From Official to Unscrupulous: The Havana Biennial and #00Bienal de La Habana

Previously ignored innovations by “biennials of the south” or “peripheral” biennials have begun to be recognized for their substantial contributions to the contemporary biennial and disruptions to Eurocentric contemporary art discourse (Hoskote, 2010; Clark, 2010; Niemojewski, 2010; Mosquera, 2011; Weiner, 2014; Marchant, 2014; Gardner and Green, 2016;). However, what becomes of a longer history of a biennial? In the case of the Havana Biennial, which is regarded as the first contemporary biennial for instituting postcolonial perspectives and additional discursive components, (Niemojewski, 2010) it has become considered by many local Cuban artists as unscrupulous (Havana Times, 2017). The Havana Biennial initiated a network for non-Euro-American artists, yet the Cuban government has increasingly imposed limitations on Cuban artists and their creative economy. How do histories of biennials address inaugurative ambition and later editions effected by changing socio-cultural production? When the official 13th Havana Biennial was cancelled in 2018, local artists and curators organized their own biennial, #00Bienal de La Habana, in lieu of the postponed edition, which was later hosted in April-May 2019. By comparing the “unofficial” #00Bienal de La Habana to the official 13th edition of the Havana Biennial, this paper considers a present context for the Havana Biennial’s historiography, by mobilizing on-the-ground discussions about tensions between local and global narratives. My discussion examines curatorial intentions and strategies of each of these editions, revealing their ideologies and visions of the global that reflect on the productivity of local and global perceptions for rethinking historiographies of biennials.