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 The artists had been indignant at the delay of the state-run
arts extravaganza, which typically takes over Havana for a month
and allows them to showcase their art to international
collectors, galleries and curators.
They said they felt the decision to postpone it to 2019 had to
do with the political transition this year and a fear of
anything that could cause instability. Cuba named a new
president last month, Miguel Diaz-Canel, to replace Raul Castro.
While the "00Biennial" which runs for 10 days until May 15 does
not have the scope of the official one, it is offering an
unusual independent platform for artists in a country where the
state dominates all aspects of society.
The government has criticized it as a "provocative maneuver" but
allowed it to go ahead, something unthinkable 10 years ago,
according to organizer and artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara.
"We are not against the Havana biennial," Otero Alcantara told
the crowd at the event's inauguration on Saturday outside his
home in Old Havana which is hosting a dozen exhibits.
"But why should we not project our ideas from an alternative
platform or that of individual art?"
Cuba punches above its weight culturally, partly because the
Communist government has invested in heavily in the arts since
the country's 1959 revolution, seeking to make culture less
elitist and more universally accessible.
Otero Alcantara said the 00Biennial, which is taking place in
the independent studios that have flourished throughout Havana
in recent years as the country has opened up, does not aim to
attack Cuban institutions or showcase political art.
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However, Cuba’s National Union of Writers and Artists accused it
this week of creating "a climate propitious to promoting the
interests of the enemies of the nation.”
Cuba’s longtime foe, the United States, has in the past provided
funds to promote anti-establishment artists as part of efforts to
foster political change on the island.
Many Cuban artists say they are tired of that being used as an
excuse to shut down independent arts movements, and complained about
pressure from authorities not to participate.
The 00Biennial is focused on a wide range of artists, including
Cuba's rappers who usually struggle to reach their public given a
state monopoly on media and other public spaces.
But it is also showcasing artists working within the establishment,
like Reynier Leyva Novo, who has exhibited work at the official
Havana Biennial as well as the Cuban state pavilion at the Venice
Biennial.
In what he called a performance, Leyva Novo sold an artwork to the
National Council of Visual Arts and donated the $3,800 payment to
the 00Biennial, to undercut government accusations of it receiving
"funds of the mercenary counter-revolution."
"They try to discredit you saying you are counterrevolutionary," he
said. "But really this is a genuine cultural project in the absence
of an official space."
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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