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Exhibition Histories

Making Art Global (Part 1): The Third Havana Biennial 1989

The second book in Afterall’s Exhibition Histories series focuses on the third edition of the Bienal de La Habana, which took place in 1989, and interrogates the ways in which this exhibition extended the global territory of contemporary art and redefined the biennial model.

Essay by Rachel Weiss. Texts by Luis Camnitzer, Coco Fusco & Geeta Kapur. New texts by Charles Esche & Gerardo Mosquera. Interviews with artists Alex Ángeles, José Bedia, Alfredo Márquez & Lázaro Saavedra.

ISBN (paperback)

3865609937

Table of contents

  • Introduction: Making Art Global— Charles Esche
  • A Certain Place and a Certain Time: The Third Bienal de La Habana and the Origins of the Global Exhibition — Rachel Weiss
  • The Third Bienal de La Habana in Its Global and Local Contexts— Gerardo Mosquera
  • The Third Bienal de La Habana 1989

City maps

  • ‘Tres Mundos’
  • Núcleo 1

Roberto Diago
José Bedia
Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar

Ahmed Nawar
Roberto Feleo
Antonio Ole
Victor Teixeira (Viteix)
‘Latin American Textiles’
‘Cuban Lithography’
‘Calligraphy in Contemporary Arab Painting’

  • Núcleo 2

‘Bolívar in Wood Carvings’ ‘Mexican Dolls’
‘African Wire Toys’

  • Núcleo 3

‘The Tradition of Humour’ ‘Messages from South Africa’
‘We Love You, Paraguay’
‘Censored Photographs from Chile’

Graciela Iturbide

Sebastião Salgado

José Tola

  • Núcleo 4
  • Catalogue

Regulations
Introduction— Llilian Llanes Godoy, 1989

  • Notes on the Art, Identity and Poverty of the Third World— Mirko Lauer, 1989
  • Contemporary Cultural Practice: Some Polemical Categories— Geeta Kapur, 1989
  • The Margin of the ‘Margin’— Coco Fusco, 1990
  • The Third Biennial of Havana— Luis Camnitzer, 1990
  • Interviews with exhibiting artists:

— José Bedia in conversation with Lucy Steeds
— Lázaro Saavedra in conversation with Rachel Weiss

— Alex Ángeles and Alfredo Márquez in conversation with Rachel Weiss

  • Author biographies
  • Selected bibliography
  • Picture credits for the installation and event views Acknowledgements
  • Index

Content

Making Art Global (Part 1): The Third Havana Biennial 1989

With a main essay by Rachel Weiss, archival texts from 1989–90 by Luis Camnitzer, Coco Fusco, Geeta Kapur and Mirko Lauer. New texts by Charles Esche and Gerardo Mosquera. Interviews with artists Alex Ángeles, José Bedia, Alfredo Márquez and Lázaro Saavedra.

The second book in Afterall’s Exhibition Histories series focuses on the third edition of the Bienal de La Habana, which took place in 1989. In the core essay, Rachel Weiss examines the ways in which this exhibition extended the global territory of contemporary art and redefined the biennial model. A key member of the curatorial team, Gerardo Mosquera, contributes a reflection on the project, and its constituent exhibitions and events are documented photographically. The book also includes papers delivered by Geeta Kapur and Mirko Lauer at the Bienal conference and republishes reviews of the Bienal by Coco Fusco and Luis Camnitzer. It opens with an introduction by Charles Esche and brings together recent interviews with participating artists Alex Ángeles, José Bedia, Alfredo Márquez and Lázaro Saavedra. Crucial texts from the time are complemented by vital new material, including 105 colour images and 18 black and white images.

The Exhibition Histories series investigates exhibitions that have shaped the way contemporary art is experienced, made and discussed.

 

Purchase

Published by Afterall Books in association with the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2011. Distributed by Koenig Books and ARTBOOK | D.A.P.

The title is available to purchase here.

Visit the research page

On this page you will find featured texts and materials from the publication and previously unpublished archival materials. We also have selected images and details of the exhibition alongside other relevant materials and media.

More publications

View all Exhibition Histories publications