The Third Havana Biennial 1989

Introduction: Making Art Global: A Good Place or a No Place?

1989 was one of the most significant years in the twentieth century. It saw the massacre at Tiananmen Square, the fall of communist governments across Eastern Europe and the invention of the World Wide Web, events that resulted in a new political settlement, a new global economy and the growing collective consciousness that we live with today. In a contemporary art context, the exhibitions ‘Magiciens de la Terre’ in Paris, ‘The Other Story’ in London and the third Bienal de La Habana in Cuba – the latter being the focus of this book – coincidentally opened in that same year.

Catalogue: Introduction

Over the last fifty years, the number of institutions and foundations promoting contemporary visual arts has noticeably increased in highly industrialised nations. Those institutions have, for the most part, aimed to disseminate art from their own countries, while art from the Third World has been marginalised and to a great extent ignored. It is therefore not surprising for it to be unknown and in a position of disadvantage.

A Certain Place and a Certain Time: The Third Bienal de La Habana and the Origins of the Global Exhibition

Since its inception in 1984, the Bienal de La Habana has followed a trajectory that culminated culturally and curatorially in the third edition in 1989, and which peaked in other terms (institutional solidity, organisational professionalism, international recognition) somewhat later.

Regulations

The Bienal de La Habana aims to consolidate a space open to art from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, as a way to foster its exchange, the understanding of its values and to contribute to its dissemination and universal recognition.

José Bedia in conversation with Lucy Steeds

José Bedia was born in 1959 in Havana and is now based in Miami. He graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana, in 1981. His installations, which frequently incorporate drawn or painted elements, are informed by religious beliefs and practices in Afro-Cuban and Native American traditions. He had a solo show at the Castillo de la Fuerza as part of the 1989 Bienal de La Habana.

Lázaro Saavedra in conversation with Rachel Weiss

Lázaro Saavedra was born in 1964 in Havana, where he continues to live. He graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana, in 1988, and has been a lecturer there since 1991. Saavedra’s practice combines pictorial work with other media, including texts, performances, happenings and video installations. He was a member of the Grupo Puré in the 1980s; the Pilón community project from 1988 to 1989; and the collective Enema, a group composed of former ISA students, in the 1990s. His work was included with that of other young Cubans in the ‘La tradición del humor’ (‘The Tradition of Humour’) exhibition as part of the 1989 Bienal de La Habana.

Notes on the Art, Identity and Poverty of the Third World

Rather than offering a specific proposal, this text will attempt to set up a working list of topics around the idea of the arts in the Third World, by raising a range of questions and suggestions.

The Third Bienal de La Habana in Its Global and Local Contexts

It is amazing how misrecognised the historical role of the Bienal de La Habana remains. The event, which recently celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, is now well-known internationally and enjoys a certain sex- appeal due to its location, but despite its large scale it is mostly considered a minor, somewhat messy biennial.

The Third Biennial of Havana

The Third Biennial of Havana opened a year late, with its budget cut in half, and was organised at the Centro Wifredo Lam by a team of fourteen people (including secretarial personnel and the lady who does the cleaning).

The Margin of the ‘Margin’: A Bumpy Havana Biennial

While art-world interest in Third World cultures waxes and wanes with each decade, the 1980s version is marked by heightened awareness of the fact that the way artwork from the realm of ‘the Other’ is presented shapes our perception of it.

Contemporary Cultural Practice: Some Polemical Categories

The persistence of the terms ‘tradition’ and ‘contemporaneity’ as they figure in Third World debates are best appreciated if we see them as notations within the cultural polemic of decolonisation.

Alex Ángeles and Alfredo Márquez in conversation with Rachel Weiss

The Peruvian collective NN had work in the central ‘Tres Mundos’ (‘Three Worlds’) exhibition of the 1989 Bienal, installed at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. The four founding members of NN were Alex Ángeles, José Luis García, Alfredo Márquez and Quique Wong, all architecture students at the Universidad Ricardo Palma in Lima. They worked together under this name from 1988 to 1991.