| The Morro Fortress in Havana is one of the most emblematic of Cuban fortresses. It is also one of the most internationally known images of Havana; it has become a symbol. Built between 1589 and 1630 it served as a defense against pirates and invaders. People go now to see the sunset and dream of old voyages. Che Guevara killed many of Batista’s followers there, and the fortress served as his headquarters at some point. |  |
Mariana Bunimov
The Morro Fortress in Havana is one of the most emblematic of Cuban fortresses. It is also one of the most internationally known images of Havana; it has become a symbol. Built between 1589 and 1630 it served as a defense against pirates and invaders. People go now to see the sunset and dream of old voyages. Che Guevara killed many of Batista’s followers there, and the fortress served as his headquarters at some point. Following some edible projects, including HLM en Chocolat in 2005, La Pharmacie, Sierre, Switzerland, and Qta Alpina in 2008, Periferico Caracas, Venezuela and Chocolate Shack in Gwaungju, Korea 2008, Caviar Fortress is a scale copy of the Morro made in caviar’s aspic (molded ingredients in a unique gelatin piece it is usually seen in cuisine almost as a jewelry piece). The visitors of a show called Punto de Encuentro held at the Convento de San Francisco de Asis in Havana in March 2008 devoured it. It contained a bit more than 300 grams of beluga caviar.
Dystopia as the capacity man has to turn great things into great disasters is one of the main ideas of the piece. There is a utopic or romantic character to the fortress since it defended the city from attacks, and although there is a war character to it, people used to feel proud of it. The Morro is the most advanced earth point into the sea in Havana. Today it is an observatory to the impossible, its role reverted. The main ideas of the piece are the food democratization (seen with a lot of irony), the corruption of the powerful, the relations between Russia, Venezuela, and Cuba, consumption of taboos, all these contrasting within a scarce ambiance and forged luxury.
Caviar is a very expensive “food.” It is the maximum representation of luxury, and it is opposed to the ethos of austerity and equality of the proletariat. The Morro Fortress is a place where we can perceive the contradiction between memory and present, between permanence and diaspora. A fortress made out of aspic is the contrary of something made to last or protect. It is a metaphor of the weakness of a symbol that has lost its transcendent meaning in an ideological and physical sense.
Like the other edible pieces, Caviar Fortress is a dystopia. Eating it is an ephemeral act that generates an effect that is cathartic (if it is eaten consciously), playful (if it is eaten innocently), and ironical (if eaten while understanding what it means within the Cuban context).
