Virgilio Piñera: a hundred-and-five years on from his birth

“The fish from the tower swims on tarmac” is the line of a poem in the work “Aire Frío” (Cold Air) that choreographer Marianela Boán chose as the title for her six-dancer piece, which premièred in 1992 at the Avellaneda hall of Havana’s National Theatre, in Cuba.

She used it because she wanted to explore what it meant to be Cuban in the midst of a crisis and their “contemplative capability, minimal resistance to pathos, search for immediate catharsis, refuge in exorcism-like humour”.