WAITING LIST: Time and transition in Cuban Contemporary Art

Authors: Pavel Acosta, All Stars, José Luis Alonso Mateo, Ritual Art.De, Arte Calle, Saidel Brito, Tania Bruguera, La Campana María Magdalena Campos Pons, Yoan Capote, Nilo Castillo, Sandra A. Ceballos & Espacio, Aglutinador, Raúl Cordero, Arturo Cuenca, Ángel Delgado, Felipe Dulzaides, El Soca & Fabian, ENEMA, Antonio Eligio Fernández (Tonel), Coco Fusco, Carlos Garaicoa, Juan-Sí González, Tony Labat, Glenda León Arévalo, Alejandro López, Aldo Damián Menéndez, Beverly Mojena, Glexis Novoa, Antonio Núńez, Abel Oliva, Ernesto Oroza, Alain Pino, Segundo Planes, Provisional, Ernesto Pujol, Rigoberto Quintana, Fernando Rodríguez and Francisco de la Cal, René Francisco Rodríguez, Carlos Rodríguez Cárdenas, Joel Rojas, Lázaro A. Saavedra González, Leandro Soto, José A. Toirac, César Trasobares, Harold Vázquez, Liudmila Velasco & Nelson, Ramírez, José Ángel Vincench Barrera
An exhibition of Cuban art projects since 1980 gathered for the first time, including Cubans in the island and abroad. Most representative artists in experimentation are included, such as Tania Bruguera, Lázaro Saavedra, Glexis Novoa, Jose A Toirac, Carlos Garaicoa, Tonel, Coco Fusco, Ernesto Pujol, Cesar Trasobares.

There is a before and after 1959, when Fidel Castro overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista. Artworks gathered in this exhibition have metaphorically recorded some of the tensions in the cultural, social and political landscape. They also show a shift in perspective toward the Revolution and its meaning from an active role as potential agents of change to the passive role of whisperers or mere spectators. While a Cuban Art Renaissance is heralded in 1981 –despite many artists had left the country during Mariel-, and some still declared in 1988: “Reviva la Revolu” (Revive the Mess/Revolution), and asked for their turn to take the lead, the following generation lacked such activism and confidence in the possibilities of change. Artists turned to the international art scene –opened by the Havana Biennial and other factors. For many of them, Cuban Revolution became a subject of the past, an utopist project, poetically and philosophically inspiring, but politically irresponsible and economically disastrous.

Productive journey: from construction to ruin
As “spokespersons” of a society of workers and farmers, artists were supposed to depict the productive life of the Revolution. And they did so in myriad forms. Construction –as the materialization of utopia, progress and development- was a main subject in the official discourse of the Revolution. Artists appropriated its symbols, especially the human element and the materials: Carlos Rodríguez Cárdenas, Alejandro López, Antonio Eligio Fernández (Tonel), Antonio Núñez, Lázaro Saavedra. Subsequently, the interest for construction was replaced by the interest for ruins and restoration (René Francisco Rodríguez, early restoration works of Carlos Garaicoa, El Soca and Fabian or Raúl Cordero. Despite the “interest” for workers among Cuban artists in the island, others born and/or raised in the U.S. have produced major pieces about workers’ exploitation, capitalism and war (Coco Fusco, César Trasobares, Ernesto Pujol).

Free time and performance art: from diversion to subversion
On the opposite side of work is leisure. Free time was a subject addressed by youth organizations in the form of camping, sport, music and dance festival, hobbits, and all sort of relaxing activities. Coincidentally, performance and other ephemeral art forms have been associated with recreation in Cuba. For instance, the first event of performance art took the form of a festival in a beach house of Havana. The Short Piece Festival (1980), as it was named, featured the work of several artists working collaboratively and combining kitsch and theatrical elements, and texts (Glexis Novoa). Despite this notion of the “light” and “humorous” nature of performance art and ephemeral works, some artists have found in this form a valid channel to express their ideas, and to contribute to the political, cultural and aesthetic debate within the art scene (Leandro Soto, Ana Mendieta and Manuel Mendive dealt with Afro-Cuban heritage; Gustavo Pérez Monzón decided not to produce artworks, and gave ideas to be developed by others instead; Segundo Planes and Arturo Cuenca focused on different notions of science and ideology; Tania Bruguera resumed the work of Mendieta, who had died prematurely in 1985; Juan-Sí González, Ángel Delgado, and groups such as Ritual Art.De (Art-Right Ritual), Grupo Imán (Magnet group) and La Campana (The Bell) also played a role. As the work of some artists and groups became more “serious” and started addressing social and political issues that involved criticism, functionaries labeled them as pseudoartistic or “bungler” –a word commonly used to disregard artists without analysis. Diversion and deviation came closely together. Popular music and dance represented a subject especially attractive to young artists since the mid-1970s (Flavio Garciandía, Glexis Novoa).

Memory stills (life): provisional euphemism for a permanent lost
Aging is conveyed through the precariousness of materials in later works of Soto, and other artists of his generation, such as Consuelo Castañeda, Ernesto Oroza, Ordo Amoris. Other artists deal with the aging and decaying of human and social bodies, such as Fernando Rodríguez, Joel Rojas, Rigoberto Quintana, Abel Oliva, Ezequiel Suárez, Saidel Brito, whereas Liudmila Velasco and Nelson Ramírez develop an ongoing project documenting the house of friends that have left the country. Exile artists Arturo Cuenca and Juan-Sí González deal with the absence using manipulated photography and geography-based performance, respectively. On the other hand, José Ángel exposed the mass media attempt to cover dissident voices within the Island. Artists address many more subjects related to time. Felipe Dulzaides, Glenda León and Pavel Acosta, for instance, depicts their notions of boredom by means of deicing, waiting in an infinite line for ice cream, and yawing. Alexandre Arrechea, Harold Vazquez and Yoan Capote represent their anxiety for being watched, spied, measured or even smelled. And María Magdalena Campos Pons and Tonel appropriate postmodern notions of time in their multi-layered, fictional and festive representation of the utopia.

Elvis Fuentes, Yuneikys Villalonga