Kcho exhibits for the third time at the Vatican

The Cuban painterAlexis Leyva (Kcho) returned to the Palazzo della Cancellería delVatican, where the exhibition opened this SaturdayA New World, inspired by the call made by thePope Francisco at the end of June in front of 200 international artists.

“Human beings long for a new world that we will not fully see with our own eyes, but we desire it, we seek it, we dream it,” said the Supreme Pontiff on June 23.

Present among the 200 guests of the Pope, Kcho found in those words the title for his latest exhibition, which will remain open to the public in one of the halls of the majestic building until November 26.

Sponsored by the Cuban Embassy to the Holy See and the Vatican Dicastery of Culture and Education, the exhibition is the fruit “of a commitment that fits into the path it has traced over time, where it has left important seeds,” according toLatin Press.

In statements to the official agency, Kcho considered that "Pope Francis' message was powerful, illuminating and very necessary, with a very positive influence in the face of the many problems of war, hunger and lack of humanity that affect the world today."

Become ambassador of the official culture of the Cuban regime before the Holy See, this is Kcho's third exhibition in the Vatican, after the one held in May 2014 (Way of the Cross) and the one inaugurated in October 2018 (Resurrection).

To these samples, we should add the workMiracle, which the Supreme Pontiff received from the then rulerRaul Castro during his visit to Cuba in September 2015, at whose delivery ceremony the controversial artist was present: A crucified Jesus Christ on oars that ignited the debate about the inappropriateness of the gift.

Known for its proximity toFidel Castro In the last stage of the dictator's life, Kcho became his fetish artist anda personality in the politics of the totalitarian regime, to the point of occupying a seat in the National Assembly of People's Power.

However,scandals who associated him with child abuse, sexist violence, drug addiction and late payment with the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA), ended up removing him from the centers of power of the regime, even spending a period of time in a medical retreat to treat his alleged addiction. to hard drugs.

“I have always believed that God taught Kcho to paint so that he could communicate with the rest of the world, without having to resort to that kind of dialect into which passion and haste turn his words,” he said inJuly 2014 the official journalist and current press chief of the Palace of the Revolution,Arleen Rodríguez Derivet.

The communists believing in God and the sinners doing their thing at home: this is how Cuba "advances" at the hands of the so-called "continuity", determined to represent the sovereign - the Cuban people - through such interposed people.