Photo of Abdel Hernández San Juan, hard science theoretician and thinkers, philosopher, art critic and cultural anthropologist of Cuban origin
School period
College/University
Career
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
Back Yard Sewall Hall, Rice University, Main Street, Houston, Texas, USA
Abdel Hernández San Juan y Fernando Calzadilla, ―The Market from Here: Mise in Scene and Experimental Ethnography‖, Anthropological Experimental Museum on the urban popular markets of Venezuela exhibited at the Back Yard Sewall hall Rice University, Anthropology Museography, Department of Anthropology at Rice University, The Transart Foundation of Houston for Art and Anthropology, Houston, Texas, Spring 1997
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
Farish Gallery, School of Architecture, Rice University, Main Street, Houston, Texas
Juan José Olavarría y Ernesto Leal, Arguing with Betara Desa, cocurated and copresented by Abdel Hernández San Juan and Surpik
Angelini, School of Architecture, Rice University, as result of an experimental workshop for art and anthropology directed by Abdel Hernández San Juan, presented under the interdiscilpinary course lectured by Abdel at the Rice Media Center, Houston, Texas, USA, 1997
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
1997
Farish Gallery, School of Architecture, Rice University, Main Street, Houston, Texas
Juan José Olavarría y Ernesto Leal, Arguing with Betara Desa, cocurated and copresented by Abdel Hernández San Juan and Surpik
Angelini, School of Architecture, Rice University, as result of an experimental workshop for art and anthropology directed by Abdel Hernández San Juan, presented under the interdiscilpinary course lectured by Abdel at the Rice Media Center, Houston, Texas, USA, 1997
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
1997
Farish Gallery, School of Architecture, Rice University, Main Street, Houston, Texas
Juan José Olavarría y Ernesto Leal, Arguing with Betara Desa, cocurated and copresented by Abdel Hernández San Juan and Surpik
Angelini, School of Architecture, Rice University, as result of an experimental workshop for art and anthropology directed by Abdel Hernández San Juan, presented under the interdiscilpinary course lectured by Abdel at the Rice Media Center, Houston, Texas, USA, 1997
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
Back Yard Sewall Hall, Rice University, Main Street, Houston, Texas, USA
Abdel Hernández San Juan y Fernando Calzadilla, ―The Market from Here: Mise in Scene and Experimental Ethnography‖, Anthropological Experimental Museum on the urban popular markets of Venezuela exhibited at the Back Yard Sewall hall Rice University, Anthropology Museography, Department of Anthropology at Rice University, The Transart Foundation of Houston for Art and Anthropology, Houston, Texas, Spring 1997
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
Back Yard Sewall Hall, Rice University, Main Street, Houston, Texas, USA
Abdel Hernández San Juan y Fernando Calzadilla, ―The Market from Here: Mise in Scene and Experimental Ethnography‖, Anthropological Experimental Museum on the urban popular markets of Venezuela exhibited at the Back Yard Sewall hall Rice University, Anthropology Museography, Department of Anthropology at Rice University, The Transart Foundation of Houston for Art and Anthropology, Houston, Texas, Spring 1997
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
1990
City of Havana, Cuba
“The Bartender,” by Jesús Rabelo and Michel, is the result of a month-long immersion in urban fieldwork by young art students Jesús Rabelo and Michel, exploring the life and culture of nightclubs in Old Havana. After a month of research, the artists decided to work with a bartender, establishing a connection and reconstructing passages from his life. The artwork, presented as part of the HACER Workshop project, involved cleaning, painting, remodeling, and proposing an interior design for the bartender's home. Photographs were taken throughout the process. The photograph shows Michel, one of the artists, and the bartender at the latter's home. Havana
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
1990
City of Havana, Cuba
“Eja: Adult Toy Company,” by David Palacios, presented as part of the HACER Workshop project, focusing on the sociological art approach discussed by Abdel, proposed a company that approached a neighborhood with its advertising. The advertising included posters placed on trash cans, walls, and fences that read “Eja accepts your request,” and a billboard erected on the neighborhood streets with the text “Eja Adult Toy Company.” Surveyors knocked on residents' doors and gave them an application form to fill out with their information and answer a question about what problems they wanted a toy to solve. The surveyors then collected the forms, and David Palacios made and delivered a toy specially made for each resident according to their requests. The work included documentation of the toy delivery. Havana
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
1990
City of Havana, Cuba
Students and members participating in the HACER Workshop project, from left to right, Monica, Margarita, Helena, Lazarito, Nico, Inti Quinones and Parson
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
1990
City of Havana, Cuba
“The Goblin,” by Abdel Hernandez San Juan, is a work based on an immersive urban social science fieldwork project conducted by Abdel with the social and cultural group of geeks and punks, part of the HACER Workshop project. In the photograph on the right, the Goblin is seated; Michel appears face down, intervening on the canvas, on the righ "El Duende" A Rocker, your urban freeke freeke, punk, The photograph was taken by Jesus Rabelo, documentary photographer for the HACER workshop and one of the participating students. Havana
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
1990
City of Havana, Cuba
“Plant Kingdom”, by Adieren Martinez and Inti Quinones, was created as a result of a month-long fieldwork immersion in a residential neighborhood in Vedado, in a family home. The authors chose an uncovered side patio of the house that overlooked the side of an apartment building, from which the patio could be seen. They intervened in the space by placing a bed, a chalkboard, their texts on the chalkboard, and adding plants. The text and drawings on the chalkboard referred to the relationship of humankind with the habitat from its beginnings in relation to the plant world. The authors slept on this bed as a performance. The immersion and the work were developed within and as part of the HACER workshop project, Havana.
