30th anniversary celebrated this year

The Havana Biennal, where interaction, confrontation and reflection converge, of singular importance on the world’s visual arts scene, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The festival first focused on contributing to the investigation and dissemination of Latin American and Caribbean art, later including that from Asia and Africa, and more recently broadening its conception to incorporate artists from Europe, the United States and Canada. As the critic Nelson Herrera Ysla has said, the Wilfredo Lam Contemporary Art Center has been key to the event’s emergence and development, organizing and promoting the Biennial from the beginning. Opened in 1983, the Centro Lam, bears the name of one of the 20th century’s most outstanding artists, and emerged with the fundamental purpose of investigating and promoting the artistic expressions of Latin America, Africa and Asia. The Biennal has given Cuba’s public, artists, critics, galleries and collectors the opportunity to come in contact with an important number of visual artists from abroad, while at the same time serving as "an exceptional opportunity for the promotion of what Cuban artists are doing," according to the Lam Center’s current director, Jorge Fernández. One of the unique features of the great visual arts encounter is the opening of new spaces for the appreciation of artwork, going beyond galleries, museums and art centers. Since its first editions, the Biennal has converted the city into an immense gallery, with art installed in parks and streets, on walls and building facades. Its definition as a ground-breaking, audacious event promoting communication is apropos, since the range of opportunities offered has been vast, from the most traditional works to performance art, video showings, technological contributions, using the most contemporary language. The Biennal has been a veritable showcase for a variety of works of dissimilar aesthetic conceptions which invite participant to reconsider the current direction of art, and contemplate the most critical problems of the day. It may seem counterintuitive to be celebrating the event’s 30th anniversary this year, when the next edition is schedule for 2015. Easy to explain. The event was first held every two years, but the extent of work involved in putting together an event of this magnitude made the task difficult, especially in difficult economic circumstances. Organizers then opted for a biennial… every three years. The original name, which had become widely recognized given its landmark accomplishments, was maintained. A revisit is in order, at least a quick look. The 1st Havana Biennial took place in 1984, with only Latin American and Caribbean artist participating. It was a competitive event at the time and prizes were awarded to works by Arnold Belkin (Mexico), Carmelo Arden Quin, (Uruguay), Branca de Olivera (Brazil), Alirio Palacios (Venezuela), Fernell Franco (Colombia), Roberto Fabelo and Rogelio López Marín (Cuba). In addition to the works in competition, presented were important individual expositions by Jacobo Borges, (Venezuela), Oswaldo Guayasamín (Ecuador), Roberto Matta (Chile) and Francisco Toledo (Mexico). An International Colloquium on Wilfredo Lam was held in the Convention Center, with some 800 artists from 22 countries in attendance. In 1986 the second edition was held, with invitations extended additionally to artists in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Some 700 artists from 56 countries participated. Among the prize-winners were Lani Maestro (Phillipines), Antonio Ole (Angola), Marta Palau (Mexico), Jogen Chowdury (India), José Tola (Peru) and José Bedia (Cuba). There were individual expositions by the Haitian artist resident in France, Hervé Télémaque and Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. Beginning with the 3rd Biennal, in 1989, a decision was made to eliminate the prizes and restructure the event on the basis of a thematic focus. The first of these was entitled "Tradition and Contemporality," and attracted more than 300 artists from 41 countries. The 4th, in 1961, was focused on "The Challenge of Art" and won rave reviews for two guest expositions, the painted photographs of Spain’s Carlos Saura and the giant ones by Spencer Tunick from the United States. Another novel effort attracted attention, a work by one of Cuba’s widely recognized artists, Alexis Leyva Machado (Kcho), who gathered 13,000 bricks to design a small boat. In 1994, the 5th edition proposed as its theme, "Art, Society and Reflection," and the 6th had as its central focus, "The individual and memory." For the first time, artists born or established in Europe and Japan were invited. "One closer than another" was the theme chosen for the 7th Biennial in 2000, during which 170 artists from 44 countries exhibited their work; the 8th in 2003 addressed the relationship between "Art and Life," and artists invaded the neighborhood of Alamar in eastern Havana, under the banner of "Moving things." Some 140 artists from 48 countries participated. The 2006 9th edition was focused on the "Dynamics of urban culture" with more than 130 artists from 50 nations invited; and during the 10th, in 2009, artists from the United States and Canada arrived for the first time. The theme? "Integration and resistance in the global era" The most recent 11th Biennial, in 2012, was organized around the issues of "Artistic practices and social imagination," and the field of action was extended to streets, theaters and plazas, inviting spectator participation. Many remember the pair from the United States and Russia, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, with their Barco de la tolerancia, (Ship of tolerance) which bore messages of peace on its sails, written by some 500 children. It remains installed on the grounds of the Castillo de la Real Fuerza. Equally impressive was the installation Los viajeros silenciosos, by Colombian Rafael Gómez, who placed 600 metal ants on the façade of the Fausto Theater, located on Central Havana’s Paseo del Prado, recalling the contribution of Roberto Fabelo, Cuban National Prize for Visual Arts winner in 2004, with his giant cockroaches climbing the Fine Arts Museum’s façade, entitled Sobrevivientes. A novel presentation made during this Biennial was the Detrás del muro project located along the Malecón, from La Punta to the Torreón de San Lázaro, created by a group of 10 artists. To celebrate the 30th anniversary, a series of exhibits have been organized in the event’s traditional venues, the Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center, the Center for the Development of Visual Arts, the Fototeca de Cuba and the National Fine Arts Museum’s lobby. In a meeting with the press, Jorge Fernández, director of the Centro Lam, and critic Nelson Herrera Ysla, reported that the expositions are intended to recall past Biennials "via newspaper clips, catalogues, photographs, documentaries and videos, in which the emergence and development of the event is evoked." The central core of the commemorative effort is the exposition entitled Bienal de La Habana: un laboratorio vivo (The Havana Biennial: A living laboratory) featuring more than 200 works in various techniques and formats from the Lam Center’s collection, by artists who have participated in 11 editions of the Biennial, filling three of the institutions expansive halls. The opening included a panel discussion devoted to "reflections on three decades of the Biennial, which… enjoys the distinction of having been maintained over the years since 1984, despite all the contingencies and crises," Fernández said. Since its first edition in 1984, the Biennial has become a visual arts event not to be missed. It is no accident that the celebration of its 30th anniversary has drawn so many artists, galleries and critics. The countdown has begun to the 2015 Havana Biennial.