Talking with Juanito Delgado, Curator for the BEHIND THE WALL Project

Behind the wall (Detras del muro), a collaborative project of the Eleventh Havana Biennial in which Cuban and foreign artists come together to make a colossal intervention of Havana’s Malecon seafront (from Malecon and Prado to Malecon and Principe), has generated great expectations in the public due to several reasons. In the first place the participating artists, a combination of creators from different generations and trends who, in many cases, bet on a piece that is far from their usual work in a formal manner and centers on the potentiality of urban intervention. And also, of course, because of the space where it will take place, a true icon of the Cuban capital.

On Wednesday morning, we had the opportunity to talk with Juan Delgado Calzadilla, the exhibition’s curator, who told us about some of the challenges faced by the team made up of Elvia Rosa Castro, Idalma Fontirroche and Jose Fernandez (Wifredo Lam Center of Contemporary Art)…

«The Malecon as the axis for the curatorship fits perfectly well for the Biennial, as it ‘is’ social imagery, I think it is the most democratic place for the Cubans, not only for those living in the capital city, but also for visitors. The Malecon has witnessed many moments of happiness, sadness and disappointment. I live by the malecon, and I confess that intervene it satisfies my vanity, my ego, in this great homage to the great goddess of the sea (Yemaya, The Virgen of Regla); it is also an homage to the past, the present and the future.

Adonis Flores. Faith, 2011

«Behind the wall includes more than 20 proposals by artists from different generations and trends, a range that goes from maestro Roberto Fabelo to the young student of the Higher Institute of Art Roberto Fabelo Hung, going through Rafael Domenech, Rachel Valdes, Adonis Flores, Marianela Orozco, Aimee Garcia, Alejandro Gonzalez, Donis Dayan, Elizabet Cerviño, Fidel E. Alvarez, Florencio Gelabert, Humberto Diaz, Inti Hernandez, Carlos Martiel, Maria Magdalena Campos, Reynier Leyva Novo, Arles del Rio, Duvier del Dago, Esterio Segura, Alexandre Arrechea, Jose Ruiz (Spain), Guillermo Rodriguez (Puerto Rico) and others. I very attracted to the opportunity of creating a dialogue among so many different works. I believe this can be possible as long as younger ones are talented enough, and as long as there is a master with a proposal that is contemporary enough.

«The pieces are going to be on display at the seafront from May 13 to June 11. And I can tell you now that some of them may remain there for a longer time… the performances will take place only on the 13^th, except for that by Aimee Garcia, who is going to stay there with her big embroidered shawl, Purity, for five days.

«Some ‘magical’ things have happened: Rachel Valdes, who is going to stage her work in Malecon and Principe, happened to find an image of the Virgen of Regla buried in the reef. Love can do anything, and this has been a project of too love, where the positive mind has prevail in any mishaps.

«I’m very thankful for the artists’ support, the team I work with, the people from the Historian’s Office and the Malecon Plan. We have come up with a great team around the project precisely because of the expectations it has generated. It is a huge challenge, a responsibility, not only for us the organizers, but also for the creators, while they can produce pieces for public space in connection with Behind the Wall and with their personal poetics.

«I think this project should not be limited to the malecon space, I hope there will be some international proposals. Besides, I like documenting every exhibition I work in very well, that’s why we are thinking of make a book, with the support of Gilbert Brownstone, that we have dreamed of as being a record of the past, present and future of Behind the Wall.»

AxENews also interviewed Jose Ruiz, one of the artists included in the project. Wait for his comments in upcoming issues.