Global Contemporary Art Tourism: Engaging with Cuban Authenticity Through the Bienal de La Habana

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the role of the Bienal de La Habana in the production of local authenticity for international contemporary art travelers. Since 1984, this biennial art exhibition has mirrored Cuba’s international policy interests with its selection of artworks, from an initial promotion of nonaligned international solidarity to an increasing visibility of North American and European artists. Under the motto “Between idea and experience”, its 2015 iteration favorited site-specific and socially engaged art works that “blurred the limits between art and life”, reportedly facilitating the encounter between international art tourists and local residents in Havana in their quotidian private and public living spaces. This analysis is framed by the State’s current tourism campaign “Cuba Auténtica”, which highlights the nation’s “rich cultural tradition, [its] history and immaterial heritage, [its] visual and performing arts”, and will draw from data gathered from participant observation, archival research, and secondary literature analysis. This paper speaks to concerns about the staging of cultural uniqueness for niche tourism publics, such as the elite international community of contemporary art tourists. The Cuban case further illustrates the convergence of the cultural industries with tourism development in developing regions negotiating access to the international market economy.

KEYWORDS:

• Authenticity
• site-specific art
• art biennial
• reenactment
• encounter

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 From interview with a member of the curatorial team. October 31st, 2016.

2 Other site-specific exhibitions have been, for example, InSITE (Tijuana-San Diego, 1994–2005), Places with a Past (Charleston, South Carolina, 1991), and the Manifesta biennial (different locations in Europe, 1992 to present).

3 See past catalogues, for example: 10 Bienal de La Habana. Integración y Resistencia en la Era Global (La Habana: Centro de Arte Wifredo Lam, 2009), or 8 Bienal de La Habana. El Arte con la Vida (La Habana: Centro de Arte Wifredo Lam, 2003).

4 Bill No. 50 from 1982 allowed for the creation of joint national-foreign developments and exploitation of tourism infrastructures in the island.

5 A 1992 Constitutional amendment that legalized foreign investment was followed by bi-lateral treaties with nations such as Spain, France, Russia, or Colombia guaranteeing legal protection of their investments in Cuba.

6 The Special Period in Times of Peace was a period of acute economic crisis and social depression in Cuba, between 1989 and 1997 approximately. It was caused by the fall of the Soviet Union and the disappearance of Cuba’s main foreign economic alies. During these years the nation underwent radical transformations in economic policy, and regulated the entrance of foreign capital via tourism development.

7 Vedado is Havana’s nineteenth-century urban sprawl, featuring neoclassical and modernist architecture, with some of the city’s most popular hotels, restaurants, and private guest houses. Vedado is home to the city’s high-middle classes, foreign residents, and public buildings such as government agencies and embassies. Centro Habana is a dense, working class district, featuring nineteenth- and twentieth-century architecture. In Centro Habana only main avenues close to Habana Vieja have benefitted from urban rebeautification efforts led by the Casa del Historiador and other agencies. Habana Vieja is the city’s tourist center, where cruise ships dock, and which features foreign foundations, souvenir shops, restaurants, and the main museums. Casablanca, across Havana Bay, is a mostly residential small enclave of 2000 sq.ft.

8 See, for example, Lonely Planet’s guide to Cuba or other online travel sites such as Trip advisor https:// www.tripadvisor.ca/Tourism-g147271-Havana_Ciudad_de_la_Habana_ Province_Cuba-Vacations.html, last accessed October 21, 2016; or Planet Ware http://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions-/havana-cub-cdh-h.htm, last accessed October 21, 2016.

9 Artists included Abraham Cruzvillegas, Michel Francois, Ryan Gander, Hans Haacke, Pierre Huyghe, Gabriel Kuri, Tatiana Mesa, Helen Mirra, Navid Nuur, Eduardo Ponjuán, Ariel Schlesinger, Shimabuku, Roman Signer, and Richard Wentworth. The exhibition was curated by Wilfredo Prieto, Direlia Lazo, and Gretel Medina.