At Havana Biennial, art reflects the political thaw

At Havana Biennial, art reflects the political thaw
BY SIOBHAN MORRISSEY

HAVANA
With art, as in life, the beach is always a big draw. Visitors to the
12th Havana Biennial have been flocking to enjoy the inspired
installation of a makeshift beach by Cuban artist Arles del Rio. Located
along a stretch of the famed Malecón seawall and esplanade, the beach
has become a gathering point for foreigners and locals alike. On any
given day, children can be seen turning cartwheels or making sand
castles there while the adults relax on white lounge chairs beneath tiki
huts and palm trees.

The beach, on display through June 22, serves as a perfect metaphor for
both the laid-back international art exhibition and for recent improved
relations between the United States and Cuba. The perceived sense of
impending change has prompted many Americans to visit Cuba before the
country modernizes and loses its Old World charm. Among them is Omaha
attorney Howard Hahn, who opted to celebrate his 70th birthday in Cuba
during the biennial because he wanted to see the country before foreign
money turned it into a resort, indistinguishable from other Caribbean
islands. Hahn and his wife, Carol, were among a group of nine people on
an educational tour that I joined with the express intention of seeing
the biennial.

The 12th Havana Biennial — titled "Between the Idea and the Experience"
— is unlike any modern art show on the planet. To begin, the name is a
misnomer. Most biennials, as the name implies, occur every two years.
But Havana operates by its own rules, with its own sense of time.
Sometimes the event occurs in two-year cycles, but most often three and
sometimes even four years slip by before art again takes over the city.

What further distinguishes Havana's from other biennials is that it
features artists from countries that do not habitually show up on the
international art rosters, such as Afghanistan and Aruba, Curaçao and
the Congo. Although the Havana Biennial also highlights art from heavy
hitters — such as Anish Kapoor, whose individual works often exceed $1
million, and Daniel Buren, whose work was featured in a retrospective at
New York's Armory Show this year — its primary focus is community-based
art and work not normally exhibited in gallery or museum spaces. The
exhibition goes to great lengths to remove the museum walls and make art
accessible to the man on the street.

In particular, many of the monumental installations in and around the
Malecón invite audience participation. Rachel Valdés Camejo's Cubo Azul
attracts lines of curious people who want to enter her giant glass cube
that gives the sensation of seeing the world through blue-colored
glasses. Duke Riley's ice hockey rink across the street attracts both
spectators and participants. Children, especially, do not need an
invitation to climb all over Liudmila López's Parto a la Libertad
installation, which in essence is a beautifully stylized slide.

Although the official program lists more than two dozen exhibition
spaces, it seems as though the whole city — whether invited or not — is
participating. Citywide, art studios and schools, galleries and museums
are all brushing off their best art. And those artists who weren't
invited to the party often opt to throw their own, as was the case of
Damian Aquiles, an established contemporary artist who repurposes paint
cans and other metal into spheres of interconnected letters, wall
sculptures, and even elegant siding for the entrance to the home he
shares with his wife, Pamela Ruiz, and their son in the Vedado district.
The show, titled "With friends like you…" also featured work by artists
Luis Gomez, Ernesto Leal, Nelson & Liudmila, Bastian Silvestre and
Antonio Gomez Margolles.

The National Museum of Fine Arts also offers special exhibits in
conjunction with the biennial — this year, curated exhibits of
contemporary Cuban artists Tomás Sánchez and Gustavo Pérez Monzón. The
latter includes a selection of works from the Ella Fontanals Cisneros
collection and will be shown through Aug. 24. In one installation not to
be missed, Pérez Monzón created a spider web of wire, elastic thread and
stones in a work titled Vilos that he inaugurated in 1981 and reprised
for the biennial.

A biennial events pass provides free access to the museum, in addition
to biennial events and exhibitions. Though they are available online,
ours was included with our package tour from Cuba Educational Travel
that included visits to see artists at work at the National School of
Fine Arts and the Taller Experimental de Gráfica, a printmaking studio
in Old Havana.

