Cuba draws on global artists for Biennial show

Cuba

This month Cuba is hosting the 13th Havana Biennial.

It’s the country’s most important art festival, drawing artists from around the world.

And for the first time a Chinese artists’ delegation is taking part.

CGTN’s Luis Chirino visited this year’s exhibition.

Sculptures, paintings, installations, and performances. More than 200 artists from Cuba and nearly 50 countries have turned the Cuban capital and its popular seafront boulevard into a giant art gallery. Some 235 artists from almost 50 countries-primarily in Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean are expected to participate.

A major attraction this year is a collection of contemporary art by young Chinese artists.

“I’m very interested in seeing the reaction of the Cuban people. This is the first time that we bring contemporary Chinese art to Cuba and I’m anxious to see the expressions and reactions of those who visit the exhibit,” said Zhong Biao an artist.

“I know that Cuban contemporary art is very strong in the world. So, this time we’d like to promote Chinese contemporary art in Cuba to establish and exchange a relationship between China and Cuba,” said Huang Du a curator and art critic.

Many people came to the opening, along with Cuban culture officials and the Chinese ambassador to Havana, Chen Xi.

The event is called “The Construction of the Possible,” and is dedicated to Havana’s 500th birthday this year. People can get in touch with works by established artists and newcomers like 26-year-old Miriannys Montes de Oca. She created this work she calls “Warriors.”

“Mine is an open work based on the young people’s plurality of ideas, without any specific identity, young people want to express a different code that bears new contents,” said Mirannys Montes de Oca an artist.

The festival draws attention to the artists’ universal, regional and personal concerns-expressed through their works.