The full title of this article by Anjali Gupta (San Antonio Current) is “Caribbean Connection: San Antonio visual artists working to build cultural bridge with Cuba.” [Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention.]
Where the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic converge lies a tiny island subject to one of the longest-running sanction policies in U.S. history. It is also the birthplace of some of the most influential conceptual artists in history — Coco Fusco, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Ana Mendieta, among others.
“Cuba — well, Havana specifically — is really different than most impoverished places,” San Antonio artist Gary Sweeney said. “Sure, you can go to Kingston or any number of beautiful places, but the people are genuinely pissed off — and armed. The people you meet in Havana are warm and beautiful.”
Sweeney’s latest trip to Cuba, his third thus far, was not as a tourist. Rather, it’s the first step in establishing a cultural bridge. “My role was akin to carnival barker,” he explained. “This is 100% Angela’s baby.”
By that, Sweeney means Angela Martinez, proprietor of Slab Cinema Outdoor Movies and Arthouse Cinema at Blue Star, brought a small group of San Antonio-based artists together to test the waters, make connections and, ultimately, establish long-term cultural exchanges centered around the visual arts, which she dubbed The San-Havana Project.
Literally flying by the seat of their pants, Martinez, Sweeney, painter Ricky Armendariz and photographer Anthony S. Garcia recently traveled to Cuba as unofficial cultural emissaries. Travel restrictions were relaxed during the Obama administration but ramped back up under Trump and continue to this day, creating a process filled with mind-numbing redundancies and rubber stamps in triplicate.
Luckily, artists and art lovers draw the short ream of red tape right now, thanks in no small part to the upcoming 2024 Havana Biennial.
As project lead, it was Martinez’s job to forge institutional connections, secure venues and deal with logistics — not an easy task in a foreign country with patchy phone service and unreliable internet. However, she quickly made inroads with some art collectives and the organization Havana Espacio Creativos, a multidisciplinary laboratory for the creation and display of contemporary art.
The SA group pulled off an exhibition and interactive artmaking workshop at Espacio Creativos, with Armendariz teaching the audience printmaking and Garcia shooting and giving away portraits. They next day, they followed with a pop-up exhibition in the space where they were staying. That’s where Sweeney’s role kicked in.
While Armendariz and Garcia were upstairs doing print demos and portraits, Sweeney stood on the street getting any passers-by he could to go see the show — a great strategy until it turned into an ad hoc block party. [. . .]
The San-Havana Project isn’t intended to be a one-time effort.
“I’ve got all these talking points about the project and my goals, but they don’t quite capture the thrill of creating this thing that is so beautiful and challenging at the same time,” Martinez said.
To that end, two events this month — a pop-up at Pearl retail shop Dos Carolinas featuring Garcia’s photography from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11 and an artists’ talk at restaurant Pharm Table at 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21 — will help introduce the concept to the San Antonio community.
Tickets for both events are available on the project website, san-havana.com.
“Art is a universal language,” Martinez said. “This is about long-term community building. Once you get past the handshakes and logistics and focus on art, people change. They drop their guard and communicate on a very human level, and that is where lifelong, meaningful relationships begin.”
The San-Havana Project
Photography pop-up, Free, 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11, Dos Carolinas, 303 Pearl Parkway, Unit 102, (210) 224-7000, doscarolinas.com.
Artists’ talk, Free, 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21, Pharm Table, 611 S Presa St Suite 106, (210) 802-1860, pharmtable.com. Tickets are available at san-havana.com.
For the full article, see https://www.sacurrent.com/arts/caribbean-connection-san-antonio-visual-artists-working-to-build-cultural-bridge-with-cuba-33518954
[Photo by Anthony S. García: San Antonio artist Ricky Armendariz teaches a printmaking workshop at Havana Espacio Creativos.]
The full title of this article by Anjali Gupta (San Antonio Current) is “Caribbean Connection: San Antonio visual artists working to build cultural bridge with Cuba.” [Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention.] Where the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic converge lies a tiny island subject to one
