MADRID, Spain.- The artist and opposition The Cuban Ana Olema was censored for trying to do a performative action this Sunday at Art Basel in Miami, where since last December 1 she and other Cuban artists exhibited their work in the context of the Art Week.
This December 4, the last day of the exhibition, Olema “decided to do a little more, do performative activism”, which consisted of wearing a T-shirt with an image of Ernesto “Che” Guevara with a cross sign on top and displaying several posters answer.
When she took out the first poster, which read “Che was a killer”, several vendors who shared the exhibition space approached her to attack her for her performance and in English threatened to call the authorities, alleging that it was “an offense for those who were around.
“We have been through a truly unfortunate situation. (…) What happened in a few words was that they censored me”, despite the fact that she was doing it “peacefully, within her space”, said the artist, exiled in the United States, through a direct broadcast from Facebook.
While Claudia Genlui, curator of the exhibition and partner of the artivist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, in the same video said she had remembered all the censorship experienced in Cuba.
“I have revived all that feeling of frustration and impotence when I saw Ana Olema being censored with a performance. Today Ana Olema has been censored and even threatened that she was going to call the authorities precisely for putting up a sign, ”Genlui said in this regard.
However, he added, “we have felt that art has strength, because although a group of people tried to censor us, people, Cubans and non-Cubans, went there to learn about the reality of Cuba and Ana. So it was worth it.”
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