Renata Salecl

Havana Biennial and the impact of consumerism

My primal plan was to visit Havana Biennial and to explore how the artists and the curators are tackling the theme of this year’s biennial: The Construction of the Possible. I also wanted to observe how artists respond to the challenges that the world is facing today, especially the tensions between tradition and contemporariness, the challenge to the historical colonization processes, relations between art and society, as well as the individual and his/her memory. In addition, I observed how art deals with the deadlocks of human communication in the face of technological development. Since Cuba just adopted the new constitution which opens the doors to economic changes in society, I explore what is happening with consumerism in Cuba and how the art world reflects on it.