Havana Celebrates a Day Dedicated to Ancient Egyptian Culture

A day dedicated to the fascinating culture of ancient Egypt was enjoyed by many people who gathered this Sunday afternoon, January 29, at the Joseíto Fernández Cultural House in Centro Habana, Havana.

Dedicated to the anniversary of the creation of the National Council of Cultural Houses and to Villanueva Day of Cuban Theater, the event featured the play The Secrets of Cleopatra, performed by the Gente Buena theater group, directed by Flor Amalia Lugo, which presents in a stylized way the conflict between the last Egyptian queen and the Roman Empire.

Afterwards, the Egyptologist Alejandro Jiménez gave an interesting lecture on the millennial history and culture of the North African country, which was received very well by the audience.

Finally, the exhibition Ode to Egypt was shown, with works that refer to the land bathed by the Nile, composed of several paintings by the visual artist Gisachy Saura Huet and several works by Professor Juan Heredia Martínez, most of them painted on stones rounded by the action of the river’s current.

Gisachy, a visual arts teacher at the Municipal Culture Authority (DMC in Spanish) of Centro Habana, is the creator of his pictorial style, which is based on the geometric fragmentation of figures and the rupture of planes. A style that draws from the sources of Cubism, Constructivism and Futurism.

Although his primary training as a painter was empirical, he has taken courses in Artistic Scenography, offered by Cuban Television; Cinematographic Animation, offered by the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (Icaic); and Illustration and Cartooning, offered by the Union of Cuban Journalists (Upec in Spanish). He is also currently working in the dramatic arts.

Professor Juan Heredia is a theater instructor at the DMC; he has a degree in design and has worked as a set designer for television, theater and cabaret, as well as a professor of plastic arts at the San Alejandro Academy, the Graphic Experimentation Center and the ICRT Study Center, and as a book illustrator.

The ancient Egyptian civilization exerts a strong influence on people because of its characteristic culture and religion, its scientific development and its mysteries. Cubans are not immune to this fascination, to the point that there is a group of researchers in Cuba who are experts in subjects related to this civilization.