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Centrale presents Gao, a photo and video installation by Làzara Rosell Albear (09.10.2025 > 22.02.2026).
Làzara Rosell Albear (1971, Havana) lives and works in Brussels. She obtained an M.A. in audiovisual art from K.A.S.K. in Ghent. Her films and audiovisual creations have been projected in numerous festivals. She explores movement, migration, transformation, interactivity and its effects on the human condition. Her transdisciplinary projects range from performances to concerts, choreographies, films and installations exploring the experience of presence and the senses through interactivity with spectators. She mixes traditional techniques with the possibilities offered by digital tools and by 3D. For her installation at Centrale, Làzara Rosell Albear continues her work on Cuba, her native island. She focuses more specifically on the neighbourhood surrounding the house where she grew up (Gao means house or home in Cuban slang). The installation, created from recycled materials, incorporates photographs and videos and will be accompanied by a series of performances.
“I no longer want to be a witness. And I do not want you to be just a spectator. This is a testimony I want you to experience. Like kids banging on pots when they are hungry, I welcome you to hit the sonic elements of the sculptural installation which will unchain/activate/set off a specific multi-sensorial trajectory. The island and its inhabitants will, sooner rather than later, drown in garbage mountains piled all over the city, invaded by disease and hunger than by the rising sea levels, if no one takes action. By unlearning, some have become entrepreneurs, some learn that they can live from waste recuperation.
Immersion and active participation in the collective struggle, “en la lucha”. This is the reply that Cubans tell when you ask them how they are doing. (…) Blackout. It was 20:30~. I’m sweating drops falling, running down my face and body, mosquitoes are kings, she says (as if it were the last breath) “there is no wind running” waving with her hand as if touching the invisible flowing air, sitting on a chair by the threshold of the open fenced door. The loud music stops constantly, connection is slow. No es facil. It’s exactly 23pm the light has come back. My niece stops the music and says ‘it’s enough for today’. No es facil. She thought the light was coming at midnight. My intuition was sharper this time. I placed the camera at 22:55.”
Written by Làzara Rosell Albear (in La Habana) while on blackout Friday 9/5/25
Performances
18 October 2025 during Museum Night Fever
7 February 2026 during the PhotoBrussels Festival
21 February 2026 during the closing event