Archipelago in my thoughts is one of the central works presented in the exhibition The Infinite Column, curated by Alicia Chillida at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.
The monumental installation develops a sculptural language based on vertical accumulation. Kcho constructs an ascending structure composed of simple elements whose repetition generates a powerful sense of monumentality and symbolic expansion.
In this work, precarious boats—assembled from fragments of wood, ropes, found objects and remnants linked to the maritime world—become the central metaphor of the installation. Suspended and articulated within a vertical structure, the boats transform into part of a sculptural “archipelago” that evokes the condition of insularity defining both the geography and the emotional experience of Cuba.
Water, even when physically absent, remains a constant conceptual element in the work. For Kcho, the sea represents both connection and separation: the natural frontier that shapes life on the island and at the same time becomes a horizon of nostalgia, memory, and migration.
Throughout his practice, the artist frequently uses materials collected during his walks along the Cuban coastline or through the streets of Havana: pieces of wood, rope, glass, clothing and fragments of small vessels. These objects, marked by use and the passage of time, are reassembled through artisanal processes that establish a connection between art, landscape and popular culture.
Born on the Isle of Youth, south of the main island of Cuba, Kcho has developed a body of work deeply shaped by a double condition of insularity. His sculptures evoke maritime journeys and improvised vessels that, however, rarely reach their destination. In this sense, his stranded boats become metaphors for the impossibility of escaping memory, origin and identity.
In Archipelago in my thoughts, the vessel emerges vertically as if attempting to transcend its own condition. The structure thus becomes both a monument and a fragile architecture: an impossible navigation through memory, displacement and belonging.
Exhibited at
Sixth Havana Biennial, Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro, Havana, Cuba, 1997.
Serie Americana. I Kcho, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France, 1998.
Encuentros. Kcho and Nauman, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, United States, 1999.
La Columna Infinita, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Palacio de Cristal, 2000.
En ningún lugar como en casa, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Cuba, Havana, Cuba, 2020–2021.
