A tribute to John Baldessari, in recognition of his influence on Raúl Cordero––especially in his way of conceiving art––this work is a commentary on the censorship in Cuba and the effect it had on the artist’s practice. In Cordero’s typography, the forceful statement “You Know Who You Are, And You Know What You Want” can be read in the piece. These were words Baldessari used to address Cordero after reviewing his work and after realizing that Cordero, as a young student, had seen Baldessari’s work in a stolen library book that had been destined for scrutiny and censorship. The Baldessari monograph was written by Coosje van Bruggen, a reference that has accompanied Cordero ever since. The news of Baldessari´s death reached Cordero when he began this piece, so he decided to immortalize the late artist’s phrase; this phrase, in part, also forms the title of the present exhibition. The work exhibits a manipulated version of a photograph in which yoga practitioners stand equidistantly and mentally self-absorbed, suggestive of the times of COVID-19, the period in which this work was made.

A graduate of the Instituto Superior de Diseño in 1994, Cordero is also a Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten graduate. His work––characterized by juxtaposing images and texts––investigates visuality and information in the contemporary world.