Installed as part of the “Behind the Wall” curatorial project for the 19th Havana Biennial , Rachel Valdés ’s work “Happily Ever After” offers a profound reflection on the relationship between the individual, urban space, and the perception of reality. This site-specific installation , located on Havana’s iconic Malecón , symbolically reconfigures a territory steeped in history, memory, and collective identity . Esta instalación site-specific, ubicada en el emblemático Malecón de La Habana, reconfigura simbólicamente un territorio cargado de historia, memoria e identidad colectiva.

Measuring 16 meters long, 3 meters high, and 1 meter deep , the artwork is composed of laminated safety mirrors , a stainless steel structure , and sheets of Dibond and polycarbonate. Its minimalist yet monumental architecture transforms the landscape into a constantly evolving perceptual phenomenon.

The mirror as a metaphor for time and the city

“Happily Ever After” functions as an optical threshold , an interface between the visible and the intangible. The specular surface not only reflects the city and its skyline, but also fragments, duplicates, and dilutes them, generating an ambiguous and fluid reality. The viewer thus becomes part of an ephemeral scene, in which the boundary between the real and the imagined vanishes.

By altering the linear perception of urban space, the work invites a poetic reading of the environment. Each reflection is also a question: what do we really see when we observe the city? What part of our collective history is projected onto its surface? In this installation, the mirror becomes a device for cultural introspection.

The Malecón as a symbolic setting

Located in one of Havana’s most symbolic places, the artwork could not exist without its context. T he Malecón is a space of transit, desire, and memory , a witness to farewells, returns, exiles, and reunions. “Happily Ever After” is not just an aesthetic intervention: it is a poetic action on public space .

The installation duplicates the image of the skyline, visually expanding the city into a speculative future. This reflected skyline is also a reflection of desire, an invitation to imagine new urban narratives, both personal and collective. Thus, the work articulates a silent narrative where the political and the poetic converge .

A critical high-impact urban facility

With this piece, Rachel Valdés reaffirms her position as one of the most insightful voices in contemporary Cuban art. Her use of the mirror as a tool for perceptual and symbolic displacement reveals a conceptual maturity and aesthetic sensibility that transcend the art object, activating urban space as a territory of thought and sensory experience.