“Bonche” is a public intervention in the one of the most popular bus routes in Havana-the P4. With transportation being one of the key problems in Cuba the “guaguas”, buses, are notoriously crowded, uncomfortable and unreliable. They are spaces that belong to everyday life where various elements of a society converge creating a roaming microcosm. However, the strange intimacy created by bodies being pressed together reminded me of another public space-one of a party, concert or carnival. I was attracted to the hedonism inherent in “una fiesta” and the contrast that it provokes in a society characterized by enduring hardship.

The title “Bonche” is a colloquialism that describes a type of reggaéton party that is becoming increasingly more popular among young people. Due to the lack of nightspots in Cuban pesos, “bonches” emerge as an alternative for young people to escape, relax and to claim a space in the city. Reggaéton, a music full of sex, violence, rage, love, hope and intolerance, encapsulates the spirit of this generation and is in effect the music of choice for “los bonches”. The character and irony of these unsanctioned public gatherings interested me and I wanted to recreate this type of experience in the P4 by converting it into a space of revelry. I was interested not only in appropriating the space of the bus, but in a similar way that Duchamp and the Dadaists used appropriation to recontextualize everyday objects and contest the art institution, I too was interested in questioning these boundaries of what is art by re-contextualizing everyday gestures.

The piece took place with the collusion of the bus driver and the conductor who assisted in installing the lights beforehand. Upon entering passengers were to be treated as invited guests and offered rum and coke. As expected, there were many unexpected things that happened including: the original bus with preinstalled colored lights breaking down; its replacement running out of gas; a group of “rockeros” taking over one of the boom-boxes creating their party within a party (rock vs reggaéton) ; and the driver being so enthused with the project that he took the bus off route while honking to the music. Although the bus continued functioning by picking up and dropping of passengers, the environment was transformed as such that it wasn’t really a “guagua” anymore. It began something else, something more ambiguous and at the same time liberating to be able to relate to space of the quotidian in a completely different way. Evidenced by the final photograph taken on top of the bus in the wee hours of the morning by none other than the driver himself, Bonche
was a reclaiming and transformation of a public space.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 2:19 pm and is filed under LaVaughn Belle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.