Conceptual platform of the 15th Havana Biennial on display

The fifteenth edition of the Havana Biennial has Horizontes Compartidos as its conceptual platform, a project based on respect for diversity and solidarity through mediation, collaboration and transdisciplinarity between creators and artistic manifestations.

This was announced at a press conference held at the Abelardo Estorino Theatre of the Ministry of Culture (Mincult), attended by Nelson Ramírez de Arellano, director of the Wifredo Lam Centre for Contemporary Art, Lisset Alonso, deputy director of the same institution, Daneisy García Roque, president of the National Council of Plastic Arts (CNAP), and Fernando Rojas, deputy minister of culture.

The event will take place between 15 November next year and 28 February 2025. It is being organised by the Wifredo Lam Centre for Contemporary Art and is co-sponsored by Mincult and the CNAP.

Arellano commented on the concept of coexistence based on respect for differences, knowledge and forms of existence and resistance that are far from the dominant model. «When we talk about dominant models, we are referring to the models that have been established from the centres of economic power,» he said.

He also expressed the Biennial’s rejection of far-right political tendencies such as fascism and the importance of the event in building new networks of communication and collaboration. «Art is free to express itself in any circumstance, as long as it has the possibility to exist, and that is essentially a respect for difference,» he said.

The event will have regular and additional venues and will expand its presence in different provinces of the country. In this sense, the President of the National Council of Plastic Arts referred to the intention to leave the traditional circuits and to stimulate work in the communities.

At the same time, he expressed the intention of linking the participants to the context, in order to adapt the works to the place where they are exhibited, and with the aim of mediating between the participants and the art on display. «We will continue to use galleries and spaces, the only thing we want is for them to always be coherent with the project being presented,» he explained.

For his part, Fernando Rojas pointed out the importance of the event as a creative process, highlighting the participation of Cuban exile representatives and the fact that an event of this magnitude was held in difficult circumstances. «This is the result of the common will of Cuban artists and their institutions,» he said.

Throughout its history, the Biennial has stimulated horizontal spaces of communication between artists from different latitudes. On the occasion of its 40th anniversary, the 15th edition aims to analyse the trajectory of the event, rethink some of its distinctive signs and forge new links of artistic collaboration.

Translated by Luis E. Amador Dominguez