In those days of 2021 when the Covid 19 pandemic and isolation reinvented the life of young photographer Eldy Ortiz, the images that make up the photobook «Bitácora del Olvido» (Logbook of Oblivion), presented on Wednesday afternoon, August 20 at the National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba, saw the light of day.

This project, beneficiary of the call launched by the Fondo de Arte Joven (FAJ) for visual artists in 2023, gathers approximately 45 snapshots taken in the town of Bejucal, known for its history and cultural traditions.

Motivated by nostalgia, by longing, and by the passing of time in this city, Ortiz preferred to enhance the narrative through ambiguity and mystery in the images, from its people, as a mixture between reality and fiction, thus forming a photographic essay that he developed over four years.

 «I felt that my approach to this town was through a kind of rather poetic reflection, because I felt that the dimension of time there changed, it was very strange to me, in a much calmer, emptier and much slower way. Also from the photographic point of view, let's say that Cuban photography is very Havana-centric, almost all people photograph Havana and that's what is best known.»

«Bitácora del olvido» came to delight all the senses and has taken advantage of every space of interaction with the public. The photographs that make up this material are exhibited at the Center for the Development of Visual Arts in Havana. The exhibition, of the same name, will remain open to the public until next September.

FAJ also celebrates the fact that this project is part of the traveling exhibition «Behind the Photobooks», which takes place at the Museu de Arte Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil.

FAJ's work is based on accompanying creative processes that later acquire a life of their own, generating a cultural impact beyond our platform. Projects such as «Bitácora del olvido» demonstrate how an idea supported in its beginnings can grow, transform and fly with its own wings, enriching the artistic panorama inside and outside Cuba.