Image: El Apartamento, La Habana
Lázaro A. Saavedra’s ‘La forma del error. Entre lo tallado, lo transmitido y lo registrado’ runs at El Apartamento in Havana from 21 May to 9 October 2026. The exhibition is organised around the hypothesis that no image is isolated, describing apparently autonomous forms as results of repetitions and variations that cease to be perceived once they have stabilised.
The exhibition’s text defines the archive as a condition of relation that can make visible the processes through which images are constituted, rather than as a repository of images. It describes the series as revealing the relational and historically constructed character of images that may otherwise appear to be closed units.
Saavedra’s ‘Epitafios’ paintings simulate marble and present text as if it had been carved. The exhibition text describes the inscription as an effect that is constructed, while statements marked by humour and irony alter the works’ funerary solemnity. Works from the series include a 2024–25 oil-on-canvas work measuring 120 × 150 cm; a 2025 work made with oil on canvas, a gilded moulding, and a wall-mounted vase with flowers, measuring 98 × 138 cm; and 2025–26 works with pink and olive-green mouldings, each measuring 98 × 138 cm.
The Tarot series concentrates on iconographic details that vary between versions. In the Knight of Wands, the horse’s hooves appear and disappear; an ear can fade into the rider’s chest; and the rider’s shoulder can be confused with the animal’s mane. In the fifteenth arcana, the attribute held by the Devil shifts between forms including a pitchfork, a two-pronged hook, rabbit ears, a torch and a sword blade. ‘Variación del caballo de bastos I (Cascos)’ (2022–24) is listed as an installation measuring 200 × 560 cm.
‘Visibilizando el archivo’ (2022–24), a video projection and text in an edition of three, uses images linked by dissolves. The exhibition text describes the projection as a temporal extension of the question posed by the Tarot paintings. ‘Registro de variaciones del atributo del Diablo’ (2020–26) is also included as an installation with variable dimensions.
In ‘El síndrome del miembro fantasma o La anatomía de una convalecencia’ (2025–26), a prepared canvas has been sawn into two fragments. The work is framed with a minimal moulding, while charcoal drawing made directly on the wall substitutes for the absent portion. One fragment’s drawing approaches the lost rectangular form, while the other shifts toward a more organic and unstable shape. Made with canvas, stretcher, moulding and charcoal, the installation measures 86 × 203 cm.
‘Yo no soy abstracto’ (2025–26) is made with a Zebra G Titanium (Ishikawa) nib on canvas and measures 120 × 80 cm. The exhibition also includes ‘Conjunto de dibujos a plumilla’ (2024), comprising nib drawings on Claire Fontaine 250 g card and Canson Bristol Smooth 260 g card, in formats including 21 × 29.7 cm, 30.5 × 22.9 cm and 21 × 14.8 cm.
‘Registrar produce forma’ (2009–25) is an installation measuring 200 × 560 cm, made with colour tests on canvas, nib-test sheets and nib points.
