We recently went to Havana with Jorge Pardo for the installation of his new room-sized work in the 11th Bienal de la Habana. Founded in 1984, with the goal of promoting "Third World" art, the Havana Biennial was originally focused on artists from Latin America and the Caribbean, expanding to include Africa and Asia in 1986. In 2009, the organizers decided to invite artists from the US and Europe as well, and the 2012 Biennial was attended by 115 artists from 43 countries.
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| Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center |
Held at multiple traditional venues, this year's Biennial also saw performances and interventions spread throughout the streets and squares of the city. The main venue is the Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center, named for one of Cuba's most influential artists. Born in 1902, the same year Cuba gained independence from Spain, Lam studied art in Madrid, later fighting in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930's. Afterwards, he moved to France where he fell in with Picasso, Breton and other members of the avant-garde. Returning to Cuba in 1941, Lam re-connected with the traditions of his homeland, fusing elements of Cubism and Surrealism with Afro-Cuban religious imagery. This can be seen in one of his most famous paintings "The Jungle," often compared to Picasso's "Guernica".
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The Jungle
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Despite moving to Paris again in 1952, he maintained strong ties with Cuba, painting "El Tercer Mundo" (The Third World) for the Presidential Palace in 1965, 6 years after the Cuban Revolution.
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| El Tercer Mundo |
Jorge Pardo was born in Havana in 1963, moving to the US 6 years later. He had not returned to Cuba until the Biennial this year. For his work at the Wilfredo Lam Center titled "DADS CUBA," Pardo brought a CNC machine, which cuts and routes mdf boards based on instructions from a computer file.
These mdf boards are then hand painted and hung on the wall.
They fit together like puzzle pieces. As more pieces are fabricated on site, the work grows.
Fabric lamps are hung from the ceiling, extending the piece into the volume of the room, linking the wall works to the architecture of the space.
We met wonderful people and ate delicious meals.
Pork, yucca, and rice and black beans
Flan.
