PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The Veve of Afa is a community development project that entails the integration of cultural significant religious symbolism and ecological restoration on the landscape. The Cuban government has granted the designation of protected area under the Ministry of Culture for this project. It involves housing, recreational and educational facilities along with the ecological restoration of more than 70 hectares of land along the confluence of two rivers.
The group involved in this endeavor is Grupo Experimental Taller Ennegro. They are an artistic group, part of the Hermanos Saiz, an organization under the Cuban Ministry of Culture that promotes young artists in the avant garde movement of the arts in the island. Grupo Experimental Taller Ennegro's main emphasis is to create installations of art using nature as the guiding principle. Their art is associated with their animistic religious beliefs since they are practitioners of the Voodoo religion in that part of Cuba. As a group, their connection to Haiti is extremely important since their predecesors came to Cuba from the time of the Haitian Revolution, establishing a longstanding connection between both countries. The Veve of Afa is their community project that will help bring a livelihood and economic development to the city of Palma Soriano while at the same time promoting the cultural and religious aspects of their ethnic background.
The drawings on this slide show are part of the thesis project of Maria Ayub for a Master in Landscape Architecture at Florida International University, School Of Architecture, Miami, Florida. They are all proposed features for the restored natural area of the project which takes its inspiration from the sacred groves of Africa, mainly the Sacred Grove of Osun in Osogbo, Nigeria. Grupo Experimental Taller Ennegro has support from the Berkeley-Palma Soriano Sister City Association and from those who have visited the project for research purposes and cultural exchange.