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
1990
City of Havana, Cuba
“The Bust,” by Carlos Michel Fuentes, a guest artist of Abdel Hernandez San Juan for his HACER workshop project, was created as a result of an immersion in a residential neighborhood of Vedado. It focused on the life of an elderly runner who traveled the island of Cuba on foot and whose house was filled with bone marrow and trophies. Carlos Michel's research consisted of interviewing this runner and reconstructing aspects of his life and experiences. The work itself consisted of creating a bust of the runner's head, named Jose Luis, and inaugurating the bust for the neighborhood with speeches by both Carlos Michel and Jose Luis. The project also included the creation of a video about this event, photographs of Carlos Michel's interactions with Jose Luis, and a symbolic walk around the block by the neighbors who participated in the bust's inauguration on the day of the unveiling. The photograph shows the bust covered with a cloth before the inauguration; behind it appears Mota, one of the The students participating in the HACER Workshop, who assisted Michel in carrying out this project. Havana
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
2025
National Art Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela
The Ground as a Foundational Experience: a semiology of the lifeworldBy Abdel Hernandez San Juan, lecture on his book "The Enigmas of the Ground: Introduction to Semiological Sociology", given on May 2nd, 6.00 pm, National Art Gallery, introduced to the audience by Ernesto Leon, Caracas, Venezuela, 2025
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
2025
National Art Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela
The Biography of Material: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Ernesto Leon.By Abdel Hernandez San Juan, lecture given on June 17, 11:00 am, introduced to the audience by Luis Chacin, and tribute to Juan Calzadilla, National Art Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela, 2025
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
2025
National Art Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela
The Biography of Material: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Ernesto Leon.By Abdel Hernandez San Juan, lecture given on June 17, 11:00 am, introduced to the audience by Luis Chacin, and tribute to Juan Calzadilla, National Art Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela, 2025
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
2025
National Art Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela
The Ground as a Foundational Experience: a semiology of the lifeworldBy Abdel Hernandez San Juan, lecture on his book "The Enigmas of the Ground: Introduction to Semiological Sociology", given on May 2nd, 6.00 pm, National Art Gallery, introduced to the audience by Ernesto Leon, Caracas, Venezuela, 2025
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
2025
UNEARTE, Experimental University of the Arts, Caracas, Venezuela, 2025
Jacques Derrida and the origin of language, Other Meanings of Origin: Phenomenology in Derrida. By Abdel Hernandez San Juan, lecture given to 5th year and postgraduate students, Thursday, November 6, 10:00 am, coordinated and introduced to the audience by Guillermo Pelaez, coordinated by Jesus Morales, UNEARTE, Experimental University of the Arts, Caracas, Venezuela, 2025
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
2004
ISA, University of the Arts, Havana
Analia Amaya Work, Graduated Student, Tutory of Analia Amaya, By Abdel Hernandez San Juan, ISA, University of the Arts, Havana, 2004
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
2009
Open Space Gallery, Street 4, between 11 and 9, El vedado, City of Havana, Cuba
Matter, Semantique and Image: Tatiana Mesa and Osvaldo Gonzalez, a Curatorial Practice and Exhibition, curated and presented by Abdel Hernandez San Juan at the Open Space Gallery, Catalogue by Abdel Hernandez San Juan, 2009, City of Havana, Cuba
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
2014
ISA, University of the Arts, Havana
Aissa Santizo Work, Graduated Student, Tutory of Analia Aissa Santizo, By Abdel Hernandez San Juan, ISA, University of the Arts, Havana, 2004
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
2018
Center of Hipanicamerican Culture, Havana, Cuba
2018- The Inscription and the Couple: Notes on the Phenomenology of CreationBy Abdel Hernández San Juan, lecture given at the Hispanic American Cultural Center, Art and Philosophy, Havana, Cuba
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
2018
Center of Hipanicamerican Culture, Havana, Cuba
2018- The Inscription and the Couple: Notes on the Phenomenology of CreationBy Abdel Hernández San Juan, lecture given at the Hispanic American Cultural Center, Art and Philosophy, Havana, Cuba
Gallery of Abdel Hernández San Juan
Achievements
1997
Farish Gallery, School of Architecture, Rice University, Main Street, Houston, Texas
Juan José Olavarría y Ernesto Leal, Arguing with Betara Desa, cocurated and copresented by Abdel Hernández San Juan and Surpik
Angelini, School of Architecture, Rice University, as result of an experimental workshop for art and anthropology directed by Abdel Hernández San Juan, presented under the interdiscilpinary course lectured by Abdel at the Rice Media Center, Houston, Texas, USA, 1997
Membership
Awards
First National Prize of Interdisciplinary Projects of Art and Social Sciences in Urban Field Studies
1990
City of Havana, Cuba
“The Bartender,” by Jesús Rabelo and Michel, is the result of a month-long immersion in urban fieldwork by young art students Jesús Rabelo and Michel, exploring the life and culture of nightclubs in Old Havana. After a month of research, the artists decided to work with a bartender, establishing a connection and reconstructing passages from his life. The artwork, presented as part of the HACER Workshop project, involved cleaning, painting, remodeling, and proposing an interior design for the bartender's home. Photographs were taken throughout the process. The photograph shows Michel, one of the artists, and the bartender at the latter's home. Havana
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
First National Prize of Interdisciplinary Projects of Art and Social Science in Rural Field Studies "Pilon"
“The Bartender,” by Jesús Rabelo and Michel, is the result of a month-long immersion in urban fieldwork by young art students Jesús Rabelo and Michel, exploring the life and culture of nightclubs in Old Havana. After a month of research, the artists decided to work with a bartender, establishing a connection and reconstructing passages from his life. The artwork, presented as part of the HACER Workshop project, involved cleaning, painting, remodeling, and proposing an interior design for the bartender's home. Photographs were taken throughout the process. The photograph shows Michel, one of the artists, and the bartender at the latter's home. Havana
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
“Eja: Adult Toy Company,” by David Palacios, presented as part of the HACER Workshop project, focusing on the sociological art approach discussed by Abdel, proposed a company that approached a neighborhood with its advertising. The advertising included posters placed on trash cans, walls, and fences that read “Eja accepts your request,” and a billboard erected on the neighborhood streets with the text “Eja Adult Toy Company.” Surveyors knocked on residents' doors and gave them an application form to fill out with their information and answer a question about what problems they wanted a toy to solve. The surveyors then collected the forms, and David Palacios made and delivered a toy specially made for each resident according to their requests. The work included documentation of the toy delivery. Havana
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
Students and members participating in the HACER Workshop project, from left to right, Monica, Margarita, Helena, Lazarito, Nico, Inti Quinones and Parson
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
“The Goblin,” by Abdel Hernandez San Juan, is a work based on an immersive urban social science fieldwork project conducted by Abdel with the social and cultural group of geeks and punks, part of the HACER Workshop project. In the photograph on the right, the Goblin is seated; Michel appears face down, intervening on the canvas, on the righ "El Duende" A Rocker, your urban freeke freeke, punk, The photograph was taken by Jesus Rabelo, documentary photographer for the HACER workshop and one of the participating students. Havana
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
“Plant Kingdom”, by Adieren Martinez and Inti Quinones, was created as a result of a month-long fieldwork immersion in a residential neighborhood in Vedado, in a family home. The authors chose an uncovered side patio of the house that overlooked the side of an apartment building, from which the patio could be seen. They intervened in the space by placing a bed, a chalkboard, their texts on the chalkboard, and adding plants. The text and drawings on the chalkboard referred to the relationship of humankind with the habitat from its beginnings in relation to the plant world. The authors slept on this bed as a performance. The immersion and the work were developed within and as part of the HACER workshop project, Havana.
