Damián Valdés Dilla (1970, Havana) built his first model city using small bits of wood when he was about forty years old. He created structures resembling skyscrapers – tower-like buildings featuring pyramid-shaped roofs and clocks that he stacked on top of each other, always densely packed. Later, however, the wood he required became hard to source and was no longer sufficient for his projects, so he began to employ materials he salvaged. Valdés Dilla eventually turned to drawing to expand his universe. His graphic works depict monumental metropolises with fantastical perspectives, an often-violent atmosphere, and vehicles of all sorts: planes, helicopters, ships, buses and more. Yet in spite of their abundant detail, these works are systematically bereft of human presence.

Valdés Dilla has always lived in Alamar, a dormitory suburb of Havana consisting exclusively of five-storey Soviet-style buildings. During his teens, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered attacks of paranoia. He receives treatment to limit the effects of his illness, and has been able to work a number of different jobs, although not on a regular basis. Valdés Dilla is a convert to Islam – a religion he has adapted to his own philosophy of life – and always carries with him the Quran, a prayer rug and his “kufi”, a traditional prayer cap.