Luz de Noviembre

Painted film using analog and artisanal processes on 35mm support / Digitized to 4K / 3.50 min. black and white, silent

Light of November was created in November of 2020, a month baptized in Cuba as ‘Black November’ due to the escalation of the Cuban regime’s repressive acts against its citizens. The work is dedicated to the strikers of the San Isidro Movement, to the victims of rape, repression and unjust sentences by the Cuban police, and to the protesters of November 27, 2020.

The film depicts a white flame on a black background, using a technique that achieves an effect opposite to that of the Chinese shadow.  Here, the shape of the flame is transparent, and light is projected through the opening that pierces the surrounding dark material. This short film was conceived as part of a larger scene depicting a vision by Alonso de Salazar, the Spanish Inquisitor (aka ‘the Witches’ Advocate’), in which he is seen sitting at his desk burning in the same fire that consumed his victims. During this process, Alonso de Salazar was impregnated with ideas of ​​freedom. The flame, and the idea of ​​humanity that embodies the scene of the inquisitor, is transformed in context by the events in Cuba into the expression of the freedom of a citizenry.

Lester Alvarez Meno (b. 1984, Camagüey, Cuba) graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana (ISA) in 2011. Since then, he develops art works, organizes and produces cultural events in various media, and engages in collaborations with people and spaces at the margins. He is the creator of the independent publishing house La Maleza, a project for which he received the ‘Estudio 21 Scholarship’ from the Center for the Development of the Visual Arts in Havana (CDAV) in 2017, and the ‘Vita Activa’ residency in 2019 from the Hannah Arendt International Institute of Artivism (INSTAR). In 2018, Alvarez Meno won the Artistic Practices Residency from the exchange program, Artista x Artista, between Havana, Cuba and Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao, which concluded with an exhibition in Azkuna Zentroa from 2019-2020. Since 2019, Alvarez Meno has been developing a video series called SIN349, about the young artistic and cultural scene that resisted the implementation of Decree 349, a law regulating freedom of expression in Cuba since 2018. This series received the Next Generation grant from the Prince Claus Fund in 2019. Alvarez Meno is currently developing his first feature-length film project following his graduation from the Master in Cinematographic and Audiovisual Archives at the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, in Tabakalera, San Sebastián. Recently, his 16mm painted film, Uhina, was exhibited at Tabakalera, San Sebastian; MUTA, International Festival of Audiovisual Appropriation in Peru; Festival Living Away, New York; and Granada Film Fest. Alvarez Meno is a current resident at the Film Academy of Spain in Madrid.

Artist A4