With the theme “The Construction of Possible” and a broad speech, in tune with the socio-political-environmental concerns of the moment, the 13th Havana Biennial opens its doors on April 12 with an evolutionary version of its work over the years. It includes thematic lines related to architecture, the city and its surroundings, ecology and themes of gender and migration. One of the novelties of this edition is that it extends to other cities of the Island: Pinar del Río, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus and Camagüey.
The Biennial, as a strategy, will investigate the perception of the present world, poetic procedures and nature that involve memory, society, history, belonging, a living topography taking into account “the conditions of a world that has intensified nuclear threats and warmongers, phobia, racism, forced displacements, fascist tendencies, the systematic use of lies and the environmental crisis that threatens the survival of the human species”. The group of curators, led by Cuban critics Nelson Herrera Ysla and Jorge Noceda Sánchez, hopes that art will mark new paths of collective reasoning. There are about 170 artists from 45 countries, some of them with works that capture the silent tensions. Among the invited artists are Sara Ramo, Lais Myrrha and Ruy Cézar Campos (Brazil). Tania Candiani (Mexico); Pedro Cabrita Reis (Portugal); Abdoulaye Konaté (Mali), Guy Wouet (Cameroon); René Francisco Rodríguez, José Manuel Fors, Juan Carlos Alom, Kadir López, Dania González and Ruslan Torres (Cuba).