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
“The Bust,” by Carlos Michel Fuentes, a guest artist of Abdel Hernandez San Juan for his HACER workshop project, was created as a result of an immersion in a residential neighborhood of Vedado. It focused on the life of an elderly runner who traveled the island of Cuba on foot and whose house was filled with bone marrow and trophies. Carlos Michel's research consisted of interviewing this runner and reconstructing aspects of his life and experiences. The work itself consisted of creating a bust of the runner's head, named Jose Luis, and inaugurating the bust for the neighborhood with speeches by both Carlos Michel and Jose Luis. The project also included the creation of a video about this event, photographs of Carlos Michel's interactions with Jose Luis, and a symbolic walk around the block by the neighbors who participated in the bust's inauguration on the day of the unveiling. The photograph shows the bust covered with a cloth before the inauguration; behind it appears Mota, one of the The students participating in the HACER Workshop, who assisted Michel in carrying out this project. Havana
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
“The Bartender,” by Jesús Rabelo and Michel, is the result of a month-long immersion in urban fieldwork by young art students Jesús Rabelo and Michel, exploring the life and culture of nightclubs in Old Havana. After a month of research, the artists decided to work with a bartender, establishing a connection and reconstructing passages from his life. The artwork, presented as part of the HACER Workshop project, involved cleaning, painting, remodeling, and proposing an interior design for the bartender's home. Photographs were taken throughout the process. The photograph shows Michel, one of the artists, and the bartender at the latter's home. Havana
The HACER Workshop Project, conceived, written, composed, curated and directed by Abdel Hernandez San Juan as an interdisciplinary workshop of urban sociology and experimental conceptual art, focused on the theorization of the concept of culture and the development of cultural analyses aimed at the cultural understanding of selected social groups. These groups were immersed in the work and discussed from the perspective of research methodology questions between urban sociology, social psychology, and cultural anthropology. The workshop's objective was divided into two parts: social science objectives, to obtain results from a modality or alternative of experimental sociology incorporating, from the perspective of participant observation, the mediation of experimental means of visual conceptual art; on the one hand, the exploration of social science results in visual media such as exhibitions, installations, photographic essays, and videos; and on the other hand, the development, from the perspective of art, of a modality of Sociological Art.
Farish Gallery, School of Architecture, Rice University, Main Street, Houston, Texas
Juan José Olavarría y Ernesto Leal, Arguing with Betara Desa, cocurated and copresented by Abdel Hernández San Juan and Surpik
Angelini, School of Architecture, Rice University, as result of an experimental workshop for art and anthropology directed by Abdel Hernández San Juan, presented under the interdiscilpinary course lectured by Abdel at the Rice Media Center, Houston, Texas, USA, 1997
Farish Gallery, School of Architecture, Rice University, Main Street, Houston, Texas
Juan José Olavarría y Ernesto Leal, Arguing with Betara Desa, cocurated and copresented by Abdel Hernández San Juan and Surpik
Angelini, School of Architecture, Rice University, as result of an experimental workshop for art and anthropology directed by Abdel Hernández San Juan, presented under the interdiscilpinary course lectured by Abdel at the Rice Media Center, Houston, Texas, USA, 1997
Farish Gallery, School of Architecture, Rice University, Main Street, Houston, Texas
Juan José Olavarría y Ernesto Leal, Arguing with Betara Desa, cocurated and copresented by Abdel Hernández San Juan and Surpik
Angelini, School of Architecture, Rice University, as result of an experimental workshop for art and anthropology directed by Abdel Hernández San Juan, presented under the interdiscilpinary course lectured by Abdel at the Rice Media Center, Houston, Texas, USA, 1997
Open Space Gallery, Street 4, between 11 and 9, El vedado, City of Havana, Cuba
Matter, Semantique and Image: Tatiana Mesa and Osvaldo Gonzalez, a Curatorial Practice and Exhibition, curated and presented by Abdel Hernandez San Juan at the Open Space Gallery, Catalogue by Abdel Hernandez San Juan, 2009, City of Havana, Cuba
2018- The Inscription and the Couple: Notes on the Phenomenology of CreationBy Abdel Hernández San Juan, lecture given at the Hispanic American Cultural Center, Art and Philosophy, Havana, Cuba
2018- The Inscription and the Couple: Notes on the Phenomenology of CreationBy Abdel Hernández San Juan, lecture given at the Hispanic American Cultural Center, Art and Philosophy, Havana, Cuba
The Ground as a Foundational Experience: a semiology of the lifeworldBy Abdel Hernandez San Juan, lecture on his book "The Enigmas of the Ground: Introduction to Semiological Sociology", given on May 2nd, 6.00 pm, National Art Gallery, introduced to the audience by Ernesto Leon, Caracas, Venezuela, 2025
The Biography of Material: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Ernesto Leon.By Abdel Hernandez San Juan, lecture given on June 17, 11:00 am, introduced to the audience by Luis Chacin, and tribute to Juan Calzadilla, National Art Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela, 2025
The Biography of Material: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Ernesto Leon.By Abdel Hernandez San Juan, lecture given on June 17, 11:00 am, introduced to the audience by Luis Chacin, and tribute to Juan Calzadilla, National Art Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela, 2025
The Ground as a Foundational Experience: a semiology of the lifeworldBy Abdel Hernandez San Juan, lecture on his book "The Enigmas of the Ground: Introduction to Semiological Sociology", given on May 2nd, 6.00 pm, National Art Gallery, introduced to the audience by Ernesto Leon, Caracas, Venezuela, 2025
UNEARTE, Experimental University of the Arts, Caracas, Venezuela, 2025
Jacques Derrida and the origin of language, Other Meanings of Origin: Phenomenology in Derrida. By Abdel Hernandez San Juan, lecture given to 5th year and postgraduate students, Thursday, November 6, 10:00 am, coordinated and introduced to the audience by Guillermo Pelaez, coordinated by Jesus Morales, UNEARTE, Experimental University of the Arts, Caracas, Venezuela, 2025
Back Yard Sewall Hall, Rice University, Main Street, Houston, Texas, USA
Abdel Hernández San Juan y Fernando Calzadilla, ―The Market from Here: Mise in Scene and Experimental Ethnography‖, Anthropological Experimental Museum on the urban popular markets of Venezuela exhibited at the Back Yard Sewall hall Rice University, Anthropology Museography, Department of Anthropology at Rice University, The Transart Foundation of Houston for Art and Anthropology, Houston, Texas, Spring 1997
Farish Gallery, School of Architecture, Rice University, Main Street, Houston, Texas
Juan José Olavarría y Ernesto Leal, Arguing with Betara Desa, cocurated and copresented by Abdel Hernández San Juan and Surpik
Angelini, School of Architecture, Rice University, as result of an experimental workshop for art and anthropology directed by Abdel Hernández San Juan, presented under the interdiscilpinary course lectured by Abdel at the Rice Media Center, Houston, Texas, USA, 1997
Back Yard Sewall Hall, Rice University, Main Street, Houston, Texas, USA
Abdel Hernández San Juan y Fernando Calzadilla, ―The Market from Here: Mise in Scene and Experimental Ethnography‖, Anthropological Experimental Museum on the urban popular markets of Venezuela exhibited at the Back Yard Sewall hall Rice University, Anthropology Museography, Department of Anthropology at Rice University, The Transart Foundation of Houston for Art and Anthropology, Houston, Texas, Spring 1997
Back Yard Sewall Hall, Rice University, Main Street, Houston, Texas, USA
Abdel Hernández San Juan y Fernando Calzadilla, ―The Market from Here: Mise in Scene and Experimental Ethnography‖, Anthropological Experimental Museum on the urban popular markets of Venezuela exhibited at the Back Yard Sewall hall Rice University, Anthropology Museography, Department of Anthropology at Rice University, The Transart Foundation of Houston for Art and Anthropology, Houston, Texas, Spring 1997
El Sujeto en la Creatividad: Nuevas Veredas de Antropologia el Arte
(El Sujeto en la Creatividad es un libro de ensayos filoso...)
