Examining Artistic Freedom in Cuba: Castro regime jailed the second largest number of artists in the world in 2018

According to Danish NGO Free Muse, Cuba was second in the world with 19 artists detained over the course of 2018.

 

The Castro regime in Cuba continues to repress and censor artists. ArtNews and Art Forum reported in April of 2019 on how Cuban American artist Coco Fusco was denied entry to Cuba and declared inadmissible. She was barred because she had discussed censorship of the arts in Cuba.

The Danish non-governmental organization, Free Muse, focuses on artistic freedom around the world and has released its 2019 report "The State of Artistic Freedom 2019" revealing that, "[a]t least 157 artists were imprisoned or detained in 29 countries.  Spain, Turkey and Russia jailed the highest number of artists in the Global North, while China, Egypt, Iran and Cuba jailed the highest number of artists  in  the Global South. Free Muse detailed those with highest numbers of arrests. In 2018 there were "97 artists detained in 25 countries, including: 20 in Turkey, 19 in Cuba, 11 in Russia, 9 in Egypt, 6 in China."

Maykel Castillo Pérez: Artist sentenced to 1 year 6 months in prison

The Castro regime further tightened down on the few remaining artistic freedoms in Cuba with Decree 349 in 2018. Censorship had already existed in Cuba since 1959 but now with Decree 349 artists are specifically targeted and radically restricted from their work. Cuban artist Coco Fusco in Frieze magazine outlined the full breadth of this law.

Decree 349, was made public last summer and went into effect on 7 December. It criminalizes independent cultural activity that is not authorized by the state. It entails the creation of a cadre of roving inspectors that will be empowered to shut down activities in private recording studios, home-based galleries and clubs. Sanctions range from stiff fines to confiscation of privately-owned equipment to the seizure of homes. Artists on the island see the law as a return to the repressive cultural policies of the 1970s. Before it became law, Amnesty International called Decree 349 a ‘dystopian prospect’ for Cuba’s artists.

In September of 2018 Cuban rapper Maykel Castillo Pérez, "El Osokbo" protested against Decree 349/2018 during a show in Cuba. Three days after the concert, he was detained by the Cuban secret police, and remained jailed. On March 20, 2019 Maykel was sentenced to one year six months in prison, and learned of his sentence on April 22, 2019.

EN VIVO 🔴 | Secretaría General de la #OEA y @USAmbOAS acogen diálogo sobre libertad artística en #Cuba

📺 https://t.co/MtjPQ6GHxW pic.twitter.com/00he0YqmAQ

— OEA (@OEA_oficial) May 6, 2019

On May 6, 2019 the General Secretary of the OAS and the US Ambassador to the OAS hosted at the Organization of American States an event which was streamed live in both Spanish and English on the lack of artistic freedom in Cuba with independent journalists and independent artists from the island presenting their testimony.

Hopefully, they will be able to return to Cuba without joining the long list of arbitrarily detained artists.

Cuban American Artist Denied Entry to Cuba Ahead of Havana Biennial

"L'art pour l'art" - Théophile Gautier (1811–1872)

Cuban American artist Coco Fusco

ArtNews and Art Forum are reporting on how Cuban American artist Coco Fusco was denied entry to Cuba and declared inadmissible. Artistic freedom of expression is an important topic for this blog. Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter came into being on August 23, 2009 in reaction to attempts to censor Juanes in Miami for wanting to put on a concert in Cuba. Defending both freedom of expression and art for art's sake are both important.  ArtNews reproduced a Facebook entry by Cuban American artist Coco Fusco describing what happened to her when she tried to enter Cuba. Furthermore Cuban rappers Maykel Castillo Pérez, "El Osokbo"  and  Lazaro Rodriquez Betancourt “Pupito en Sy” remained jailed for their opposition to censorship of the arts in Decree 349. This should outrage friends of liberty everywhere.

"INADMISSIBLE"

I am currently sitting in the immigration area of José Marti Airport in Havana. I have been denied entry to Cuba for the second time in the past year. I heard one of the Immigration officials refer to me as an "inadmissible." I'm not a live plant, cheese, a narcotic or a pornographic publication, but expressing critical views of repressive measures carried out against artists constitutes grounds for barring my entry to Cuba.

I am not the first or the last intellectual with close ties to Cuba who has been punished in this way for expressing my views and advocating for greater freedom of expression in Cuba. It has become a sad routine.

The immigration officials in the airport do not give reasons for my imminent expulsion. I am sure that this is due to my writings on Cuban art and cultural politics, and my steadfast support for the artists-led movement in Cuba against Decree 349. It strikes me as a tragic that a government would harass its artists and silence critical debate about its culture in order to impress visitors by creating the false impression that the only art in Cuba is what the state wants to show. The state is counting on favorable coverage from visitors who know little and who will stay on the tour buses and remain inside their art corrals. It also counts on the complicity of artists who remain silent in order to be promoted by the state. They benefit from skeptics who believe that political interventions are carried by artists who lack better (i.e. more artistic) ways of getting attention.

Cuban nationals often believe they have no choice because speaking up means social death. How foreigners rationalize their silence Is another very complicated story, in which unwavering support for the Cuban revolution functions as a kind of anti-American chic for globe trotting intellectuals who haven’t had their own lives turned upside down by a state security apparatus.

Those who suggest that every biennial is selective and that Cuba is no different are missing the point or evading it. Since when do biennials in other countries arrest artists who open their studios or run parallel events? Since when do museums arrest artists that protest their practices? Since when is is ok to threaten foreigners who show up for an independently produced art event with deportation? Cuba is indeed different from many other countries in its harsh repression of criticism and cultural activism. It is also different in that culture is the last valuable product for export and whitewashing of its image that the state has left. If artists can determine what aesthetic value is the government will lose the last jewel in its crown.

I find it disturbing that it takes beheadings, stoning and long prison sentences to get most people in the artworld to protest censorship and repression of artists. Violence is not reducible to physical aggression. Creativity, imagination and hope die slow deaths in a country where any expression of dissent is criminalized. A biennial every few years doesn’t upend that deterioration.