditions of the inhabitants. These images also show that the conservation of cities, and particularly of their historic center, is part of the general policy of protecting the heritage of our country».

Julio Larramendi (Santiago de Cuba, 1954) is a graduate of the Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry from the University of Havana in 1980, and obtained his Ph.D. in Technical Sciences. He was founder and first director of the Chair of Latin American Photography of the International Institute of Journalism of Havana and directed the magazine Afro-Asia International Markets. He has given conferences and workshops in Cuba and other countries of the world, and his photographs have been exhibited in countries such as France, Spain, the United States, Argentina, Italy and Mexico. Cuban Heritage Cities is another step of the artist in the work he has been doing for several years based on the relationship between architecture and landscape, in tune with the work of a decade of the Network of Offices of the Historian and the Conservator of the Patrimonial Cities of Cuba. As Leal says, «each city, beautiful and singular, constitutes the pride of the nation, and this is confirmed by the eloquent images of Julio Larramendi, who has the privilege of piercing with sharp eyes the stone walls, listening to the song of the creatures of the mount and imbricate architecture and landscape in a fertile dialogue».