{"id":13557,"date":"2023-04-19T00:00:06","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T04:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/?p=13557"},"modified":"2023-04-19T10:08:59","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T14:08:59","slug":"fabrica-de-arte-de-las-americas-denver-bienal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/fabrica-de-arte-de-las-americas-denver-bienal\/","title":{"rendered":"F\u00e1brica de Arte de Las Am\u00e9ricas, the Biennial as a showcase"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entering F\u00e1brica de Arte Cubano (F.A.C.) at noon is a different experience than usual. The daily hustle and bustle, the movement, the hurried footsteps, the tables from one side to the other, draw the <\/span>backstage<\/span><\/i> of a place that has been a thermometer of Cuban contemporary art in the last nine years. Today I am approaching the home of so many artists to follow the route of a project on the verge of being born: Art Factory of the Americas, which, as its name suggests, will welcome artists from all over the continent to mix different art forms and recreate the concept of F.A.C. outside the national boundaries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just in time, as part of a strictly calculated program, Sandra Lopes and X Alfonso receive me in a room that at night could be anything but an office. Like someone waiting for a friend, we settle into a space away from the hustle and bustle of the corridors. This magazine<\/span> is an old acquaintance of both of us and F\u00e1brica de Arte Cubano, to which are added, on this occasion, other common affections: our director, Rafa G. Escalona is in charge of the curatorship of the music section of the project, which includes artists from all over the region, as we already announced in our bulletin The <\/em><\/span>Letters from AMPM.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Let's trace a route of this project, to put its timing in order. What is, on a large scale, the Biennial of the Americas?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Sandra Lopes:<\/b> The Biennial of the Americas is an organization that holds events every two years. Its goal is to promote the union between Las Am\u00e9ricas and its cultural diversity. We went in 2017 as F\u00e1brica de Arte Cubano, we took fifty artists from here and made the main cultural event of the Biennial in that year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So F\u00e1brica functioned as a kind of institution....<\/b><\/p>\n

XA<\/b>Factory functioned as what it is, a diverse project. It was in a place that we chose ourselves, very similar to ours: an old factory, abandoned, old warehouses. A local man opened the doors for us, cleaned it all up for us...<\/span><\/p>\n

SL<\/b>Yes, it was two nights, fifty Cuban artists. Then everything happened with the Cuba-U.S. relations and so on. Recently, they contacted us again because the experience was very good and this year they are going to host, under the umbrella of the Biennial of the Americas, the <\/span>Cities Summit of the Americas<\/span><\/i>. A great event where the protagonists are the cities of thirty-five countries of the Americas, from Canada to Chile. We have been given the task, the immense and grandiose challenge of being, for this event, the Art Factory of the Americas, this time promoting the culture of thirty-five countries. It is no longer just Cuba, it is the curatorship of a space similar to the Cuban Art Factory but for all these countries. They have all the financing, of course, but we are responsible for all the curatorship and production.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0How much time have you had to put all this together?<\/b><\/p>\n

XA<\/b>Sandra: Well, don't think it's a long time, only since January. We got the call in November, didn't we, Sandra? Yes, we knew about it in November, but the <\/span>ok\u00e1<\/span><\/i> was at the end of January because we depended on other confirmations.<\/span><\/p>\n

SL<\/b>This was a process. We knew exactly how we wanted to develop it conceptually; this time it's going to be quite a big thing because we have visual arts -an exhibition with more than twenty artists from twenty countries-; we will make <\/span>mapping <\/span><\/i>with Mexican artists; dance -more than five companies-; fashion; DJ and music.<\/span><\/p>\n

How many days will all this take?<\/b><\/p>\n

SL<\/b>Everything will take place from April 26th to 29th. Four days... we are talking about two to three concerts per day, three and four choreographies, in short, quite an intense program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When choosing the artists, did you follow a certain line, did you seek to highlight something specific, for example, American folklore?<\/b><\/p>\n

