The experience of "Biennale Culture" Biennales and big shows are being curated every two months and then they need people to go there, so they say "ok, we have this money". Sometimes they get the money two months before the show, or six months, and then they say "Ok, we flew everyone here and everyone is coming and then everyone has to be smart in the city". And then it's crazy – for me that I have been working a little bit with the city, for example of Havana, for many years because it's the way I work. It starts to be very strange as well, it puts you in the position to understand something that you really don't understand. I do believe that for the two times you have been in the city for a week or even one time you don't understand anything. The only thing you can do is to bring yourself and ... [hand gestures]. Of course, in my situation, like many artists' situation, we are moving. I have to say that even if I feel the context of Havana so close to me, I feel very, how do you say, non-attached to anything and a little bit like a gypsy. Because for many years I have been travelling for months. I spend half of the year travelling, in stupid hotels sometimes, looking at cities ... thinking of something ... then that does give you a notion ... I have been talking to several artists from my generation and we've been doing that for many years – more then twelve years moving ... And then almost everyone has similar feelings and it's something that has happened, and I would say my generation has this and I talk to several of them and they don't feel any ... you know ... they have to prove themselves in many places and many times more than in Cuba for example; we have this mentality of immigrants. [Cut] Even coming from the third world or coming from a Latin American country that is very closed etc. – you have to prove that you are not dealing with a particular context only, because then you are dead. And that was a big issue in the '90s for ... we can say ... the non-mainstream countries. [Cut] You can see in the art world today; you have a show and everyone has the name [of the artist] and then they have the country. And even if they have been talking about the global thing and nothing exists with any limits ... no identities ... whatever we have been discussing ... you realise that it is not true. They need to relate you to something, to understand you ... Sometimes I've been doing these photographs of ruins that I have been doing all over the world and I have shown them in some places and the critics say "... they are ruins of Havana" and I say "come on, this is not even in Havana, this is New York". And then you see the gap there. And that's put us in the position to try to ... we play the game, you know – in Latin America, in Africa and in Asia you have to play games, because we have been colonised many times already. And then you know, you have to find a way to arrive there and you find short cuts ... and one of the short cuts sometimes is to leave them to say what they want until you get what you want ... and then when you get there, already you can work ... you know. And this is what has been happening you know, people are ... we are immigrants of the mind. We have to arrive to the centre and get everything there. And then at the end you can play your own game. And that is very difficult when it started happening for us. Now I can play whatever – people invite me and I do whatever I want. [Cut] I don't want people to say that I am talking about Fidel and politics every day – I don't care – even if I cared even if you see [it in] my work, it's not about that. I think there are bigger problems in the world just to be talking about Fidel. But people want to push you there; they want to put you in this situation, because I do believe that people understand anyway ... and I'm bad in that ... not many people understand art a lot. They need to put you in the context which they understand. So if you are coming from Cuba, of course you are talking about Fidel, if you are coming from Malaysia of course then you have this background that is there; if you are coming from New York then you don't have context and you can say whatever you want. |