Visual Arts for 30 days

By: Mireya Castañeda

The Havana Biennial, considered the most important international event taking place in Cuba, will be carried out with a curatorship concept “away from the classic canons”keeping the challenge of fitting to the new times and art conditions”, according to Jorge Fernandez, director of the Biennial and the Wilfredo Lam Contemporary Art Center.

The Havana Biennial to celebrate its 30 anniversary from May 22 to June 22.

Between the idea and the experience is the theme of this event and the artists to discourse on the most decisive problems in the present time.

“Focused on the creation process, this 12th edition is conceived towards a perspective of the art beyond the museums and galleries, favoring the social insertion, the multidisciplinary projects and the multiplicity characterizing today the contemporary art.”

Each edition of the biennial has responded to the specific moment, in which it has been carried out and it has keep the artists’ motivation, noted Fernandez. A prove of this is the amount of artists with individual and collective projects that will participate in the event. They include 200 of 44 countries like Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, and Europe.

On his part, Ruben del Valle, president of the National Council of Plastic Arts said that there will be a wide programming of Cuban art through the work by over 100 artists.

Fernandez also reiterated that this edition “conceived as opened structure” with an effect on cultural institutions, squares and parks, will be carrying out through the historical part of the old Havana, Centro Habana, Playa, Plaza de la Revolución, Ve¬dado and Casablanca."

Also, the exhibitions at known spaces like the Lam Center or the Development Center for the Visual Arts and the Photographic Library of Cuba, both located at the PlazaVieja, in Old Havana, as well as the High Institute of Art, the Latin American Center for Culture, The Yara movie and the Pabellón Cuba cultural center.

Among the most significant events, Fernadez mentioned the 2nd edition of the project titled DetrásdelMuro (on the Havana’s seafront), the Zona Franca exhibition at the Morro-Cabaña Complex and the Entre, dentro, fuera exhibition at the Pabellón Cuba cultural center.

The curatorial group expressed is purpose “to explore different ways of those related to the mega exhibition” and involve “what has been one of the most prized resources in the Havana Biennial: being in direct contact with the city and the people.”

Margarita González, artistic director of the Biennial, noted that favoring the presence of art in the street has been a practice since the beginnings, but this time it is something essential.

According to the specialist, one of the treated concepts is the art in its place; that is the Biennial will be taking place in different places of the city, where each artist is going to work.

Other exhibition places are the Cathedral square in Old Havana where Italian artistMichelangelo Pistoletto will make a performance, although a total of 58 artists and the Ciudad Creativa project will be present in Old Havana; the Colon neighborhood, the Terminal of National Buses, the theater of the El ciervoencantado group, the University of Havana and the organic museum of Romerillo (M.O.R), a project by know Cuban artist Kcho.

Among the collective projects (composed of Cuban and foreign artists)mentioned are the interdisciplinary workshop in the Colon neighborhood. Art, architecture and design; &#8203Montañas con esquina rota; Entre, Dentro, Fuera / Between, Inside, Outsideand Mirando por cóncavo y convexo.

What does distinguish the Havana Biennial from the others at international level? According to art critic and curator Nelson Herrera, it mainly contributes expressions and artists of regions not so promoted at international level; that is making emphasis on Africans, Asians, Arabs, artists from the Caribbean region not usual in international events.

It is been 30 years turning Havana into a huge art gallery for 30 days.

Source: Granma