Kadir López : Lighting up Havana

A year ago, as Cuba’s capital city Havana was celebrating its 500th birthday, one artist was making it his mission to recreate the famous neon signs that used to adorn the buildings and light up the streets and squares.

Kadir López has had his multimedia work exhibited worldwide, but over the past few years he has been driven by a passion for neon and the concept of connecting Havana’s present with its colourful past. He and his small team of skilled craftspeople remake the signs in a workshop in the centre of Havana, often in searing heat and soaring temperatures. There are specialist procedures needed for the bending of the neon and the colouring and design. Then the signs have to be carefully re-positioned on buildings, using scaffolding and cranes.

In a revised edition of a programme first broadcast in 2019, Julia Galiano-Rios watches Kadir as he brings the signs to life. She hears how the use of neon can throw new light – both physical and spiritual- on a city and finds out how Covid-19 has affected his work.

Producers: Juliana Galiano-Rios and Emma Kingsley

(Photo: Artist Kadir López, with kind permission)