El Sujeto en la Creatividad es un libro de ensayos filosoficos interdisciplinarios que propone nuevas veredas metodológicas, axiológicas y hermeneuticas para la antropología del arte discutiendo parámetros cruciales de etnometodologia que propician el convertir de ambas cosas la interpretación del arte contemporáneo (el ejercicio de la semiótica del arte como crítica de arte, y la lectura, exégesis e interpretación de otros fenómenos de cultura visual y material más allá del arte moderno, la antropología cultural visual, a la véz que lo uno en lo otro, exploraciones de antropología cultural dentro de la crítica de arte y a la inversa, de la estética y la filosofía del arte, en el estudio de fenómenos de cultural visual y material antropológicos más amplios. En el libro se propone la conjunción exégetica y hermenéutica entre etnometodología, lecturas arqueologícas y lecturas textuales, y elabora toda una teorización filosofica posmodernista y posposmodernista sobre el asunto del sujeto y la subjetividad dentro de paradigmas de creatividad.
Rethinking Urban Anthropology: Semiotic Theory, Phenomenology, and Hermeneutics in Urban Anthropological Research [Hernández San Juan, Abdel] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Rethinking Urban Anthropology: Semiotic Theory, Phenomenology, and Hermeneutics in Urban Anthropological Research
(DOC) The World Correlate.by abdel Hernández San juan
(The World correlate: interpretant and estructure in posmo...)
The World correlate: interpretant and estructure in posmodern cultural theory. By Abdel hernández San Juan The world correlate is a book of theoretical linguistic and classical philosophy as understanded in a modern sense.
(DOC) Thinking Science: New Phenomenológical Avenues between Philosophy and Sociology. By Abdel Hernández San Juan
(Thinking Sciences: new phenomenological avenues between p...)
Thinking Sciences: new phenomenological avenues between philosophy and sociology By Abdel hernández San juan is a book of phenomenological sociology and philosophy focussed in developing new reach to the theory of performativity
The Semantic Elucidation: Semiotic Theory, Sociolinguistic and Semantique of Culture - Hernández San Juan, Abdel: 9786208847821 - IberLibro
("The Semantique Elucidations" is a book of empirical rese...)
"The Semantique Elucidations" is a book of empirical research theoretically discussing new paths to the textual exégesis and analysis of culture from a semiological perspective in between phenonenology in sociology and cultural anthropology, a deep empirical study of Yoruba African Religion
La Comprension del Arte en la Posvanguardia: una aproximacion Antropologica al Arte Cubano Contemporaneo
(La Comprensión del Arte en la Posvanguardia: Una Aproxima...)
La Comprensión del Arte en la Posvanguardia: Una Aproximación Antropológica al Arte Cubano Contemporáneo, es un libro que lleva a término el objetivo de desarrollar una crítica de arte interdisciplinaria donde el análisis semiológico de los signos visuales, el estudio semántico de sus sentidos y el análisis cultural se conjugan en una interpretación de las formas, el lenguaje y la cultura. Muchas de las obras visuales analizadas en este libro son búsquedas que no pueden comprenderse a través del alto nivel de codificación masiva de los signos como en el Arte Pop pero tampoco como ocurre con la pintura medieval, donde la imagen visual era casi una explicación didáctica del contenido textual que podía buscarse en la Biblia. Debido a que los artistas cubanos de hoy trabajan con conjugaciones visuales más complejas que escapan a ambos parámetros, este libro desarrolla una crítica interdisciplinaria, integral en el sentido de la sociología fenomenológica y antropológica cultural en el sentido posmodernista. De este modo el lector mediante este libro tiene ante sí a la vez una obra de crítica antropológica y una obra de primera mano sobre el valioso arte cubano contemporáneo.
(PDF) Las metonimias del museo: La Exégesis Textual de Cultural Visual entre Teoría Semiótica y antropología posmoderna. Por Abdel Hernández San Juan
(Las Metonimias del Museo: La exégesis de cultura visual e...)
Las Metonimias del Museo: La exégesis de cultura visual entre teoría semiótica y antropología posmoderna es un libro de teoría semiótica y antropología cultural del museo
(DOC) Los enigmas del ground: Introducción a la sociología semiológica. Por Abdel Hernández San Juan
(Los Enigmas del Ground es un libro que analiza, propone y...)
Los Enigmas del Ground es un libro que analiza, propone y discute una teorización novedoza del concepto de ground en la semiótica y sus posibilidades interdisciplinarias y microsociologia phenomenologica interpretativa y antropologia cultural
El Correlato de Mundo: Interpretante y Estructura en la Teoría Cultural Posmoderna - Hernández San Juan, Abdel: 9783389162903 - IberLibro
(Documento del año 2025 en eltema Pedagogía - Teoría de la...)
Documento del año 2025 en eltema Pedagogía - Teoría de la sciencia, Antropología, Rice University (IUESAPAR), Materia: A Course Teaching Phenomenology in Philosophy, Hermeneutic, Philosophy of Language, Theoretical Linguistic, Semiotic theory, Cultural Theory, Posmodernism, Idioma: Español, Resumen...
