El inconcluso milagro del pan y los peces - The inconclusive Miracle of Bread and Fish
Oil on canvas
435 x 290 cm
Not For Sale
In 1998 Pope John Paul II visits Cuba. Expectations of a change on the island with the arrival of the Supreme Pontiff were high. The influence of John Paul II had contributed to the fall of socialism in Eastern Europe and various sectors of the Cuban people harboured hopes of an imminent transformation in the Cuban socio-political reality. But the reality was different. The triptych that Oliva painted as a chronicle of that visit remains unfinished, as well as the hopes of a people who saw in the papal visit the possibility of the transition were dashed. Pedro Pablo puts Fidel Castro and Juan Pablo II to dialogue in the same dimension, both sharing a fish on their legs, while around them the convulsive situations that accompanied the visit occur.