James c kent

Staging Havana: The Buena Vista Social Club Project Beyond the Global City: Visual, Verbal and Virtual Experiences

A Two-Day Colloquium [May 2011]

James Clifford Kent

Hispanic Studies: School of Modern Languages, Literatures & Cultures

Royal Holloway: University of London

[email protected]

jckent.com

Buena Vista Social Club (1999) – film still

In an old movie palace called ‘America’

in old Havana there was a giant mosaic

on the floor of the foyer, hidden under a

layer of dust like everything here. It

showed a large-scale map of North and

South America. In the middle, nestling in

the big bay between the two half-

continents, like a baby between its

parents, or like a seed in the ground, lay

Cuba. Havana was the centre of

gravitation in this map.

-!Wim Wenders

‘Picture Cuba’ in Buena Vista Social

Club: the companion book to the film

(London: Thames & Hudson, 2000)

Buena Vista Social Club –

Buena Vista Social Club (the

recording – album cover)

Buena Vista Social Club – film still

Havana – Google Maps


Buena Vista Social Club – DVD cover

Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social

Club (the recording – album cover)

Buena Vista Social Club and

iconicity :: What’s in an album cover?

Wim Wenders & Compay Segundo - from Buena Vista Social Club –

The Companion Text

Documentary footage of Havana #1 :: the

observational mode

Buena Vista Social Club – film stills


The tourist gaze ::

“I came on down to Havana.”

Buena Vista Social Club

(dir. Wenders, 1999) – film still

Kings of the Road

(dir. Wenders, 1976) –

film stills



(dir. Wenders, 1999) – film stills

Documentary footage of Havana #2 :: the

performative mode

Photograph of Pio Leyva from Buena Vista Social Club –

The Companion Text

Groucho Marx


Felix the Cat

Theolonius Monk

Staging the everyday Havana :: Pío Leyva

& the dominó scene

Buena Vista Social Club (dir. Wenders, 1999)

(Non-)transitional spaces ::

“My days of passing the hat are over.”

Tokyo Story

(dir. Ozu,

1953)

Paris, Texas

(dir. Wenders, 1984)

Tokyo-Ga (dir. Wenders, 1985)


(dir. Wenders, 1999) – film still

Buena Vista Social Club (dir. Wenders, 1999) – film still

Buena Vista Social Club – film stills


(1999) – film still





Early Sunday Morning

(1930) – Edward Hopper

Office in a Small City

(1953) – Edward Hopper

Gas (1940) –

Edward Hopper

Buena Vista Social Club – album cover




Buena Vista Social

Club – film stills


Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall – Buena Vista Social Club

(album cover - front)

Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall –Buena Vista Social Club

(album cover - back)

Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall – Buena

Vista Social Club

(album sleeve) Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social Club

(album sleeve)

Travel

James c kent