Il Y A D’autres Mondes …

The exhibition "Il Y A D’autres Mondes …" (There Are Other Worlds…) at Christian Berst, Paris, features the work of Damián Valdés Dilla. Dilla constructs cities and fantastical machines, often inspired by his neighborhood in Havana. His creations, built from discarded materials, serve as metaphorical means of escape and self-reconstruction, reflecting his experiences with paranoid schizophrenia and social isolation. These works are described as heterotopias, autonomous spaces governed by their own laws, where reality is reconfigured rather than fled.

Initially, Dilla built dense, vertical structures and transport devices from found objects. Later, his practice shifted to drawing, where he developed rigorous urban perspectives and dizzying cityscapes, sometimes disrupted by scenes of chaos. These metropolises are depicted as devoid of human presence, suggesting autonomous systems or spaces for projection. His art engages with the history of art by focusing on creation as a means to make the world, even an internal one, habitable.