The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, leader of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), is one of the winners of the Prince Claus Foundation’s Impact Awards in the Netherlands, which every two years recognize cultural professionals from around the world who are not not only for their work but for their “positive contribution to the development of their society”.
Together with the Cuban, the institution itself reported this Tuesday through their social networksThey include the Brazilian Ailton Krenak, the Argentine María Medrano, the Egyptian May al-Ibrashy, the Moroccan Hassan Darsi and the Senegalese Alain Gomis. The prize has an endowment of 50,000 euros
In a telephone communication from prison, Otero Alcántara expressed his gratitude to the curator Claudia Genlui for the award and to the people who made it possible for him to obtain the recognition. “He’s in pretty good spirits. He’s no longer isolated, he’s in a cell with other prisoners,” Genlui explained to 14ymedio. At the beginning of August, the MSI denounced that the artist had been transferred to a “walled up and solitary cell”.
The Dutch Foundation explains on its website that the recipients of this award “are promising leaders in their field” and “excellent role models”, who “have shown transformative power, constant dedication and commitment within their contexts and beyond” and that “deserve much broader recognition”.
According to the institution, these prizes are awarded in a ceremony at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam and, also, in the respective countries of origin of the winners, in collaboration with the Dutch Foreign Ministry, through the embassies of the Netherlands.
It is not the first time that the Prince Claus falls on personalities of the Cuban dissidence: in 1999 they awarded an award to the magazine stained glass, of Dagoberto Valdes; in 2008, to the artist Tania Bruguera, founder of the Hannah Arendt Artivism Institute (Instar), and in 2010, to the director of this newspaper, Yoani Sánchez.
As detailed by the institution, these awards are delivered in a ceremony at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam and, also, in the respective countries of origin of the winners, through the embassies of the Netherlands
The MSI has congratulated via Facebook to Otero Alcántara, who is serving a five-year sentence in the Guanajay maximum security prison for the crimes of outrage against the symbols of the country, contempt and public disorder.
The artist was arrested on July 11, 2021 before being able to join the protest that day in Havana and tried along with several people, including rapper Maykel Castillo. Osorb, for several accusations that had nothing to do with the demonstrations that day.
The musician stated a few days ago that is willing to exchange jail for exile, a letter with which the State Security has blackmailed them, to treat an illness that they have not given a diagnosis of in prison. In the case of Alcantara, has made it clearat least for now, that he “will not accept banishment as an option under any circumstances.”
both activists they refused to appeal their convictions last July. Osorbo declared then, through his friends, that he would no longer lend himself “to that circus”, referring to the trial to which they were subjected.
“It has been the independent artists who in recent years have continued to give prestige to Cuban art,” declares the Movement in its publication this Tuesday. “In the midst of censorship, repression, economic precariousness and the systemic violence of the Castro leadership, the art guild has managed to impose itself, while offering emancipatory references to citizens.”
As an example of awards that have given prestige to Cuban culture in recent years, they mention the two Latin Grammys obtained by the song Homeland and Life, –of which Osorbo is co-author and in whose video clip Alcantara intervened–, the Egeda award granted to Carlos Lechuga for his film Vicenta or the Special Mention awarded to Sergio Fernández Borrás for his film Cuba and the night, at the 19th edition of the Documenta International Film Festival in Madrid.
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