The Bienal

Since Americans cannot freely travel to Cuba, a license based on a travel purpose is required. Ours was to study Cuban art, particularly the Havana Bienal. This is a citywide art exposition of largely third world art including many Cuban artists. It is amazing that a country with such limited economic and technological resources can pull off something like this. But the Cubans did.

The work was in galleries, forts, former army barracks, old buildings, neighborhoods, along the seaside Malecon and in places that even in a week we could not discover. The work was traditional, edgy, political, spiritual, decorative, grand and intimate. There were installations, sculpture, performances, collaborations, painting, prints, drawings and more. The quality and intensity were admirable. There will soon be a copy of the Bienal catalog in the Cincinnati Art Museum Library for anyone who is interested.

Tour buses carried art professionals from around the world to Bienal venues, including many collectors eager to scoop up Cuban art. I was impressed for example by the studio of Kcho in the neighborhood where he grew up and now works and educates. He led a crowd through the neighborhood accompanied by costumed dancers on stilts from performance venue to performance venue. Jose Toirac did a series of images in which he compared the words of Castro to the words of Christ.  A young Cuban pianist improvised music to a score made from patterns in nature generated by Glenda Leon.