A collaboration between painting, fashion, and heritage in Matanzas (+photos).
Due to the need to continue exploring their potential, from the visual arts and fashion design, Adrián Gómez Sancho and Adilén Díaz Almeda decided to start a new project together.
Every artist, regardless of their medium, has their own unique personas, characteristics, and creative processes, honed over years, which imprint their work with a distinctive stamp, setting it apart from other creators. When two or more artists combine their talents in a single work, it takes on as many values and interpretations as the personal, aesthetic, and conceptual traits of the collective within which it is created.01
Collaborations allow artists to broaden their creative horizons while offering viewers the opportunity to enjoy fresh perspectives, whether familiar or new, but always striving to enrich the final product with new concepts and qualities. Driven by the need to continue exploring their potential in the visual arts and fashion design, Adrián Gómez Sancho and Adilén Díaz Almeda decided to embark on a new project together.
“Starting with the collaboration with fashion designer Adilén Díaz on the Virgin, a theme already rooted in my work, we decided to do a collaboration based on a woodblock print,” Sancho shared.
Sancho created a woodcut block of the Virgin of Charity, transferred it to a canvas, and showed it to me. In fact, he gave it to me, and I told him I was going to make a bag and put the image on it as a pocket. He said, «Why don’t we collaborate on a first edition of 50 pieces?» And that’s how it began.
«It mainly deals with deities, saints. We want to do another edition now about Saint Lazarus, a very venerated saint who offers protection and is very present in our popular imagination and faith,» Adilén added.
This isn’t the first collaboration between the two. During Sancho’s exhibition, «Passion and Deity,» Adilén included her collection «Evoking the Past,» and both artists participated in the creation of Tony Ávila’s album, «Universes.»
Now, through painting, woodcut work, and costume design, a symbiosis between beauty and religion is emerging, which, besides being practical, is a novel proposal, the designer notes.
“I made these bags with a lot of care. Even though making this type of bag is very simple, it does involve some tricky cuts. I try to make sure they have the necessary security; for example, that the handles are well reinforced, and the internal seams.
“I used French stitching, as it’s called, sewing right side out and then completely inside out. That gives it double protection and more strength, and well…” A taco with the Planeta Moda Cuba logo was also created and included as a tag inside the bag; it’s also part of the design.”
“All these images are related to the pocket, which, of course, besides holding the owner’s belongings, also provides protection,” the young visual artist explains. Beyond what they could have imagined, just a few days after launching this collection, people, mostly from Matanzas, have already purchased half of it.
This speaks to excellent acceptance that could lead to an expansion of this first run. “The reception has been very good, something we expected, but we never imagined it would be at this level. We’re halfway through the edition featuring the Virgin Mary, and our bags are already being sold all over Matanzas.”
“The first half of the collection has been available at the Planeta Moda store here at the City Historian’s Office. We’ve also had people from different provinces across the country come to buy them, and even foreign tourists have placed orders. We’ve also been able to send them to friends in other parts of the world,” Díaz Almeda points out.
The collection of 50 canvas bags, featuring an image of Our Lady of Charity on one pocket, is just the beginning of a project that has been growing and developing new dimensions since its inception.
“We’re already producing bags with the image of Saint Lazarus, using the same technique, specific colors, and the same high standards—all made of canvas with an inked pocket. We’ve already promoted them on social media, and we hope they’ll be just as well-received,” says the creator of the sustainable fashion brand Planeta Moda Cuba, which belongs to the City Historian’s Office of Matanzas.
“This wonderful idea, born in our workshops, invites us to create a series of these images that illustrates at least 10 of these deities from both a conceptual and formal perspective.
“Of course, they would all be printed in those pockets using woodcut techniques, with different methods of creation and interpretation, from my own work to the sewing,” concludes the artist, who is also a painter, draftsman, and sculptor originally from Cárdenas and now lives in Matanzas.
Adilén Díaz Almeda and Adrián Gómez Sancho joined their talents to offer us beautiful bags that, in addition to their usual function of transporting and carrying objects, will allow you to take home artistic, original and unique pieces, the fruits of the work between a fashion designer and a visual artist, two creators who are committed to diversity and collaboration.
Written by Jessica Mesa.
