Garal’s Aerial and Colonial Exhibitions Celebrated at Gallery of Art Foundation in Sancti Spiritus

The cultural institution hosts two exhibitions by journalist and photographer Raúl García (Garal), delegate of the Latin Press Correspondent here, and the XXV Salón de la Ciudad, with works by prominent audiovisual artists.

Juan Eduardo Bernal, president of the Sancti Spíritus branch of the José Martí Cultural Society, took the floor at the inauguration of the Garal exhibition entitled Sancti Spíritus from the sky, where some 10 large-format aerial snapshots are exhibited.

“These samples (…) result from the overflight of the city of Sancti Spiritus, which is celebrating its 509th anniversary and does not resign itself to offering signs of fainting, because it always expresses tangible evidence of the strength of memory,” Bernal explained.

Later, the prominent intellectual expressed that “Aerial photography, at the service of scientific and military interests, in this endeavor of Raúl García represents a different will because it invites a love date with the city.”

“In these works the city and its time stopped (…) the dimensions and profiles of another era, the multiplicity of tiles reddened by fire and darkened by time, which reinforce the colonial image of a city resistant to the course of the years” he added.

“From the height, the city surrenders (…) These photos are spontaneous offerings to an irreducible and loving space, which thanks the author, like us, for the irrepressible impulse of his vocation and singular attachment,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Roberto Vitlloch, director of the Office of the Conservator of the City of Sancti Spíritus, referred to Garal’s 60 years of profession and 80 years of life, to celebrate it next December, as well as his journalistic career and as a writer .

He recalled that this lens artist has been nominated on more than 14 occasions for the José Martí National Journalism Award for his life’s work and highlighted his photographic work in activities where the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro was present.

The other exhibition by Garal, also exhibited to the public in the aforementioned gallery, is entitled Remnants, in which details that characterize this old city, once the town of Espíritu Santo, stand out, such as the knockers, gates and colonial doors.

The inauguration of Sancti Spíritus from the sky, enlivened by the Vocal Imago group, was attended by, among others, Yariel Hernández, head of the Ideological Department of the Provincial Party Committee, and Humberto Concepción, president here of the Union of Cuban Journalists.

mem/mpg