FELIPE DULZAIDES

From Havana, Cuba, ARCANE Space is pleased to present Balance in Place, works by Felipe Dulzaides.

“Free will Free will is the philosophical term for the capacity of humans to make choices independently of deterministic constraints. This series of "interventions" in Cuban food rations cards is a subversive gesture. I am interested in create within the limitations. Balance in Place 2026 is part of a body work where I use found circles to stage a piece about fragility and precariousness. En Sus Manos 2017 is a series of photographs that function as a testimony of the hands and flutes of the "amoladores" knive sharpeners of Havana. Habanera 2026 is a description of the city today, a city that is rundown and full of blue water tanks on the roof of the houses and buildings. Pentagrama is the music notation of the music that knive sharpeners play. The screen prints of the flutes pay homage to rich cuban screen print tradition after the revolution. Lorica de calle 2017. I followed the knive sharpeners of Havana recording their sounds and where about. At the end of the video we staged an "improvise music session" that combined two skilled jazz musicians with the knife sharpeners. I was interested in the dialogue of specialize performers and street workers.” - Felipe Dulzaides
________________________________________________

Through photography, drawing, video, and sound, Dulzaides documents los amoladores—the knife and scissor sharpeners who ride through Havana’s neighborhoods on specialized bicycles in search of work. Each vendor announces his presence with a distinctive whistle, often passed down through generations. Worn from years of use, these simple plastic whistles bear the marks of the hands and mouths of family members who used them before, becoming small but precious carriers of family memory and song.

Approaching the subject like an urban bioacoustician, Dulzaides photographs the whistles, records their songs, and films the vendors at work. In one of the project’s most unexpected gestures, he invited two of Cuba’s most important jazz musicians to join the vendors in the neighborhood for an improvised jam. Their sounds—and the sounds of the sharpeners—will fill the gallery.

Often beginning with modest gestures and ordinary materials, Dulzaides transforms them through observation, improvisation, and attention to place. Balance in Place considers balance not only as a physical condition, but as a way of navigating memory, architecture, displacement, and change. Combining photography, drawing, video, performance, sculpture, and sound, the exhibition moves between the everyday and the poetic, exploring chance, circularity, cultural displacement, and the relationship between public space and memory.

BIO: Born in Havana into a family of musicians and poets, Dulzaides studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he met artist David Ireland and was deeply influenced by Ireland’s approach to architecture, materials, and lived space. His practice has developed across Cuba, the United States, and Europe, encompassing installation, photography, video, performance, public intervention, drawing, and sound.

Dulzaides has exhibited internationally, including at the Gwangju Biennial, California Biennial, and the 10th and 12th Havana Biennials. He is a recipient of the Cintas Fellowship, Creative Work Fund, Art Matters grants, and the Rome Prize, which he received in 2010.