Decima Bienal de la Habana

Decima Bienal de la Habana
Integración y Resistencia en la Era Global

10th Havana Biennial
Integration and Resistance in the Global Era

Havana, Cuba, 27 March - 30 April 2009

This article was first commissioned by Art World Australasia Edition.

Since Havana’s 4th Biennial in 1991, the sprawling complex of 16-18th century fortifications known as Parque Morro-Cabaña has been the event’s principal venue. Situated across the harbour mouth from Habana Vieja (the old town), this austerely beautiful setting provides an exceptionally fine venue for the exhibition of contemporary art. Long pavilions of vaulted storerooms contain a series of discrete yet linked chambers, accessible from both the outside and through connecting doorways. The absence of distracting architectural detail (walls are simple whitewashed plaster), creates a satisfying focus for the work of individual artists, collective and interactive projects. The Biennial also has a long tradition of including independently curated Projectos Collectivos (group shows) and one-person shows by Invitados Especiales (specially invited luminaries) in its program, mounted in diverse colonial and 20th century buildings throughout Habana Vieja and Vedado. The result is an event that enlivens an already vibrant city and encompasses most of its museums and public galleries.

The theme ‘Integration and Resistance in a Global Era’, as well as providing a broad curatorial framework, conveniently summarises Cuba’s wider cultural and economic dilemma in the early 21st century. There is a real prospect, at the time of writing, that the 50-year old US blockade may soon be lifted, or at least eased. Add to this the spectre of internal generational change, and the country appears poised on the verge of immense upheaval, restless for it, yet fearful that the modest gains of socialism may be lost in a frenzied capitalist free-for-all. Cuba occupies a unique frontline position, both geographical and political, in relation to the ‘Northern hegemony’, and many participating artists have no doubt been selected with this in mind. The brandmarks of Western capitalism are a recurrent presence through the work of many, along with the visual ephemera of financial meltdown, but this is not the ironic work of cultural insiders, rather the view from outside, looking in.

Installation, photography and screen/time-based work predominates, with little contemporary painting in evidence, and that mainly from China. Given Cuba’s strong painting tradition, this is slightly surprising, with José Bedia the only contemporary Cuban painter of note, featured in a 3-person tribute show (with the late Wilfredo Lam and Raúl Martínez) Risistencia y Libertad, at the Museum of Fine Arts. Elsewhere senior figures such as Abel Barosso and Raul Estrada Aguilar (Cuba), Ronald Duarte and José Paulo (Brasil), Marcus Lopez (Argentina), Marcela Diáz (Mexico), Claudia Aravena Agughosh (Chile), Raul Quintanilla (Nicaragua) and Alex Burke (Martinique/France) rub shoulders with emergent collectives and individuals from across Latin America, the Carribbean, Africa, Australia and Europe (mainly Spain and France). USA-based artists tend to have Latin American connections and an overtly political practice, for example Erica Lord, Titus Kaphar, Loring McAlping. Asia is under-represented, and the Indian subcontinent not at all. China’s presence is boosted by a small but solid group show China: Contemporary Art Revisited, and new Cuba-based work by painter Liu Xiaodong, whose large-scale Hot Bed (painting/installation, 2005-06) will be remembered by Australian audiences at the 2006 Sydney Biennale. Invitados Especiales include León Ferrari (Argentina), Paulo Bruscky (Brasil), Guillermo Gómez Peña (Mexico), Fernell Franco (Colombia), Sue Williamson (South Africa), Hervé Fischer (Canada), Shigeo Fukuda (Japan) and Pepón Osorio (Puerto Rico), and some of these gave performances and talks during the inaugural week.

Australia achieves critical mass with work by Tony Albert (photographs), Darren Siwes (photographs) Guan Wei (installation/painting), Michael Goldberg (video/installation/performance), Gerry Wedd (ceramics) and Danius Kesminas’ Jogyakarta-based group Punkasila (installation/performance). Much of this work is not new to Australian audiences - Tony Albert’s ironic 50 Percent series of self-portraits dates from 2007 and Guan Wei’s whole-room installation Rising Sea Level was seen at Campbelltown Regional Gallery as part of News From Islands in 2007. Destiny Deacon and Virginia Fraser’s profound and moving installation Home Security (2007) is part in the independently curated (by Régine Cuzin, France) touring show Latitudes, as is New Zealander Lisa Reihana’s impressive installation Digital Marae (2007). Mounted in the accessible Centro de Desarollo de las Artes Visuales in Habana Vieja, this show has excited considerable interest among ordinary Cubans, and is one of the more substantial Projectos Collectivos.

This 10th Biennial takes place on the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Revolution, and marks the 25th anniversary of the event’s founding in 1984. There are 200 artists from 40 countries. These numbers have a pleasing symmetry, suggesting curatorial consolidation of an event that has long punched well above the weight of Cuba’s 2nd world economy and 11.5 million population. This can be said of many Cuban achievements, and the contradictions are ever-present: the highest life expectancy (76) and literacy rate (95.7%) in Latin America; a command economy centralised in a pervasive state apparatus; doctors earning less than taxi drivers. All the more extraordinary then that such a large, professional and confident Biennial has been mounted, comparable in depth and breadth to many of the world’s best. This extends beyond curatorial and exhibition production values to superb publications and contemporary graphic branding, signage and wayfinding systems. Only the rather rudimentary website is a letdown – a pity for those unable to attend.

Ruben del Valle Lantarón and his curatorial team are in fact building on a long tradition of excellence and internationalism established under the remarkable Lillian Llanes, who directed 5 Biennials between 1984 and 1999, spanning the years of the ‘Special Period’ when famine stalked the land after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is Llanes who is credited with developing the decentralised Biennial model, taking the art out of the museums and into the streets, and initiating numerous ‘collateral’ events – workshops and installations across the city – an approach which has been broadly adopted the world over. Havana has long had an emphasis on the art of the Third World and the ‘Economic South’, along with a commitment to nurturing dialogue among participants through corollary ‘theoretical’ programs, approaches which are now de rigeur in Europe. Llanes’ legacy can be seen in Okwui Enwezor’s memorable multi-platform Documenta 11 (2002) and Charles Merewether’s Zones of Contact Biennale of Sydney (2006), both of which eschewed the inclusion of many well-known western artists in favour of broad representation from 2nd and 3rd world countries, and work which interrogates the evolving economic and cultural nexus between developed and developing worlds.

This is a Biennial with depth and, dare I suggest, heart. A landslide of challenges confronts Biennial organisers, yet their passion sustains them, aided by an army of cheerful young volunteers. During the memorable inauguraçion at La Cabaña, with the sun setting over Habana Vieja, the music pulsing and the mojitos flowing among a United Nations of artists young and old, it seemed for a moment just possible that the energy of their ideas and creativity might change the world.

Hasta lluego