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My name is José Fuster,
I live here in Jaimanitas,
here in my workshop studio, where I've lived for around 30 years.
When I moved here, my house was a small, wooden house.
Then I decided to start changing the surroundings, and that's when I started to build this dream.
I'd seen the work in Gueil park, I'd seen the work of Brancusi in Romania,
I'd seen many things, but I'd always seen it as something that was almost impossible.
But all dreams have to be created gradually and with patience, so they don't go wrong.
That's how I've been building my space and my dream.
This idea came through my own development, my own artistic development,
trying to improve and trying to create something more spectacular every day.
Because, that to me is art: always trying to raise the bar, to do more and more things,
so I wanted to make myself a studio, somewhere I could live among art.
Picasso is my spiritual father.
Because Picasso has more to see with us, since "malagueños", (people of Malaga),
that part of Spain is more related to the Caribbean.
I think it's an inspiration from a work perspective.
Not from the perspective of the subject, but rather from the way of doing something.
Picasso filled a very important era in art,
he had a lot of influence,
and since he died, since he transcended modernism, in this era of post modernity, of contemporary art,
I'm starting to take up Picasso's works again.
It's wonderful that Picasso
was a man who revolutionised painting so much, that he's been reborn inside me
and that I try to follow in his footsteps, pursuing subjects such as the joy of living,
the subjects of musicians,
those types of things are what I'm starting to get back into and keep going…
it's just like playing in the same orchestra as Gaudí, as Brancusi,
with all those greats taking part in my symphony.
They're all present, Picasso is my spiritua father
and Gaudí is my favourite uncle...
I say this because I take many good influences from art.
My family background is nothing extraordinary.
I'm from a very common family
and I've always placed myself in that environment, in an environment of very humble people.
I think that's why I am who I am,
and I try to represent that in my art, all those people, in harmony with my true roots.
This project, it's not only set in my house,
but it's a project that involves all of my neighbours,
a set of participative works which everyone gets involved in,
in which my neighbours are my partners.
Once your neighbours are extraordinary,
they're no longer common, regular people, when they are architects or engineers…
but, given the nature of Cuba as a country, they don't have money.
So I'm like a kind of person to whom life has given an ability, an ability to paint, to create pictures, and get money for it .
I don't see it as something that makes me better than my neighbours;
ask them what they want me to do with it.
I invest in it, it's my money that I put into the hands of the community,
using what I earn as an artist.
This started through a project proposed by the local assembly,
supported by the 'genius'… * we call him the genius,
for his support with the house.
From then on, it was great; an idea came out through the project,
and the house was built with a great deal of help from him.
We are truly very happy, I'm talking on behalf of both myself and all the neighbours,
because these works have really given us, have given our neighbourhood a really special touch,
and it's even helped us gain a little insight into the works of other artists too
My participation is popular and democratic.
I did what I've managed to do because every day there are more and more people who want me to do it…
I don't force anything upon anyone.
It makes me happy that they like what I do.
And I don't really agree with them, but some have also criticised me,
telling me it's like a song written to myself,
but, well, what can I do? That's life.