Collectors can also purchase first-rate Cuban art at the Zona Franca,
located in a 16th century fort overlooking Havana Harbor at the Parque
Histórico Militar Morro Cabaña. But you may not be able to take it off
the walls until the show concludes. That was the case with works by
Harold López Muñoz, whose paintings, which range in price from $3,000 to
$5,000, reference fragments of party slogans found on city walls and how
they weigh on the collective psyche of everyday people.

The structure of this year's biennial, which loosely celebrates the 30th
anniversary of the show that began in 1984, lends itself to a conga line
of art shows that seamlessly join the official curated exhibits. The
organizers of the Havana Biennial, headed by Jorge Fernández Torres, who
also serves as director of Old Havana's Wifredo Lam Center, deliberately
designed the biennial without borders so that it would engulf the whole
of Havana, and perhaps the whole of Cuba.

According to the official website of the Biennial Foundation, "This
year, the program of activities includes performances from the worlds of
dance, theatre, music, film and literature. In the words of one of the
organizers: 'It won't be a Biennial for collectors or gallerists, but
rather to make a connection with the city.' There will be no official
opening or specific venue; art will spill out of the galleries, bursting
into the streets, which will be bubbling with ideas."

This organic evolution of Havana's biennial ensures a chaotic and
colorful experience for collectors and art enthusiasts who are used to
more organized events such as the Venice Biennale, where exhibits are
usually clustered in a few easily identifiable venues.

Because the art is spread throughout the city, the best way to see it is
on foot. Or, be adventurous and try a pedicab. A cross between a
rickshaw and a bicycle, the pedicab will enable you to see the city from
the ground up, and you can easily stop to take pictures.

Although there is a map that provides precise coordinates of where the
art is located, it is more of a suggestion than a precise science. If
you enjoy the journey more than the destination, it can be a lot of fun
looking for the art. Even if you cannot find every exhibit, you will see
a lot of amazing graffiti as you embark on your hunt. That graffiti will
likely disappear when the city undergoes an inevitable renovation in the
coming years.

If you make it to Havana, try to squeeze in a side trip to the UNESCO
World Heritage city of Trinidad, which is roughly four hours away by
bus. The artists there are also presenting their best works in honor of
the biennial. One such artist, Osley Ramón Ponce Yznaga created an
extraordinary work using brightly colored pencils. By strategically
placing the pencils on a Styrofoam base, Ponce created a pig that
balanced on the tip of a carving knife while spinning around in a circle.

Ponce called his creation Jugando con el Destino, which translates to
"Playing with Destiny." That title took on more meaning when a member of
our group, Dallas oilman Bradley Jeffreys, sought to bring the pig home.
In a way, the pig is an object lesson in what can happen when attempting
to ship art purchased abroad, where crating and packaging options are
limited.

When pigs fly — at least in the case of the pencil pig — they have to go
as cargo. While the Cuban baggage handlers treated the pig with kid
gloves, his journey from Miami to Dallas proved problematic. When the
plane landed in Dallas around midnight, the pig bumped along the baggage
conveyor belt with one of his legs severed from his body.

Despite the shocking devastation, Jeffreys says he thoroughly enjoyed
the biennial and remains optimistic about his pig's recovery. His
prognosis: "The pig will dance again."

VISITING THE BIENNIAL
The Havana Biennial runs through June 22. An event pass provides free
access to the National Museum of Fine Arts in addition to biennial
events and exhibitions; it costs $50 at www.bienalhabana.cult.cu/.

Art sprawls through Havana, but for the most part, exhibitions are
clustered at three sites. The Zona Franca (which translates to duty-free
zone) in the Parque Morro-Cabaña houses an exhibition of about 200 Cuban
artists in this former military fort near the Morro Castle. (There is
also a sculpture garden with monumental works that range from a pink
slide in the shape of a tongue to a collection of colorful ice cream
cones.) The Wifredo Lam Center for Contemporary Art in Old Havana (Calle
San Ignacio 22, 7 861-3419) which houses a significantly smaller
exhibit, also has some pretty impressive art in the offices of the
people who work there. The National Museum of Fine Arts of Havana (Museo
Nacional de Bellas Artes, Calle Trocadero at the corner of Zulueta and
Monserrate) features special Biennial exhibits by Cuban artists Tomás
Sánchez and Gustavo Pérez Monzón.

Source: At Havana Biennial, art reflects the political thaw | Miami
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