Juan Roberto Diago Cuba, b. 1971
Barrio Adentro, 2009-2024
Reclaimed Raw Materials from Cuba
Dimensions variable, 36 small houses, 4 medium houses, 2 large houses, 3 extra large houses, 1 wooden sculpture (60 cm), 2 wooden heads, 5 boxes, Iron cauldrons
Unique
Further images
Juan Roberto Diago's 'Barrio Adentro' constructs an autonomous micro-neighborhood entirely from the reclaimed detritus of Havana—raw wood, rusted metal, salvaged fabric, discarded boxes, and iron cauldrons—transmuting the city's material refuse...
Juan Roberto Diago's "Barrio Adentro" constructs an autonomous micro-neighborhood entirely from the reclaimed detritus of Havana—raw wood, rusted metal, salvaged fabric, discarded boxes, and iron cauldrons—transmuting the city's material refuse into a self-sustaining urban organism that asserts the inner life of Cuba's marginal barrios as a site of unassailable cultural sovereignty. These makeshift dwellings, assembled with the same resourceful urgency as the informal settlements they mirror, function as living altars: the iron cauldrons serve as charged nkisi vessels holding ancestral force, the wooden heads act as vigilant oracular presences, and the layered, weathered surfaces embody the stratified histories of scarcity, displacement, and survival. Conceptually, the installation declares that the true barrio exists within—Barrio Adentro—as a defiant, self-contained cosmos where discarded materials become durable architecture, the profane is elevated to the ritual, and the wounds of diaspora, slavery, and revolutionary neglect are reconfigured into an enduring structure of resistance and spiritual autonomy.
Exhibitions
Disclaimer: Barrio Adentro is a large-format work assembled by Juan Roberto Diago from multiple individual works and installation elements created and exhibited over time. The exhibition history listed below refers to the individual component works and/or prior installations before they were grouped together by the artist into the present unified large-scale work, El Barrio Adentro.“Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art" exhibit, the Brooklyn Museum, Aug. 31st, 2007 to Jan. 27th, 2008.
Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present — Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA). February – May 2017.
“Permanent History,” Artes de Cuba: From the Island to the World, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., May 9–20, 2018.
"Juan Roberto Diago: 20 Years of Creation". Cernuda Art. Nov 2019 - January 2020.
"Roberto Diago. La oscuridad fue el principio". Artizar Gallery. Centro de Arte Juan Ismael · Fuerteventura · España. July - Sept 2023 / Casa de América · Madrid · España. Oct 11 - Dic 2023.
"Diago: An Art for All Time," Clément Foundation, Le François, Martinique, March 10–May 2, 2023.
"Luces en la sombre. Juan Roberto Diago. El Apartamento Gallery. Nov 2024 - March 2025. Havana, Cuba.
"The Armory Show, Roberto Diago" 5 - 7 Sept, 2025. New York City, USA
"Twenty-One Distinguished Artists of The 21st Century" Cernuda Art. Mar 2025
Literature
“Queloides: Race and Racism in Cuban Contemporary Art,” by Alejandro de la Fuente, 2010 : page 103 (illustrated). - (Small format houses)"Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present". By Alejandro de la Fuente. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2017 - pages 116, 102, 103, - This book was published to accompany his exhibition at that institution. (Small format houses)
“Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art" pages 108 & 109 - This book was published to accompany his exhibition at that institution. (Medium, Large and X-Large format houses)