Introduction
The Havana Biennial stands as one of the most paradoxical and politically charged cultural events in the contemporary art world. Founded in 1984 during the height of the Cold War, it emerged as the first major biennial dedicated to artists from Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle Eastâa revolutionary act that challenged the Eurocentric dominance of Venice, documenta, and SĂŁo Paulo.
Through four decades of evolution, the biennial has navigated the complex terrain between artistic freedom and state control, international acclaim and domestic censorship, utopian aspirations and economic collapse. The 15th edition, titled "Shared Horizons," unfolds against a backdrop of unprecedented crisis: Cuba's tourism industry has plummeted by 30%, daily blackouts paralyze the nation, and artists continue to face repression for challenging state narratives.
Yet the biennial persists, transforming Havana into what director Nelson RamĂrez de Arellano calls "an affective network" where art becomes a space for both resistance and resilience. This edition, extending from November 2024 to February 2025, commemorates the event's 40th anniversary while confronting fundamental questions about art's role in a society where expressing dissent can lead to imprisonment.
In the News
Current coverage of Havana Biennial
Paradise Lost: How the Havana Biennial Became a Battleground for Artistic Freedom
On a sweltering afternoon in 2009, something extraordinary happened at the Wifredo Lam Center during the 10th Havana Biennial. Artist Tania Bruguera stood before a podium adorned with a microphone, flanked by two performers dressed as military guards, and invited the audience to speak freely for one minute each. The piece, "Tatlin's Whisper #6," transformed the gallery into an impromptu forum where Cubans voiced opinions ranging from praise for the revolution to calls for changeâa rare moment of uncensored public discourse in a country where such expression typically leads to arrest.
Thirty-nine people spoke that day. Some defended Cuba's political system; others criticized it openly. When Bruguera attempted to restage the performance in Revolution Square five years later, she was arrested before reaching the location. Her detention marked a turning point not just in her career but in the relationship between the Havana Biennial and the artists it had nurturedâa relationship that encapsulates the broader paradox of cultural production under authoritarianism.
The story of the Havana Biennial is, fundamentally, a story about impossible choices. How does an institution born from revolutionary ideals maintain its critical edge within a system that demands loyalty? How do artists navigate between international opportunity and local responsibility? And perhaps most urgently: Can a biennial dedicated to challenging hegemonic power structures exist meaningfully within an authoritarian state?
When the Wifredo Lam Center launched the first Havana Biennial in 1984, it represented something unprecedented in the art world. Here was a major international exhibition that explicitly rejected the Western-centric model, instead privileging artists from what was then called the "Third World." The timing was deliberate: As Reagan's America and Thatcher's Britain championed neoliberalism, Cuba offered an alternative vision where art served social transformation rather than market speculation.
The biennial's early editions read like a who's who of artists who would later reshape global contemporary art. Carlos Garaicoa, now represented by galleries from London to SĂŁo Paulo, first showed his haunting architectural interventions at the 1994 edition. Los Carpinteros, the duo whose playful yet political sculptures now command six-figure prices, emerged through the biennial's platform. Kcho, who would later enjoy solo shows at the Museum of Modern Art, built his reputation on the MalecĂłn during biennial season.
But perhaps no trajectory better illustrates the biennial's contradictions than that of Tania Bruguera herself. Trained at Havana's Instituto Superior de Arte, she participated in multiple biennial editions, using the platform to develop her concept of "arte Ăștil"âuseful art that creates real social change. Her 2000 installation at the Cabaña Fortress, which forced viewers to walk barefoot through sugarcane husks while watching footage of Fidel Castro, lasted mere hours before authorities shut it down. Yet she continued working in Cuba, founding the CĂĄtedra Arte de Conducta, an alternative art school that operated from her home for eight years.
The relationship between the biennial and its artists began to fracture visibly during the 2000s, coinciding with what many describe as Cuba's cultural opening. The 7th Havana Biennial in 2000 saw an influx of American collectors taking advantage of loosened travel restrictions, transforming the event into what one dealer privately called "the best-kept secret in the art market." Artists who had spent years developing socially engaged practices suddenly found themselves courted by galleries promising international careersâbut at a price.
"There was this moment when everything seemed possible," recalls a Cuban artist who requested anonymity. "The biennial brought the world to us, and suddenly we could imagine lives beyond the island. But leaving meant abandoning the communities that shaped our work. Staying meant watching opportunities pass by."
