Carlos Martiel

14 de junho a 27 de julho

Curadoria: Tiago Sant’Ana

Artistas: Adriano Machado, Annika Kahrs, Ayrson Heráclito, Calasans Neto, Carlos Martiel, Dona Aletícia, Edsoleda Santos, Efrain Almeida, Georgina Maxim, Helen Salomão, Ieda Oliveira, João Oliveira, Mario Cravo Neto, Mestre Didi e Zé Garcia.

(mais info aqui)

Goethe-Institut Salvador-Bahia | Av. Sete de Setembro, 1809, Corredor da Vitória

Annulée en 2017, en raison de l’ouragan Irma, la Biennale internationale d’art contemporain de la Havane s’est ouverte sous la thématique « La construction de ce qui est possible » dans un contexte de censure.

Par Cassandre Langlois pour Mouvement Magazine

(…) Cette thématique contraste avec le décret 349 promulgué l’an dernier – l’une des premières lois du président cubain Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez – qui oblige chaque artiste à demander l’approbation officielle avant de se produire ou de vendre une œuvre. La répression, subie par les intellectuels et artistes cubains, a récemment été évoquée dans une lettre publique de la plasticienne Tania Bruguera, qui a choisi de boycotter cette édition de la Biennale. Elle y écrit que le Ministère de la culture cubain redore son image en détournant le budget officiellement dédié à la reconstruction de la ville (suite aux destructions causées par Irma) au profit de cet événement international. Avec sa performance La sangre de Cain (2019), Carlos Martiel, artiste cubain résidant aux États-Unis, a choisi quant à lui de s’immobiliser debout, face à la mer, sous une structure métallique recouverte de fils de laine teintés de son propre sang, de celui de ses amis et de ses collègues artistes, positionnés contre le décret 349. Le tout dans le cadre du projet collectif « Detras Del Muro », au programme, qui réunit des œuvres monumentales, des interventions urbaines, des projections de vidéos et des ateliers en tout genre le long du Malecón, cette promenade de front de mer très appréciée des cubains (…)

(plus d’infos ici)

by Will Furtado for Contemporary And (C&)

From the outset, the 13th Havana Biennial – the Construction of the Possible – was haunted by the specter of a new law aimed at controlling artistic production. During the course of the event, many incidents of censorship took place. Ibrahim Ahmed and Carlos Martiel – two artists who had their work censored and even destroyed – speak to C& about their experiences

(…) Carlos Martiel is another artist at the biennial whose work was censored. In his durational performance La sangre de Caín (Caín’s blood), the Cuban artist stands inside of a circular metal structure with threads dipped in the blood of artists (including his own) who are openly against the Decree 349. “In the initial project, I told them I was planning to use the blood of people who are marginalized in Cuba,” Martiel tells me. “And they never asked me for any other details.”

Once the curators found out the full motivation behind the piece, they suspended all support to the artist who had to install the piece by himself for five hours in the sun. Martiel did manage to stage the performance but on the following day he was asked to meet the Vice Minister of Culture Fernando Rojas, and shortly after the installation and the label of his work were removed and destroyed.

During their meeting, the Vice Minister explained that during the performance people were heard shouting anti-Decree 349 slogans, something that did not actually occur. He then concluded that Martiel’s work did not make any sense because the decree was not in effect. However, law implementation aside, Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was arrested multiple times in April in connection with his performance in which he and two other persons wore US flags as capes. Coco Fusco, who has written about the incident concerning Martiel, was denied entrance to the country for presumably criticizing the same law.

Despite positioning itself as a platform for justice and equality, the Havana Biennial is failing to keep its promise by exercising intimidation and censorship. Yet, these tactics can only harm the institution itself, as local and international artists and press refuse to ignore institutional abuse (…)

(more info here)