Cuban theatre looks in Ernest Rudin arts show

By: Adalys Pérez

Since almost twenty years ago, before drawing back the curtains of Camagüey Theatre Festival or that of Havana, Ernest Rudin (1955) has already left behind the inconveniences of so many flight hours separating us from Switzerland, the time difference.

This professor of the University of Fribourg, who became a photographer in his effort to document what had been happening in the Cuban stages when he worked in a project of the Swiss National Council of Research and Science between 1997 and 2000, has never ceased in his determination to update the unique bank of images he has conformed with respect and love.

However, in this occasion as in the last Camagüey Theater Festival, Rudin has brought not only his lens and cameras but also almost two hundred photos that will be exhibited at Raúl Oliva Staging Design Gallery, as part of the program of the 16th Havana International Theater Festival.

Acento en el ojo: miradas del teatro cubano (1977-2015) is the title of this exhibit in which some 160 images return the brief and irrepressible look of Cuban theater figures while playing certain characters.

So, among so many others, and from the color or black and white digital printing, we once again feel moved by the intensity of the look of the always remembered Miguel Navarro, the thousand times applauded Trinidad Rolando, the passionate Yaité Ruíz…

In his introductory words, the photographer expresses that, beyond the evident importance of the face in acting, his interest has always been to counteract the ephemeral character that grimace and the look have in a staging. 

However, his photos also reflect the make-up, costumes and even part of the scenography, so the Raúl Oliva gallery, specialized in staging design, will be the perfect place for presenting this proposal.

Rudin also advises about the limitations of photography to transmit the sounds, the words said at the moment of shooting. Then, he quoted Thomas Hardy: There are accents in the eye which are not on the tongue.

Source: Cubarte