The biennial is running until end of April 2009. The theme of this year is “Integration and Resistance in the Global Age”. Havana is a highly cultural city, I had the chance to be there when the biennial started and I can report on some of the exhibitions I saw.
What stroke me is the biennial’s attempt to be the voice of another globalized world, from China to Brazil. The curatorial approach subtly highlighted both the reality of the Global Age, as well as the similarities between Cuba and other parts of the world. Sadly, the website of the biennial was down when I tried to consult the program, so I cannot document properly everything that I saw.
China: contemporary art reviewed
Centro Hispanoamericano de la Cultura
“Since its inception in 1984, the Havana Biennial has established a cultural dialogue with peripheral countries like China. The last two decades were characterized by a new geopolitical restructuring as a consequence to some extent of the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 – an event regarded as a consequence and not a cause of political decisions that in a way put an end to the cold war. From that moment on the Domino Effect broke out, extending its tentacles all around the world. Cuba was involuntary immersed since 1990 in the Special Period, crowned by austerity and recession. China, on the other hand, stands out since then as one of the greatest powers of the present time. Holding its arm extended to Cuba in a gesture of fraternity and cooperation. The relation between both countries is historical. The first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived to the island of Cuba in 1847 to work as labourers in the sugar plantations, thus replacing the African slave labour force. One of the greatest artistic exponents of the 20th century had his ethnic heritage – the Cuban artist Wifredo Lam, who was born in Sagua la Grande in 1902 with Chinese origin from his father and Cuban-African from the mother.”, Tereza de Arruda, curator.
School of Heaven, Wang Chengyun
Paulo Bruscky exhibition
“…By the use of Mail Art as a vehicle of freedom and transgression of censorship, Bruscky was in jail during the military dictatorship. Unquiet and experimental artist he is also recognized as one of the firsts in the artistic application of diverse technologies such as electronic recording, slides projection, facsimiles, super-8 films, video, off-set and mimeograph and also as forerunner of video art. A hunter of images and restless collector he counts on more than 75 thousand objects including the biggest Mail Art archive in the world. That´s why he has been regarded as an artist-activist-archivist man…”, http://www.cubancontemporaryart.com
Sculpture on El Prado
Metal elephants from José Emilio Fuentes Fonseca
Articles about the biennial:
- http://www.miamiherald.com/living/story/982650-p2.html
- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/arts/design/01bien.html
[...] is hosting 52 Cuban artists in addition to Melis, and in keeping with the Biennale’s theme of “Integration and Resistance In the Global Era” the work is edgy and topical, and often moves boldly beyond the white cube. As all art is vetted by [...]