Elaboración de cuarenta piezas rectangulares para la construcción de un piso

Adrian Melis reflects on the limitations and contradictions of the system of socialist production in Cuba, his country of origin. His installations and video projections address unproductivity, deficient labour structures and poor work performance. The artist contrasts this system with other production models to highlight the differences between one socio-political sphere and another.

Due to the shortage of building materials, Cuban workers in the State construction industry spend their time doing nothing and waiting for their working day to end. ‘Taking advantage of this paralysed time, I was interested in bringing the factory back to life by generating a new form of activity, a virtual and apparent one in this case,’ says the artist. Melis asked the workers to reproduce gutturally the usual sounds of a normal working day. From eight in the morning to five o’clock in the evening, workers imitated the sounds that can be heard when the company is producing the type of rectangular pieces that are used to build floors. Elaboración de cuarenta piezas rectangulares para la construcción de un piso (Elaboration of forty rectangular pieces for the construction of a floor), 2008, consists of a video recording of this production activity. While the workers cannot be seen, we hear the sounds of a cement mixer, the shovels, the lorries, the barrows and other habitual sounds of the construction industry.