Abstract

The History of Art in Cuba marks its beginnings in the colonial period, passing over the material culture of our first settlers and their legacy. In general, this portion of the past has been valued fundamentally as ethnographic, historial or patrimonial evidence. Among the reasons that explain why there is not an abundance of views of Art History and Aesthetics on them, much has to do with Eurocentrism and its exclusionary gesture on any product or relationship that does not conform to its canons. In this way, the paradigmatic centrality of Art in the discourse of Aesthetics has led to hierarchical classifications that still normalize colonial logic. Although the opening to new ways of doing things has characterized the cultural scene since the crisis of Art in the 20th century, with frankly inclusive gestures, the look at the past-present of our native peoples still does not break away from the Europeanizing imperative of discrimination. The concept of aboriginal aesthetic practices aims to provide a counter-historical decolonial view of the Cuban aboriginal past and to rescue for the creations of the first settlers and their traces, a legitimate aesthetic that even today seems to be in question, if we stick to disciplinary and institutional pertinences.

Keywords:
Aboriginal aesthetic practices; decolonial aesthetics; Cuban decolonial art; counterhistorical look