Abdel Hernández San Juan, Theorist and thinker of Cuban origin who has developed a return of contemporary thought towards the most abstract classical philosophy, while retheorizing the science of semiotics back to logic and exploring new intersections between abstract classical philosophy, logic, phenomenological sociology, semiotics of art and Cultural Anthropology. Main Figure in the field of Art and Anthropology.
Career
Abdel Hernández San Juan, Theorist and thinker of Cuban origin who has developed a return of contemporary thought towards the most abstract classical philosophy (Kant, Hegel), while retheorizing the science of semiotics back to logic and exploring new intersections between abstract classical philosophy in a phenomenological and hermeneutic sense, logic (Hegel, Husserl), etc., phenomenological sociology (Alfred Schutz), semiotics of art and culture and cultural anthropology. Very abstract thinker of hard sciences (metatheory and metaempiria), empirically specialized in language sciences, theoretical linguistics (Ferdinand de Saussure, Roman Jakobson, Louis Hjelmslev, Emile Benveniste, etc.), semiotic theory (Charles Sanders Peirce) and in philosophy and theory of art, he has focused on the interdisciplinary development of the new field of anthropology and art, developing it both from the perspective of social sciences, linguistic anthropology, theory of culture, urban and rural sociology, as well as art interpretation and criticism, (art semiotics and cultural anthropology).
Contents
1 Books
2 Compendiums of art criticism
3 Influences and Similarities
4 Collaborations
5 References to collaborations
6 Texts and prologues about the author
7 Interviews
Books
"The Correlate of the World: interpretant and structure in postmodern cultural theory". By Abdel Hernández San Juan
"Thinking science: new phenomenological avenues between philosophy and sociology". By Abdel Hernández San Juan
"The enigmas of the ground: introduction to semiological sociology". By Abdel Hernández San Juan
"The metonymies of the museum: The textual exegesis of visual culture between semiotic theory and postmodern anthropology"
"Rethinking intertextuality: research method in sociology of culture". By Abdel Hernández San Juan
"Semantic elucidation: semiotic, sociolinguistic and semantic theory of culture". By Abdel Hernández San Juan
"Rethinking urban anthropology". By Abdel Hernández San Juan
"Anthropology of archaeology". By Abdel Hernández San Juan
"The subject in Creativity: New Paths in anthropology of art". By Abdel Hernández San Juan
"The self and the heritage: The Phenomenology of the Self in the Hermeneutic of Culture". By Abdel Hernández San Juan
Among others
Compendiums of art criticism
An Expedition to the Threshold. By Abdel Hernández San Juan
The Subject in Creativity. By Abdel Hernández San Juan
Borders and Overflows of Art. By Abdel Hernández San Juan
Horizons of Exegesis: Archaeological readings of contemporary art. By Abdel Hernández San Juan
Cultural Bodies: Art Criticism as Anthropology of art. By Abdel Hernández San Juan
The Interpretation of Art: Essays on Venezuelan Art. By Abdel Hernández San Juan
The Interpretation of discourse: Hermeneutics and analysis of rhetoric and visual discourses. By Abdel Hernández San juan
The Reinscription of Culture: Reconfigurations of art, culture and identity in complex societies. By Abdel Hernández San Juan
Exchanging Domains: Aesthetics, Semiotics and anthropological approaches to art. By Abdel Hernández San Juan
Understanding art in the post-avant-garde: An anthropological approach to Cuban art. By Abdel Hernandez San Juan
Influenced by
Structuralism in Theoretical Linguistic and the sciece of semiotic: Ferdinand de Saussure y Charles Sanders Peirce
The Logic of Science: Hegel
Social Phenomenology: Alfred Schütz
Deconscructive Philosophy: Jacques Derrida
Cognitive Anthropology and Posmodern Ethnography: Stephen A Tyler
Influencial Over
Art and Anthropology
Experimental Ethnography
Urban and Rural Sociology
Cuban Sociological Art
Semiótic of Culture
Cultural Anthropology
Analytical Philosophy
Anthropology of Art
Conceptualism
Similar thinkers
George Helbert Mead
Alfred Schutz
Abdel Hernández San Juan
Stephen A Tyler
Quetzil Eugenio Castañeda
Alberto Méndez Suarez
James Clifford
He has been a prominent exponent in the new generation of anthropologists from Texas since the nineties, where he lived many years of his life, as well as from Caracas.
1997-2003-Complementary research professor associated with the department of anthropology at Rice University
1996-2002- Researcher Artistic Director of the Transart Foundation for art and anthropology in Houston until 2002
1996- The Postmodern Work: Beyond the Intertextual. lectures given as Visiting Professor of the Department of Classical and Hispanic Studies at Rice University at Fondren Library
1997- Artists in Trance: New Methodologies, spring course of interdisciplinary methodologies of semiotic theory, art theory and cultural anthropology, taught at the Rice Media Center, as Visiting Professor of the anthropology department of Rice University and the transart foundation of Houston with the participation of the art and architecture departments
1999- Art Pizte: a Perspective from art criticism. Lecture given as Guest Professor of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Lake Forest College, in the department's auditorium
2000- Guest editor of the magazine artlies de Texas, where he edited number 28, bilingual, epistemes of art, Texas
1998-2000- Publishes critical essays in Sicardy Sanders
2001- Collaborations in the field, essay shared with George E Marcus, department of anthropology, Rice University
2002- Gives a lecture at the theoretical panel of the Los Angeles Art Festival, House of Japanese Culture, December, Los Angeles
2006- Theorist and critic chosen from the magazine digitalcultures.org, from Brunel University in London, edition curated by the German theater theorist Johannes Birringer
2006- George E Marcus publishes his essay Artists in the Field: Between art and Anthropology, published in Berg, Oxford in 2006 and then in Roudledge where he discusses Abdel Hernández San Juan in the context of "Writing Culture" in anthropology
Collaborations
Between Seeing and Scenes. By Abdel Hernández San Juan and Quetzil Eugenio Castañeda, Interdisciplinary Ethnography Essay, Rice University Department of Anthropology and University of Houston Department of Anthropology
Evocation: a philosophical dialogue. By Abdel Hernández San Juan and Stephen A Tyler, Department of Anthropology, Rice University
Counterpoints: Philosophical dialogues. By Abdel Hernández San Juan and Alberto Méndez Suarez
Rumbos: Explorations in Cultural Anthropology. By Abdel Hernández San Juan and Alberto Méndez Suarez
Inference and Elucidation: Cutts of Cultural Anthropology?Hermeneutic of Culture, Semiotic of Art and Social Archaeology. By Abdel Hernandez San Juan and Alessandro Morganti Debra
Art and anthropology in seven exhibitions. By Abdel Hernández San Juan and Surpik Angelini, series of exhibitions exhibited on the campus of Rice University, co/curated and co/presented by both
References to collaborations
1998- Artists in Trance: Various Artists. By thomas Mc Evilley, art in America, 1998, essay on the seven exhibitions co-curated by Abdel and Surpik in the spring of 1997 at Rice University
1997- Latin American Encounters: Anthropology at Rice. By David Kaplan, essay on co-curating Abdel and Surpik, published in the Rice University newspaper, Rice News
Texts and prologues about the author
2002- "The Phenomenological Sociology of Abdel Hernández San Juan." By Alberto Méndez Suarez, International University of Florida, author of Wittgenstein, from analytical philosophy to the interpretation of culture, published by Exodus
