An alternative for young art
What are the claims of the young Cuban artists? It seems they are all passing through all possible galleries providing information, delivering resumes and dossiers … fighting for a space within institutions, socializing to catapult their careers, all valid positioning strategies. Some get their purposes, others have to keep trying. The truth is that young plastic in Cuba is undoubtedly increasing; the proliferation of novice creators walks in unison with shortage of exhibition spaces, two of the most recurrent phenomena in our daily happenings. It is nevertheless true that events like Post it seem to drive a wedge for the recognition of fresh poetry, novel and suspicious propositions; a sign that the institutional authorities have come to realize the need to reassess and take into account the latest generational production. Given that the initiative is supported by the National Council of Plastic Arts and the Fund of Cultural Assets, the adventure is not entirely orphaned.
But the turning point occurs when a group of young artists, mostly graduates of the Higher Institute of Art, meets to give life to a purpose, which despite seeming a bit utopian in principle, it is already a fact. The Cuban Art Circle is the result of joint work; the pretensions of a few friends that decided to join their funds, unite their interests and focus their desire to do a project that has become almost unexplored edge on our premises. This institution is much more than a workshop or studio; it is an association of artists, a management center, which has among its main objectives to publicize the work of the youngest within the artistic community that has both a physical space, as an active website.
According to one of its members: The creation of a young institution, which began from self-management, with its own website, that promotes young artists, is a great investment that will certainly bear fruit. We are not afraid to venture and we fully understand what we are doing (…) we have a strong commitment and our intentions are above reality that could be the mistake. We want people to know that we exist.
Following the guidelines proposed in the Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party, new possibilities for the establishment of independent businesses have emerged. One of them is the conditions for the development of various mechanisms of integration in the field of the visual arts in Cuba. The marketing and promotion management and the market research summarize part of the framework of actions that involves sustaining a private space, especially when it’s towards a type of non-existent market on the country. In this regard, the Circle counts with professionals focused on making all efforts related to the positioning of the gallery, both nationally and internationally, with recognized success so far.
The Circle of Cuban Art opened in September its first exhibition, a sample of the artists that were part of their initial payroll. Suggestive and very well made works that troubles with their environment and diversify the most active positions can be found on it; pieces that flirt with history, that ridicule the commodification of contemporary art; attitudes that clash, that burst, plaguing with new exegesis the state of the visual arts in Cuba today. And I agree with Hortensia Peramo, when she says that the Circle is not about anything else than correspondence, about the role they are playing as protagonists of their own history, because there is a need to break, disrespect, questioning, and these attitudes mean not little risk of any kind.
