Cuban Art Factory

About this audio guide

This guide to the Cuban Art Factory in Havana traces the building's decades as a cooking-oil plant in Vedado, its chimney smoking since 1910, until it sat closed and stripped by around 2008. It follows musician X Alfonso through the ruin, his decision to keep the cracked concrete and rusted rebar rather than tear it down, and the two years he spent negotiating with the state before handing the building to artists and craftspeople instead of contractors. Look up at the chimney still standing above the entrance as you listen.