Energy Devourers Monsters
The project Manual de Instrucciones / Monstruos Devoradores de Energía utilizes old refrigerators as the foundation on which to create large art pieces as a form of customization in which old appliances are re-purposed and given meaning as symbols of Cuban cultural heritage. This method of art was highlighted in the Cuban based project, "Monster-Devouring Machines." A total of 55 artists created 50 of these refrigerators. The exhibit was initiated in 2006 and has traveled to a number of locations around the world.
Curator Mario González (Mayito) came up with this idea one day when he and painter Roberto Fabelo started to dab paint on the door of an old 1950s American fridge. Soon, other artists joined in the initiative of recycling household electric products that had been discontinued because of the Energy Revolution's anti-waste offensive. When the decorated fridges didn't fit into Mayito's house and garden any more, they moved to the convent of Santa Clara.
The fridge exhibition was first called Instruction manual. Jorge Luis Montesinos, exhibition curator and creator of one of the fridges, considers them to be key industrial objects converted into works of art by the ingenuity of national artists and so become icons not only of Cuba's history but also its cultural and anthropological past.
This exhibition demonstrated that concept art is still very popular. The 50 fridges not only took the CENCREM (Centro Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Musicología) by storm but was loved by all those who visited the biennale (27 March-27 April 2006). They were the sensation of the year. Even children loved them and we know children are never wrong.
Text taken from havana-cultura.com
