During the period of my formation as an artist, I only got to know and study European or American artists. This constituted a distortion that would have a significant impact on my general outlook on art and artists. But eventually, I began to know and study different artists, mostly from Latin America, and suddenly my whole understanding of the Art World changed. Now it seemed clear to me that the artists that were the most visible, and thus the ones “available” to me through books and specialized publications, belonged 100% to wealthy nations. Where was Helio Oiticica during my school years in Costa Rica? Or Eugenio Dittborn, Victor Grippo, Lygia Clark, and so many others?
So, for the Fifth Havana Biennial in 1994, I decided to use a satirical concept which I would name “watch dogs” (German shepherds) after some of my former art heroes: Pablo (Picasso), Andy (Warhol), Joseph (Beuys) Marcel (Duchamp), Umberto (Boccioni) and Henry (Moore). The images of these dogs would be mounted on fake, photographed gilded frames. They would be watching over 300 fake foam bones, similar to those found in pet shops made out of pig hide. The fake bones are a metaphor for a relatively important treasure: the art produced in the West in the XX century.
