MARIPOSA DORADA

MARIPOSA DORADA is a monumental light sculpture presented at the 13th Havana Biennial, drawing from the symbolic history of Cuba’s national flower to trace a transformation from natural form to cultural emblem. The installation situates light as a living presence, articulating continuity, change, and collective memory within the public realm.

• Conceived in dialogue with Cuba’s Flor de Mariposa, the work reflects how a botanical form evolved from an elegant blossom into a symbol associated with resistance and revolutionary history, carrying layered cultural meaning into a contemporary sculptural language.
• Installed through a collaboration with Detras del Muro, MARIPOSA DORADA became part of the Biennial’s “cultural corridor,” a citywide framework that encourages direct exchange between artists, local communities, and the urban environment.
• The sculpture’s custom lighting sequence produces an ever-shifting field of illumination, inviting viewers to experience the work from multiple vantage points as light continuously alters perception and spatial relationships.
• MARIPOSA DORADA embodies a meditation on balance, echoing the cyclical nature of history and the persistence of collective will in the face of contradiction.
• The project has been discussed in coverage of Grimanesa Amoros’s international public installations in Artforum and Artnexus (2019), situating the work within broader conversations on site-specific public art, light-based sculpture, and contemporary Cuban and Latin American art.