UNITED BUDDY BEARS SHOW - Warsaw 2008

*Havanna, Cuba
Painter and stage designer
1974/79: Student of Art at Berlin-Weißensee
Stage designer at the Staatsoper, Komische Oper, Berliner Ensemble, Volksbühne, Semperoper (Dresden), furthermore in Stockholm, Graz, Hanoi (Vietnam) etc.

Various exhibitions, i.e. Galerie 100, Berlin, Teatro Nacional, Havanna etc.
Artistic consultant, a.o. for TV club cruise ship series
nancy-torres@gmx.de

I have called my bear Siboney. That is the name the Cuban Indians gave themselves. In 1492, these people welcomed Christopher Columbus with cigars to show their peaceful attitude. When the discoverer of America came to our Caribbean island for the first time and started to get to know the inhabitants, he wrote into his diary: They wrap dried herbs into a leaf, then roll the leaf together with its contents, light the roll, put it into their mouth and produce thick clouds of smoke. They call this roll tobacco?
The fact that my Siboney has a cigar in his mouth is not supposed to promote smoking. My bear is filled with my own Cuban soul. I certainly don't smoke myself, but I have nevertheless remained 100 % Cuban. The Cuban Indians could not know how dangerous smoking is and nobody would be able to tell them nowadays as the Siboney were exterminated during the times of colonial government. With my smoking bear I would like to remind of these peaceful people that weren't able to survive European civilization.

Nancy Torres