The tensions exploded during the 2018 controversy over Decree 349, a law requiring government approval for all artistic activities. In response, the San Isidro Movementâa collective of artists, musicians, and writersâorganized their own "#00Bienal," deliberately challenging the state's monopoly on cultural production. Luis Manuel Otero AlcĂĄntara, the movement's most visible figure, was arrested multiple times for organizing unsanctioned exhibitions. The state's response was predictable: harassment, surveillance, and imprisonment.
Yet even as authorities cracked down on independent artists, they needed the biennial to maintain Cuba's international cultural prestige. This produced a schizophrenic dynamic where the same institution celebrating "Shared Horizons" in 2024 operates in a country where sharing certain horizons leads to prison. The current edition features commemorative exhibitions of works acquired over four decadesâa celebration of artistic achievement that carefully avoids mentioning how many of those artists now live in exile or under surveillance.
The economic context adds another layer of complexity. Cuba's GDP has contracted by over 12% since 2019, with tourismâonce the economy's lifelineâin free fall. The island experiences daily blackouts lasting up to 20 hours, and basic necessities remain scarce. In this environment, the biennial represents one of the few remaining connections to hard currency and international visibility. For young artists, participation offers a potential escape route; for the state, it provides evidence that Cuban culture endures despite the crisis.
Nelson RamĂrez de Arellano, the current biennial director, navigates these contradictions with practiced diplomacy. A photographer who represented Cuba at the Venice Biennale before taking the helm at the Wifredo Lam Center, he speaks of creating "affective networks" and "spaces of connection." His rhetoric carefully sidesteps political landmines while maintaining the biennial's internationalist vision. Under his leadership, the 15th edition has expanded to include venues throughout Havana and even other Cuban cities, transforming scarcity into a curatorial strategy that emphasizes community engagement over spectacular installations.
The international art world watches with a mixture of admiration and unease. Many curators and critics privately acknowledge the ethical complexities of participating in a state-sanctioned event while colleagues face repression. Some, like Coco Fusco, have called for boycotts. Others argue that engagement offers solidarity with Cuban artists who have few other platforms. The debate reveals uncomfortable truths about how the global art system negotiates with authoritarian regimesâfrom China to the Gulf Statesâwhen cultural prestige and market opportunities are at stake.
What makes the Havana Biennial unique is not just its political context but how that context shapes artistic production. Unlike commercial fairs or market-driven biennials, Havana offers something increasingly rare: art created outside the speculative economy, where artists develop practices in dialogue with specific communities rather than international collectors. The irony, of course, is that this alternative model exists because of, not despite, Cuba's isolation and economic dysfunction.
As the 15th edition continues through February 2025, it faces challenges that would have seemed unimaginable to its founders. The question is no longer whether art from the Global South deserves equal recognitionâthat battle has largely been won, thanks in part to the biennial's four-decade advocacy. Instead, the question is whether meaningful cultural exchange can occur within systems that criminalize dissent, and whether international solidarity requires presence or boycott.
The answer may lie in the biennial's own history. Its greatest achievement was never just bringing visibility to marginalized artists but demonstrating that alternative models of cultural production were possible. Today, as market logic colonizes even the most remote corners of the art world, that lesson feels more urgent than ever. The tragedy is that the very conditions that make such alternatives necessaryâpolitical repression, economic precarity, social controlâalso limit their transformative potential.
The Havana Biennial remains a space where these contradictions play out in real time, where utopian aspirations meet material constraints, where international ambitions confront local realities. It is, in the words of one participating artist, "both the best and worst place to make art"âa paradise where creative freedom flourishes in carefully controlled spaces, always conscious of the lines that cannot be crossed. As Cuba faces its deepest crisis since independence, the biennial stands as both a testament to cultural resilience and a reminder of dreams deferred, a revolutionary project that succeeded in changing the art world's geography even as it failed to transform the conditions under which its own artists live and work.
Sources & Further Reading
- e-flux Notes - On the 2024 Havana Biennial
- The Art Newspaper - Why We Need an Independent Biennial
- Artnet - Coco Fusco on the Havana Biennial
- Artforum - Tania Bruguera at the 10th Havana Biennial
- Contemporary And - What Happened With the Havana Biennial?
- Biennial Foundation - Havana Biennial Profile
Artistic Vision & Themes
The Havana Biennial has consistently positioned itself as a laboratory for art that addresses urgent social and political realities. Unlike market-driven events, it privileges process over product, community engagement over individual genius, and political critique over aesthetic contemplation. This approach, rooted in Cuba's revolutionary ideology, has evolved to encompass broader questions about decolonization, South-South solidarity, and alternative modernities.
