2019 BIENNIAL OF HAVANA
On April 12, the city of Havana inaugurated the most important event in art that celebrates the Caribbean country. The 13th Biennial of Havana brings together more than fifteen countries and a hundred artists in order to encourage interaction between artists, curators, experts and institutions. Construction of the Possible, the premise of this edition, aims to establish a space for those types of contemporary art that understand creation as "living event or experience in progress".
Within the framework of the biennial, the general curator, Nelson Herrera, defined the event as a gesture that transforms the Caribbean island into a "cultural corridor". Throughout a month, Cuba is inserted in the international scene as a bridge between the productions of American artists. Within this context, the directors of the National Council of Plastic Arts and the Wilfredo Lam Contemporary Art Center emphasized the need for art to invade the capital and the country.
In response to this, in addition to the central sector of the biennial, centers and institutions such as the Factoría Habana, the Museum of Colonial Art, the House of Poetry, El Quitrín, Casa de Asia, Casa de África, Fototeca de Cuba and the Center of Development of the Visual Arts present exhibitions and projects to enhance the artistic scene.
At the Wilfredo Lam Contemporary Art Center, on the other hand, artists from all over Latin America as Camilo Yañez (Chile), David Beltrán (Cuba), Maya Watanabe (Peru), Adler Guerrier (Haiti), Abdoulaye Konaté (Mali), Alexia Miranda (El Salvador), TRES (Mexico), Clemens Krauss (Germany), Fernando Foglino (Uruguay), Ibrahim Ahmed (Egypt) and Tamara Campo (Cuba) exhibit.
The 13th Biennial of Havanna is constituted as an event that aims to give continuity to the foundational projections that formed it and to put them in dialogue with the current conditions of the world "in which the nuclear and warmongering threats have intensified, the xenophobia, the racism, forced displacements, fascist tendencies, violence against those who are different, ethnic-cultural conflicts, inequality, terrorism, the systematic use of lies and an environmental crisis that threatens the survival of the human species itself " they say.
Varaderos series, homage to Leopoldo Romañach
As part of the program of the biennial, the duo of Atelier Morales (Teresa Ayuso & Juan Luis Morales) carries out a tribute to the Cuban painter Leopoldo Romañach (1862-1951), the great painter of the marine landscape.
Thus, Varaderos is constituted as a photographic testimony of the deterioration of the beaches and the original architectural heritage on the Cuban coasts. Photographs that portray assets adrift.
"Both estates are lost due to climate changes. In parallel to these ecological damages, important houses and historic buildings have been demolished in that legendary beach of Varadero, for real estate tourist interests ", explain the artists.
The series registers cabins of the former Residencial Yacht Club of the agency of the architects Moenck and Quintana (Nicolás Quintana), the famous Hotel Varadero Internacional of Mira and Rosich (both completely demolished recently) and a dozens of traditional wooden houses, singing and stone of the early twentieth century. These buildings together with the vernacular architecture form an important part of the Cuban identity: "An identity inseparable from the Republic, very different from the Cuban colonial architecture near the sea that consists basically of fortifications and ports".
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The 13th Biennial of Havana takes place until May 12.