Abdel was Visiting professor at the College of Fine Art at the University of Texas at Austin, 1998, topic: Anthropology and globalization of culture, Documenta de Kassel, dialogues with Catherine David, coordinated by Harper Montogomery
Interviews
2024/25-"Plexuses of interstitiality: interviews with Abdel Hernández San Juan." By Alberto Méndez Suarez
1998-Interview with Abdel Hernández San Juan. By Harper Montgomery, University of Texas at Austin
2022- Interview with Abdel Hernández San Juan. By Alex Werner, Department of Anthropology Cunny University, New York
2020- Interview with Abdel Hernández San Juan. By David Morris, Saint Martins University, London
He was the guest lecturer and curator of Artists in Trance, an spring course he lectured at the Rice Media Center discussing interdisciplinary conjunction of semiotic theory of art and cultural anthropology as guest professor of the Department of Anthropology at Rice University and the Transart Foundation of Houston for Art and Anthropology, including a curatorial practice of seven exhibits he curated and presented at the University Campus with Surpik Angelini focusing Art and Anthropology as issue, cosponsored by the Departments of Art and Architecture. '
He also was a guest professor of the Department of Classical and Hispanic Studies at Rice University in the areas semiotic theory, art theory and anthropology, lecturing at the Fondren Library "The Postmodern Work: Beyond the Intertextual", lecturer at the congress of Ethnomethodology of the University of Houston, Department of Anthropology and at Congresses such as AAA National Congress of Anthropology in Chicago and LASA in Florida,
He was a guest scholar theorist from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the Lake Forest College lecturing in the area of Anthropology, museum theory, and maya artisanries between Mexico and United States as well as at the Office of Provost of Latin-American Studies
Curator of Contemporary Venezuelan Art and the issue of the Museum and the market at the Alejandro Otero Museum of Visual Art in Caracas during the late nineties, Juror of the National Biennale of Venezuelan Drawing, Research Professor at Center of Research and Development at The Superior University of Plastic Art Armando Reveron during the earlier nineties, Artistic Research Director of the Transart Foundation of Houston for Art and Anthropology, and complimentary research associate professor of the Department of Anthropology at Rice University between 1996 and 2004.
Adjunt Professor of Theory at ISA, University of the Arts, Havana, Guest Professor of the Jacobo Borges Museum, Guest Professor of the College of Fine Art of the University of Texas at Austin, Visiting Lecturer at UNEARTE, Experimental University of the Arts, Caracas and the National Art Gallery of Caracas.
The Author of many books in philosophy, linguistic, semiotic theory and cultural anthropology as well as on art from Texas, USA, Global Art, International Art and art from the Caribbean, especially Venezuela and Cuba, he also was the Guest editor of the Artlies Magazine of Texas in 2000 editing the issue 2000
A Major influential individual theoretician and intellectual figure in the merging new field of Art and Anthropology both of the innovative turns of the late nineties in postmodern anthropology as well as in Venezuela and Cuba as art critic and theoretician of the new avant-gardes
His fieldwork experience includes Urban Studies, Urban Popular Markets Folklores and traditions, Coffee Mountain Rural Farmers Life's and Religions, Urban Cultural Groups, and intercultural and transcultural translation, between another issues.
Director of the Experimental Workshop of Art and Anthropology, Produced in Caracas, with the results presented at Rice University, Houston, Texas, Guest Professor Lecturer of a Course in Interdisciplinary research of Semiotic Theory, Art Theory and Anthropology lectured at the Rice Media Center as Guest of the Department of Anthropology and the Transart Foundation of Houston for Art and Anthropology, Curator of Seven Exhibits at Rice University Campus focussing the issue of Art and Anthropology, Spring 1997, Houston, Texas
(The World correlate: interpretant and estructure in posmo...)
2017
Politics
During his early life as young thinker he was Marxist from a perspective of affinity with marxists as Mijail Bajtin and Terry Eagleton seen from a semiological perspective, with the progressive influence of structuralism in theoretical linguistic over his work and specially his interest and focus in semiology and logic from an abstract philosophical point of view, through the nineties he positioned through "neutral axiology", and with the critic of representation and of the subject that become major since the eighties through the nineties, he become mainly positioned until today 2026 through postmodernism in culture, while he positioned himself through the depolitization of theory, of life world and of everything, something in that period neoliberalism symbolized, so he experienced a period of years sympathetic to neoliberalism, while progresibly specially today he is taking distance from the repolitization of neoliberalism and to any form of right extremisms and of left extremisms as well. Mainly he thinks that politic, any kind of politic are irrationals and that as Octavio Paz expressed, "there is no future to man (to human being) in politic".
Despite from that, In general he might be understanded in general a very refined left thinker since ever to today, a kind Left center thinker
Personality
A Conceptualist in Philosophy and the Arts, he is a hard science thinker who elaborated his own systematic Theory, he consider himself as a posmodern anthropologist from the new generation, one of the main figures of a new innovative turn in anthropology and art theory from Texas since the late nineties 1997 with others such as Stephen A Tyler, Quetzil Eugenio Castaneda, Surpik Angelini and George E Marcus, he was also one of the main intellectual individualities of the Cuban avantgard of the second half of the Eighties in the visual art field, as well as later in Venezuela as Art Critic
"With an original Style and a german erudiction Abdel Hernandez San Juan is one of the most brillant personalities has merged from Cuban Culture after the Revolution", Gerardo Mosquera, Art Critic, A Theory in Pos of the Overflows, prologue to Abdel book Bordes and Overflows of Art: Adveniments of Transart
Quotes from others about the person
"One of those genious aviatión drivers capable to take off to the marvellous country from which the world of paradoxs and rational sistems is clear and distinguished from the heights but from which have opened a window to another liminality space and time aparently ephemeral but full of deep trues brings into being. From there have attained to discover the traps and enlighment the wells in the road of contemporary structuralismn and posestructuralism, the two colums of modern thought with all the variants of isms, movements and stylistic itsms contained in between"
Surpik Angelini, writer and critic, Houston, Texas
“As theoretician of social sciences even from cuba before exiting, his concepts and ideas was of an amazing, tremendus clearity, a very ussefull tool to comprehension and objective análysis. The sharp, penetrating and rigour of his thought mean a lot of benefits to me since having the posibility of our dialogue. Equally the phenomenological thesis of the imbrication he have made of Peirce semiótic in his work let and allow me to consider another ways to afford abstract thought, the philosophical thing, another points of view. Intellectually of a rigour impossible to be superated of a superior quality with all that complex and structured elaborations and arguments of ever and theoretically very high in its fly.
