IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 5 ENGLISH | Page 91

Tell us about that first collective exhibition.
At that time, we attempted to inaugurate
the space with three, Cuban-American
artists, but it ended up being a personal
exhibit of Luis Trápaga’s work. The
reason our effort was frustrated was
because the MININT confiscated a
piece by one of the artists at the airport,
and did not return it until long after his
return to the United States. They (State
Security) alleged that we were setting
up the exhibit as if it were part of the
Eleventh Biennial in Havana, for which
we should have gotten official permission from the National Council of Plastic Arts. Yet, there were many exhibits
organized without said permission. In
addition, had we asked for it, we probably would have been denied. It is also
the case that La Galería, a very new
space within a private restaurant on 19th
and 12th, had problems with State Security for hosting the collective expo
Crime, Nausea, and Transgression,
under Giselle Victoria’s curatorship. It
actually closed the day after the opening
because Vincench’s work consisted of
the word DISSIDENT, written in what
looked like shit, above a toilet in the
restaurant. The restaurant would eventually close, too, permanently. Almost
all initiatives that don’t adhere to an
official structure filled with censorship
and schemata, are harassed, isolated
and, in the worse case scenario, made to
disappear. It is difficult to remain active
under this sort of repression.

“El Círculo”. CubaRaw Archive
We know that alternative spaces outside official institutions have been
flourishing in Cuba.
For more than a decade, we’ve bee seeing a growing cultural movement outside the traditional, institutional limits.
It is high diverse and is leaving its mark
via so-called underground, alternative
spaces. At this moment, they are one of
contemporary Cuban culture’s most
fruitful initiatives, as a result of their
achievements and influence. They are
many in number and have impacted
music (independent recording studios),
audiovisual art (independent producers),
literature (independent libraries, publishers and journals/magazines), visual
arts (our specialty, through which we
can connect to a least ten, physical
spaces), thought (independent platforms
for debates and conversations), blogs,
workshops, residencies, and