La Primavera del Amor

Elegoa Cultural Productions and Programme Hors-Pistes (Centre Pompidou)

Commissioning, artistic direction and co-production

Cuban and international partners and funders (see list below)

Project

La Primavera del Amor is a platform for artistic development and production, international and local networking, and community outreach in Havana and suburbs curated by Catherine Sicot launched in the spring of 2014.

During the 12th Havana Biennial (May/June 2015), the production platform benefits from a promotional platform Hors-Pistes: La Primavera del amor, first edition of the anual festival Hors-Pistes (La Havane), in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou (Hors Pistes Programme, curatorial collaboration Géraldine Gomez) and cuban partners (see list below). Publishing projects, film premieres, performances, workshops and panel discussions took place at La Fabrica de arte Cubano, the Alliance Française, Sometimes Art Space, El Paquete Semanal and private venues in Havana.

Love sets the tone – collaboration and participation are at the root of all the creative processes involved. Interrogating the impact of recent economic and diplomatic developments on Cuban mentalities La Primavera del Amor offers moments of artistic trans-cultural and trans-generational dialogue, reflecting upon identity, gender and sexuality and its relationship to media and technology.

Details of projects and participants

Artistic development

• The pilot of Incubador, a 6-month residency programme for young Cuban artists. First artist in residence:Luis Manuel Otero Alcantåra. Research project: ