CROWD WELCOMES OPENING BEHIND THE WALL

JUAN DELGADO CALZADILLA

The wall structure is itself a sign of prohibition that can mean no entrance and of course is a call to stop. A wall is usually a not only physical, but mental border, an ambiguous meeting of fears and hopes. "

The curator Juan Delgado Calzadilla, has called this proposal En medio de la nada (In the middle of nowhere). "[The Wall] also participates in the condition of being- no man's land border-, of being expression of nothing in its various interpretations, Western and Eastern."

He assured to the Trabajadores newspaper that "Behind the Wall ... stands as a project where people can meditate and reflect on the good contemporary art, and share with the artists. The idea has been accepted by more than one hundred artists from several countries. It covers all art forms beyond the arts, where the sensory occupies a central role."

Granma newspaper says the project "Behind the Wall" records that "the event bets on summon artworks that encourage interaction with the public."

In other statements to Tribuna de La Habana, he confirmed that the super goal of the project is to turn that area of the city into a major cultural event. "I would like to someday to turn the Malecon in a place where we can see a museum, even where you can discuss, reflect and express, through art, the light of hope."

"To the first edition 35 artists attended, some from abroad who maintained a relationship with Cuba, and in this occasion fifty projects have been presented and creators from Colombia, Mexico, United States, Dominican Republic and Panama, as well as artists from the exodus who live in the United States from a long time ago and who want to meet Cuba through the art that represents the Biennale.”

Also Cuban artists are attending this edition who developed their work in the fifties, and for forty seven did not come to Cuba, and I invited them to participate in this proposal that has acquired, in a way, the sense of confrontation of ideas and dialogue, as I would like to turn Detrás del Muro (Behind the wall) in a Cuban family with a universal sense.

"I aspire to be a foundation where we support and conceptualize the arts, and we can turn the boardwalk on a big stage, a big museum; where the sea that leads us to infinite help us to keep thinking and keep talking the Cuban language, because the word listening and knowing how to listen reinforces the images on canvas and cardboard or in the sculptural dimension, which would help to assess the creations deserve a future of hope.”

The project Detrás del Muro (Behind the wall) was exposed in the 8th Floor of the Rubin Foundation in New York, and at the headquarters of the Rockefeller Foundation, New Jersey, as well as at the Center for Development of Visual Arts on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the Havana Biennale. In the same way a book was made, and its documentary was exhibited at the Montreal Film Festival and the Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana.

Juanito is responsible for museology, together with other specialists and critics as Elvia Rosa Castro, Jose Fernandez, Idalma Fontirroche and Daniel González Alfonso. The artists come from Germany, Spain, United States, Colombia, Panama, Norway, Mexico, Morocco, Ireland and Dominican Republic.