The Language
The gift of language is the single humanizing and socializing capacity.
Jacques Derrida
"The 'other' is merely a figure in a discourse that shifts endlessly in relation to what it excludes."
Jacques Derrida
Detras del muro
Havana
12th Havana Biennial Off
From May 22 to June 22, 2015
Curators: Orlando Brito Jinorio
“Detrás del Muro (Behind the Wall),” the installation of public art works on the Havana Malecón, was one of the most appealing and accomplished projects of the recent 12th Havana Biennial. Curatorially, the variety and quality of works and the poetics of their placement on the storied seawall was effective, and it achieved one of the major objectives of recent biennials: accessibility. The 12th biennial reached far into remote and often impoverished areas of Havana, bringing art to people where they live; the Malecón is where Havana meets: it’s what curator Juan Delgado Calzadilla calls the “gran sofá.”
The variety of works presented by the group of some fifty Cuban and international artists1 is striking, a collection including sculptures, visual art and musical performances, murals and billboards, smaller works and large-scale interactive spaces encouraging reflection and recreation. On the more or less mile and a half of Malecón, the works are sited according to a canny rhythm, as the prominent larger works draw the viewer on a path to also discover the more subtler creations tucked into corners or mounted on façades facing the sea.
Moroccan artist mounir fatmi, who lives and works in Paris, created Obstáculos (Obstacles), from poles used to make jumps for equestrian competitions; painted in the red, white and blue of the American flag, they resembled a pile of pick up sticks, oriented north, blocking the path to the United States across the Florida Strait.
12th Havana Biennial
Detras del Muro
2015
artists
mounir fatmi
mounir fatmi, I like America, Tribute to Jacques Derrida
2007, Courtesy of the artist and Ceysson & Bénétière, Paris.
mounir fatmi, I like America, Tribute to Jacques Derrida
2007, Courtesy of the artist and Ceysson & Bénétière, Paris.
mounir fatmi, I like America, Tribute to Jacques Derrida
2007, Courtesy of the artist and Ceysson & Bénétière, Paris.
mounir fatmi, Destras del muro, Havana, Cuba
Courtesy of the artist.
mounir fatmi, Destras del muro, Havana, Cuba
Courtesy of the artist.
