Kcho

Kcho (Alexis Leyva Machado) was born on Cuba’s Isla de la Juventud in 1969, and lives and works in Havana.

Kcho quickly joined the international circuit of institutions and galleries, winning prizes at the Havana Biennial in 1991 and the Kwangju Biennial in South Korea in 1995. In 2000, he represented Cuba at the Venice Biennale. Being twice an islander is not insignificant: the theme of isolation and the pressing need to communicate with the rest of the world permeates all his work, which remains attached to Cuban traditions and culture, with the boat and everyday objects as its main elements. Derived from oars and combining boat hulls, canoes, tables, and a number of heterogeneous objects, the works produced during his stay in Saché are animated, suspended in the air… The homage to Calder’s mobiles is obvious, as Kcho himself admits: “Calder’s mobiles were the first works I studied at the Havana School of Fine Arts.”

During his stay in Saché, Kcho created a column of boats, which was later presented on the Champs-Élysées in Paris as part of “Champs de la sculpture” in September 2000.