From a conceptual approach, Wilfredo Prieto investigates the poetics of the object in everyday life and how they function. With lyricism, the artist adopts a minimal aesthetic to develop concepts or meanings about inconsequential things. In Papel Periódico, a work of which he has made several versions, the artist proposes an ironic reading that ranges from the political to the absurd. This artwork refers to the widespread practice among Cubans of using the official periodical publication of the Communist Party as toilet paper as a strategy to deal with the contingencies and shortcomings of their immediate reality. With a sacralizing and irreverent gesture, Prieto subverts national symbols. He attacks official discourse conventions, claiming Cubans’ appropriation, recycling, and inventiveness to alleviate the crisis’ aridity. Papel Periódico becomes a metaphor referring to the precarious material culture of the island and its obsolete political system.


A graduate of the Instituto Superior de Arte in 2002, Prieto has a vast body of work in installations, sculptures, objects, interventions, performances, and drawings.