Perhaps, he are making Derrida say beyond him toward the way he have defined as "pasarelas" (narrow step level crossing) between language and non language, language and world, language and writing. He are moving Derrida to it's own limits reinterpreting him from Peirce which in his phenomenological terms the use he are doing of Derrida might be defined as certainly masterly. I must sustain in this point and affirm that within all the cuban philosophical thinking to today no one domain and know the semiótic of Peirce and Derrida philosophy as Abdel Hernandez San Juan, no one with his masterly and skill knowledge and the deeper form he have incorporated their sistem into a new theoretical constellation, into his own abstract articulated thought”.
Alberto Méndez suarez, Author of Wittgenstein: from the philosophy of language to the interpretation of culture, published at Exodus verlag, analytical philosopher, international university of florida, Miami, florida, 2022
“One of the great philosophers of the continent”
Ernesto león, professor of visual art, Houston, Texas
"In houston, sustained dialogues with abdel Hernández have been crucial to think throught all aspects of experimental ethnography, Hernández, breglia and Armstrong Fumero actively participated in the lake forest installations. All of these persons and others who participated in the field school áre deeply appreciated for their contributions”
Quetzil Eugenio Castañeda, between puré and applied anthropology: experimental ethnography in a transcultural tourist art world, NAPA boletín. Author of in the museum of maya culture: touring chichen Itza
I had just about given up hope that the aesthetic issues that were implicated in the so-called Writing Culture critique of anthropology during the 1980's would be developed by anthropologists themselves. Beyond the critique of the authority of ethnographic texts and of the conditions for the production of knowledge in the traditional mise-en-scène of fieldwork, these issues might have defined the ground for rethinking the longstanding forms and practices of anthropological research (the emblematic and defining fieldwork/ethnography paradigm of the discipline) that are so much challenged at present as anthropologists involve themselves with more complicated conditions and objects of inquiry.
For anthropologists to have explored the aesthetics of inquiry would have required styles of thinking, rhetoric, and practice--keyed to the notion of experimentation––that proved unacceptable to the boundary keeping institutional and professional rules of order in the academy. While anthropology during the 1980's was influenced more than ever (and vice versa) by theoretical developments in the academic humanities through interdisciplinary movements that were themselves caught up in self-images evoking historic avant-gardes (the "theory" tendency in literary studies, for example, had this imago), it was still obliged to be social scientific. Thus, any efforts at experimentation with the ethnographic form, beyond textual maneuvers, were understandably limited, largely rhetorical, and when substantive, idiosyncratic and certainly marginal.
Perhaps, this is as it should have been. While there have been some remarkable experimental texts exploring the relation between culture, the anthropological task, and aesthetics, produced through and from the trend of 1980's critique
Still the most compelling aspects of the Writing Culture critique of the 1980's opened questions about breaking the authoritative frames, not only of traditional ethnographic writing, but by implication of the traditional practices and professional regulative ideals of fieldwork in the name of such notions as collaboration, polyphony, reflexive inquiry, and dialogue. These were indeed radical alternative suggestions or hints for practice, and they could hardly be served by mere modifications in the way ethnographies were written or even traditional projects of fieldwork were conducted. Attempts to do so––the body of "experiments" we have––were for the most part considered to be weak, rhetorical, and idiosyncratic. One might conclude then that more radical experiments, touching upon the aesthetics of fieldwork, were something that anthropologists, operating between the critiques of the 1980s and the changing conditions of research in the 1990s onward, could benefit from, but which, because of the weight of the professional apparatus of power, authority, tradition, and self-interest, they could not do for themselves in any coherent way.
Abdel Hernández is a Cuban cultural theorist. In Caracas, Hernandez continued his anthropologically relevant work. Why his work should be of interest to anthropology is that it makes explicit and experimentally explores tendencies deeply a part of the ethos of the discipline having to do with a combination of scholarly distance and a more active participation in a culture but still within the frame of professional fieldwork.
Finally, there was the brief surge into "theater anthropology" in the late 70s and early 80s, based on the interesting partnership of Richard Schechner and Victor Turner, and the writings of Eugenio Barba, among others. The main inspiration for this in anthropology was the later work of Victor Turner, who early on had a strong sense of the value of understanding ethnographic settings in dramatistical terms. However, what Hernandez are up to is quite different than this earlier effort at theater anthropology. Turner was really bringing anthropology into the framework of theater, and Hernández have made the opposite sort of move with more radical and interesting results for effacing the boundaries of both art and anthropology as institutions. Also, Turner was less interested in matters of epistemology and method than in universalist and transcendent questions about mind and emotion that could be explored by making theatrical the rituals that anthropologists studied in the field among peoples like the Ndembu and the Kwakiutl. There was never the more provocative bringing of the experiment and the performance to the field, as in Hernandez's work.
Here, I refer to the idea of ethnography as performance, which has been one of the “key words" of possible alternative for anthropological practice in recent years. Also, there has been a more or less developed idea of ethnographic "competence" being performative. That is, the true standard of judgment of ethnographic interpretation and translation is whether the anthropologist "gets it right," not as judged by his professional peers but by the people he studies. Competence always begins with language, and anthropological folklore often focuses on who among the specialists in an area or region speaks the language “like a native.” To some extent, this very deep but underplayed and romantic ideal of very serious ethnography evokes the much disdained and naive "going native" syndrome.
Still, anthropologists have often sustained in their judgment of ethnography the related notion of competence or performativity. This perhaps had its most elaborate and scientistic expression in the ethnoscience/cognitive anthropology/new ethnography movement of the 1960s and 1970s (7). Indeed, the ability to play back category systems in speech to the native, to "elicit" action from them was to become the highest scientific standard for anthropology. Of course, this movement eventually fell on hard times once it went beyond color and kinship categories. But something of the same ideal has always been present in the interpretive/symbolic movement as well.
George E Marcus is an american professor of anthropology at the University of california, Irvine he was the editor of the University of Chicago press Late Editions: Cultural Studies for the End of the Century
Connections
He is married with venezuelan museologist Rosalia Victoria Galarraga Gallardo since 2003, living together currently in Caracas, he previously was in a long residence in Texas, living in the city of Houston, his sons from previous marriages are Emile Hernandez Mesa and Marcel Hernandez Perez, living in Tampa Florida, and Houston, Texas, respectibly.