The 15th edition's theme, "Shared Horizons," reflects both aspiration and irony. While the curatorial framework emphasizes connection and collective futures, it unfolds in a context of increasing isolation and fragmentation. Director Nelson RamĂrez de Arellano describes the biennial as "an affective network that bets on coexistence based on respect for differences," yet this vision operates within a state that systematically suppresses difference when it challenges official narratives.
Historically, the biennial's thematic evolution traces Cuba's own transformation: from the optimistic internationalism of early editions through the survival strategies of the Special Period to recent explorations of precarity and resistance. The shift from competitive prizes to curatorial selection in 1989 marked a philosophical turn toward collaborative rather than individualistic models of artistic productionâa stance that continues to distinguish Havana from its market-oriented counterparts.
History & Legacy
The Havana Biennial emerged from a specific historical moment when Cuba positioned itself as a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, offering cultural along with political solidarity to the Global South. Established in 1984 by the Wifredo Lam Centerânamed for Cuba's most internationally celebrated modern artistâthe biennial represented an institutional commitment to what organizers called "Our America": a hemispheric vision extending from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego.
The expansion to include Africa, Asia, and the Middle East in 1986 transformed the biennial from a regional showcase into a global platform for what was then termed "Third World art." This geographic reorientation coincided with perestroika and the gradual dissolution of Soviet support, making cultural diplomacy increasingly vital for Cuba's international relations.
First edition focuses exclusively on Latin American and Caribbean artists, with 800 participants from 22 countries
Expands to include Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, establishing Havana as the "Third World Biennial"
Abandons competitive format for curatorial selection, emphasizing collective over individual achievement
Fifth edition during the "Special Period" explores art and survival in times of crisis
Influx of American collectors transforms the biennial into an art market "discovery" platform
Tania Bruguera's "Tatlin's Whisper #6" creates unprecedented space for free expression
12th edition "Between Idea and Experience" includes massive public art projects despite Bruguera's arrest
San Isidro Movement organizes alternative "#00Bienal" in response to Decree 349 censorship law
13th edition "The Construction of the Possible" extends to Matanzas and other Cuban cities
15th edition "Shared Horizons" commemorates 40 years amid deepening economic and political crisis
From the Art World
Contemporary art news and visual culture from leading sources
Sources: Hyperallergic âą ARTnews âą This is Colossal
Exhibition Venues
The Havana Biennial transforms the entire city into an exhibition space, with artworks appearing in museums, galleries, colonial fortresses, public squares, and private homes. This distributed model reflects both practical constraintsâCuba lacks a purpose-built biennial venueâand philosophical commitments to breaking down barriers between art and daily life.
Central venues include the Wifredo Lam Center in Old Havana's Cathedral Square, which serves as organizational headquarters; the massive Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña, whose stone chambers once imprisoned political dissidents; the Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales; and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. Recent editions have expanded to include Fåbrica de Arte Cubano, housed in a converted cooking oil factory, and numerous casas particulares where independent artists mount exhibitions.
Public interventions along the MalecĂłn seawall and in Central Havana's neighborhoods have become signature elements, with projects like "DetrĂĄs del Muro" (Behind the Wall) transforming the oceanfront into an open-air gallery. This approach enables artists to engage directly with Havana's residents while navigating the permissions required for public spaceâa delicate dance between visibility and control.
Video Experience
Explore the intersection of art and politics in contemporary Havana through this documentary examining how artists navigate creative expression within Cuba's complex social reality.
Video: Art and Politics in Contemporary Havana | Watch on YouTube
Venue Locations
The Havana Biennial takes place across numerous locations throughout the city, from the colonial architecture of Old Havana to contemporary spaces in Vedado, creating cultural circuits that reveal the city's complex urban and social geography.
- Wifredo Lam Center - San Ignacio 22, Plaza de la Catedral, Habana Vieja
- Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña - Carretera de la Cabaña, Habana del Este
- Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales - San Ignacio 352, Habana Vieja
- Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes - Trocadero e/ Zulueta y Monserrate
- FĂĄbrica de Arte Cubano - Calle 26 esq. 11, Vedado
- Casa de las Américas - 3ra y G, Vedado
- Multiple Public Spaces - MalecĂłn, Parque Central, and neighborhoods throughout Havana