How art and tourism can help bring more freedom to Cuba
Editor’s Note
Some say more freedom results in more art. In Cuba, it would be more art will result in more freedom.
The Trump Administration has reimposed sanctions on Cuba. Aiming to prevent a Cuban government and military still violating human rights from earning hard foreign currency through their entry into the lucrative tourism industry, the United States has one once more restricted commercial airline flights, visas, and other travel to Cuba. The idea being that revenues from American tourists will not be allowed to flow into the revenues of commercial airlines and hotels owned or controlled by the Cuban government and military.
In addition, all companies dealing in and exploiting property expropriated by the Castro regime after the revolution of 1959 can become subject to lawsuits in the American courts and this includes non-American corporations.
While this has raised the ire of the European Union and British and Canadian governments, it is no different than being allowed to take legal action in an American court in order to recover looted art which was stolen by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Second World War. If anything, perhaps the legislation aimed at recovering property stolen by the Castro regime should include the private residences and small businesses which were confiscating.
Where the Trump Administration may have over-reached is banning cruise ships from docking in Cuban ports thus preventing American tourists from spending and Cuban cab drivers, street artists, souvenir shops, Bed & Breakfasts, and tour guides from earning the American Dollars they much need to start asking for more freedom.
One wants to avoid a China situation where trade has resulted in authoritarian capitalism with little in the way of more political freedom for what has disappointingly emerged as the middle class in China. Small in size compared to the multi-millionaire class.
It is unlikely however that in Cuba, oligarchs will arise from the money brought in by trade with tourists which ends up not with the military or government but with legitimate restaurants, small bed & breakfast, artists, art galleries, cafes, and hotels where state institutions have no interest.
More money in the hands of the working class results in a greater private sector which results in a demand for more political freedom.
More trade and interaction with individual Cubans will enable opinions and perspectives other than those espoused by the Cuban government to be heard by the Cuban public. It also results in the Cuban people wanting their individual opinions and beliefs not only expressed whether through conversations, politics or art but to be heard by these same foreign travellers and the rest of the world.
International art dealers are going to Havanna to discover and buy art. Cuban galleries and artists are able albeit with some restrictions still, to sell art to these foreigners for hard currency.
The more private money, the less Cuban artists need to rely upon state funding which comes with conditions.
Just as importantly, when the famous curator and art critic Cristina Vives showing exhibits and promoting art in Havana describes the late 1980s and early 1990s as a “transition moment for Cuba when socialisms collapsed in Europe”, the conversation about Cuba’s future can continue and someone will ask whether it was socialism that collapsed in Eastern Europe and Russia or something far worse and why Cuba itself may still be waiting for spring to arrive.
ART CORRESPONDENT MARTINA MANGIALARDI VISITS CUBA
Recently, I was lucky enough to travel to Cuba and feel the heartbeat of the country.
Music, history, and art seem to flow from the streets one walks on. Feeling at times encircled by the colours of the buildings surrounding you as if you are part of a modern day impressionist painting until that is, the street music and noises wake you up and you remember you are in Havana which has always danced to a different rhythm.
Havana Vieja or Old Havana allows visitors to absorb both Cuba’s history and its architectural beauty.
Tightly built buildings and streets end up in a perfect but unplanned colour scheme made only more perfect by the manner the street music becomes reflective and synchronised to its surroundings.
Each courtyard encountered has its own identity, characterised by its own graffiti, art deco staircases and balconies with laundry at times hanging out over the rails as if they are waiting to be filmed in a Dolce Vita film. At times, with a mojito in your hand, you easily start tapping your foot to the irresistible rhythm of the street music and only hope your dancing won’t embarrass you, that is, if you end up being brave enough to join the dancing at the continuous invitation of those already enjoying themselves and who have no fear of living.
The art scene is unbelievably alive, with galleries, artist studios and museums. Hopefully this private art renaissance will continue in the 2020s. Of particular interest for me was the Galleria Continua. The first non-Cuban exhibition space to ever be allowed to exhibit there.
Italian in origin, the gallery is very well known for the artists it represents and its worldwide locations. I was surprised to learn that in Havana it was located in the Barrio Chino as the Chinatown district needs to be restored but perhaps one should not be surprised as art galleries especially established ones such as Galleria Continua often serve to revitalise boroughs and generate economic spin-offs such as they have done in Margate, UK for instance.
Housed in an old 1950s style movie theatre, the gallery is more than spacious and on its own makes an artistic statement. True to the innovation shown by Galleria Continua in the past, the manner in which the art being exhibited was set-up and shown to the public was itself a request for commentary or maybe more simply where the message was to be found.
The centrepiece of the exhibition was a work from Anish Kapoor entitled, When I am Pregnant. It literally dominated the scene. It was presented on a stage as a play would be. It was the main show with works from the young artist Zhanna Kadyrova functioning as both the curtain and audience. Kadyrova was very much affected and influenced from her stay in Cuba and created works using materials which have come to characterise Havana architecture such as the typical and simple stained-glass coloured window or the ceramics that have come to personify the landmark Antitubercoloso Joaquin G. Lobredo Hospital or material she picked up from the streets and which people knew emanated from and identified with the streets of Havana and Cuba.
The artist was able to capture the dual feeling you get in Cuba, when its history, politics, and poverty comes to the forefront and confronts the ‘good vibe’ you are feeling as a tourist when wandering in the streets.
Personifying Cuba and Cuban art is Trinidad, Cuba, a pastel coloured building town with nonstop shows and dances at places like La Casa de la Musica and where at the Galeria de Arte, Trinidad one can enjoy a more local art scene with an artist’s work hanging on the walls of the exhibition space and the artist creating their next work in a studio in the next room.
Visitors if they choose can easily close their eyes to how poor the country actually is. A short car ride outside the tourist zones however will allow one to see roofless homes with broken doors on dirt roads that look as if they will never be paved and vultures flying above waiting for their moment to eat something. These images once viewed and experienced never leave your head.
Before leaving I packed some clothes, notebooks, pens, and candies. Got in the car, drove, stopped the car when I saw some children playing, interrupted a children’s game I did not understand, and gave them some of the items. Seeing frowns turned into smiles may have played to the ego we all have but in reality it was really my conscious that needed easing.
I ended my Cuba excursion hoping to see the bathing flamingos but this was on the beaches of Cayo Santa Maria and not in an art gallery or museum.
Martina Mangialardi at the Arte Continua Gallery in Havana