Hamlet Lavastida Cuban, b. 1983

Hamlet Lavastida (b. 1983, Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban multidisciplinary artist whose practice interrogates the visual language of political power, ideology, and historical memory. Working across collage, installation, video, performance, and public intervention, Lavastida reconstructs and reappropriates symbols drawn from Cuban state propaganda, military iconography, and revolutionary rhetoric. Through his meticulous paper cut-outs and graphic interventions, he exposes the mechanisms of censorship, control, and myth-making embedded within Cuba’s political history, while simultaneously exploring broader questions surrounding design, historiography, and collective memory.

Educated at the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts and the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana, Lavastida emerged as one of the most significant voices of his generation within Cuba’s independent cultural scene. His artistic and political activities became closely tied to the 27N movement, a collective of artists and intellectuals advocating for freedom of expression in Cuba. Following his arrest and imprisonment by Cuban authorities in 2021 after returning from a residency in Berlin, Lavastida was released after sustained international pressure and subsequently forced into exile in Europe, where he is now based in Berlin.

Lavastida’s work has been exhibited internationally at major museums and institutions including Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, documenta fifteen, Wallach Art Gallery, Artium Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, and Łaźnia Centre for Contemporary Art. Widely recognised for merging art and activism, his practice continues to address the fragile relationship between memory, dissent, and systems of political representation.