SL<\/b>Not so much.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

XA<\/b>The idea is that each artist is truly representative of the idiosyncrasies of his or her country, so as to highlight diversity. It doesn't matter if it's hip hop as long as you can distinguish its roots. We didn't want to bring someone who would do the same thing that has been done before - a singer who does hip hop like the Americans - because it's not funny. We were looking for a line that represented their culture, within their fusion and everything else, but that you could identify without any problems what country it comes from.<\/span><\/p>\n

SL:<\/b> I'll give you a very concrete example: Renata Flores is a contemporary artist from Peru who raps in Quechua, which is absolutely innovative. You don't see anything like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, it has tremendous cultural value.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

SL<\/b>Exactly, that's the idea. We had a gigantic range. Thirty-five countries with all the cultural diversity of the American continent is overwhelming, but we selected young people, people representative of contemporary art, between the well-known and the not so well-known. People who were not super hyper famous.<\/span><\/p>\n

XA<\/b>To also create a platform for visibility. To take advantage of the opportunity to make themselves known. That's exactly what F\u00e1brica is. The same thing we do here.<\/span><\/p>\n

SL<\/b>That, to support projects with value for their country, for contemporary art, and that are recognized but not so much. For example, the DJs we have selected are a sample of the Latin American diaspora in the United States, although we have one purely Colombian, and another with Haitian roots.<\/span><\/p>\n

Behind these big events there are many business and contract opportunities for young artists. Do you think that, in addition to the cultural value, it is an opportunity for these artists to access the cultural industry?<\/b><\/p>\n

SL<\/b>: Totally.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

XA<\/b>It is a platform designed for that, which runs parallel to the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

SL<\/b>It will be impressive for them, there are people, businessmen from all over. Many of the artists have never left their countries, very few have been to the United States. It will be an important showcase.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, in a place like Denver, so cosmopolitan.<\/b><\/p>\n

XA<\/b>Denver is one of the cities with the most immigrants... one of the cities with the most respect for the immigrant. We know, we have been there. A city with many universities. All the signage is in English and Spanish, that is, there is a very strong migration culture there, so it is the perfect place for this.<\/span><\/p>\n

SL<\/b>And not only that, in the statistics, Denver is currently the city with the most internal migration of young people. It is a relatively new city, which has invested a lot in attractive policies for young people, in all senses: social, educational, cultural, economic. Young people are arriving from all the states of the United States and the government and local businessmen are investing a lot in this type of programs to populate with youth, with people with skills, technical, everything.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think that, beyond the event and what it represents, it is a great opportunity for you as F\u00e1brica de Arte Cubano, to promote the project, to attract people, to give it life.<\/b><\/p>\n

XA<\/b>It is an open door to our project, a channel of communication with the world. And we are going to meet the artists, we are going to measure temperatures...<\/span><\/p>\n

SL<\/b>We have taken it as a recognition of our work of so many years, which has not been easy. Calling us from the Biennial of the Americas, asking us to do something so big, trusting us, has been a great recognition.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is undoubtedly the greatest thing that F\u00e1brica has done, as a cultural project, outside Cuba.<\/b><\/p>\n

SL<\/b>: Up to this point, yes. After Denver 2017. We are talking about more than a hundred artists from so many countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Landing a little bit in Cuba, in what ties us as a magazine to this project, which is music: how have you conceived this part of the program? Who will go to Cuba? Will you do something with S\u00edntesis?<\/b><\/p>\n

XA<\/b>We talked about doing something with S\u00edntesis but in the end we decided not to. Within the Cuban repertoire, we have Leoni Torres because he is a very versatile artist, who can cover many genres, quite fused, and is representative of our culture. Besides, he lives in the United States, so he has a bit of both sides and that makes it much easier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SL<\/b>What happens with music and a little bit with everything: we felt that the eyes were on our work and we didn't want to be biased when it came to deciding the participants. We didn't want to use it as an unbalanced sample of Cubans over the rest of the countries, so we tried to balance the program. We had a lot of time constraints for visas, mainly for Cuba. <\/span><\/p>\n