Wife:
Victorial Galarraga
Rosalia Victoria Galarraga Gallardo, graduated from the University of Art Pedagogy in Caracas, during her all life she was teacher at the Cristobal Rojas School of Art, Assistance Curator of the Panamerican Biennale "Barro de America", and director of both art museums as well as the national sectorial direction of art museums, she was a research curator at the National Art Gallery in her earlier Years and represented Venezuela at the Venecy Bienal as well as in Brasil
Son:
Emile Hernandez Mesa
Living stablished in Tampa, Florida, USA Citizen
Son:
Marcel Hernandez Perez
Living stablished in Houston, Texas, USA Citizen
colleague and friend:
Quetzil Eugenio Castañeda
Abdel Hernandez San Juan and Quetzil Eugenio Castañeda, colleagues and friends of a same tendency turn and revival movement of theoretical thought, and research methodology from Houston, Texas, 1997, 1998 and from Chicago, Lake Forest 1999 and Florida 2000, participations together as lecturers in various panels, congress of ethnomethodology, University of Houston, AAA Congress of Anthropology, LASA, curatorial practices, Lake Forest Collegue, and sharing paper, Houston, Texas
Quetzil Eugenio Castañeda is the author of "In The Museum of Maya Culture: Touring Chichen Itza" and of essays as "The Invisible Theater of Ethnography: Performative Principles of Fieldwork", "The Past as Transcultural Space: The Use of Ethnographic Installation in the Study of Archaeology", "Between Pure and Applied Research", between others, he have developed the anthropology of tourism and is the director of the Open School of Ethnography and Anthropology in Yucatan, Mexico, Professor at Indiana University
colleague and friend:
Stephen A Tyler
Abdel Hernandez San Juan and Stephen A Tyler, colleagues and friends of a same tendency turn and revival movement of theoretical thought, and research methodology from Houston, Texas, developing together a book "Evocation: Philosophical Dialogues", as well as academic dialogues, colleagues professors at the Faculty staff at the Rice University Anthropology Department through many years, Abdel as complimentary research Associate Professor, Stephen as Autrey Professor
Stephen A Tyler, is the author of "The Unspeakable: Discourse, Rethoric and Dialogue in the Posmodern World", India: An Anthropological Perspective", "The Said and the Unsaid: Mind, Meaning and Culture" and of essays as "Posmodern Ethnography: from Document of the Ocult to an Ocult Document", he was the Editor of "Cognitive Anthropology" and Professor at the Department of Anthropology at Rice University
colleague and friend:
Alberto Mendez Suarez
Abdel Hernandez San Juan and Alberto Mendez Suarez, colleagues and friends of a same tendency turn and revival movement of theoretical thought, they both did toguether as coauthors the books "Counterpoints: Philosophical Dialogues", "Rumbos: Explorations in Cultural Anthropology" and "Plexus of Interstitiality: Epistemology of Theoretical Anthropology"
Alberto Mendez Suarez is the author of "Wittgenstein: from the Philosophy of language to the Interpretation of Culture" published by exodus and of essays and books on Quine, popper and the analytical tradition in philosophy, he studied philosophy at the International University of Florida and stablished living in Florida
colleague and friend:
Alessandro Morganti Debra
Abdel Hernandez San Juan and Alessandro Morganti Debra, colleagues and friends of a same tendency turn and revival movement of theoretical thought and research methodology, they both coautored the book "Inference and Elucidation: Interdisciplinary Hermeneutic Research of Cultural Anthropology between Semiotic Theory, Art Theory and Social Archaeology.
Alessandro Montanti is a born in Italy Archaeologist while also Fresh nationalized from mom family, he graduated as archaeologist at the Central University of Venezuela in the Legacy of latinoamerican marxist archaeology such as Mario Sanoja and Iraida Vargas, he costudied at the Autonoma University of Mexico under the tutory of Luis Felipe Bate is coauthor of the book of Prehistoric Archaeology "Cazadores y Recolectores de Monte Cano, Paraguana" shared with venezuelan anthropologist María Elena Rodríguez, a book based in his archaeological fieldwork in Paraguana Peninsula on Prehistoric Cultural of Prehispanic Amerindians
Art Criticism as Anthropology of Art. By Abdel Hernandez San Juan
Editorial publication of Semiotic of Art and Culture monographies on Contemporary Artists By Abdel Hernandez San Juan selected and presented by Hyphoteses.org, Open Edition Books, the school of hight studies of humanities and social science, and the universities of Avignon and Masella, France, 2025
2025
The Phenomenological Genesis of Sign and Language. By Abdel Hernandez San Juan
Editorial publication of Philosophy and anthropology By Abdel Hernandez San Juan including some of the Abdel author books, philosophical dialogues, lectures and curatorial practices, selected and presented by Hyphoteses.org, Open Edition Books, the school of high studies of humanities and social science, and the universities of Avignon and Masella, France, 2025
First National Prize of Interdisciplinary Projects of Art and Social Sciences in Urban Field Studies,
Cuba
First National Prize of Interdisciplinary Projects of Art and Science, was a Prize assigned to him by the cuban national Phototeca, House of Photography Research, The Project itself Titled "HACER", was a conjuntion of urban microsociology fieldwork and urban cultural anthropology with medias and experimentalism of Conceptual Art in Havana
First National Prize of Interdisciplinary Projects of Art and Science, was a Prize assigned to him by the cuban national Phototeca, House of Photography Research, The Project itself Titled "HACER", was a conjuntion of urban microsociology fieldwork and urban cultural anthropology with medias and experimentalism of Conceptual Art in Havana
First National Prize of Interdisciplinary Projects of Art and Social Science in Rural Field Studies "Pilon",
Cuba
First national Prize of Intedisciplinary Projects of Art and Social Science in Rural Field Studies was a Prize assigned to him by the National Asociaton of Young Creator Hermanos Saiz, The Project evolved 10 months of Rural sociology and Anthropology fiedlwork in the coast and motain communities of Pilon studies of ritual, everyday life and local religions, a conjuntion of social science with experimental Conceptual Art Medias
First national Prize of Intedisciplinary Projects of Art and Social Science in Rural Field Studies was a Prize assigned to him by the National Asociaton of Young Creator Hermanos Saiz, The Project evolved 10 months of Rural sociology and Anthropology fiedlwork in the coast and motain communities of Pilon studies of ritual, everyday life and local religions, a conjuntion of social science with experimental Conceptual Art Medias
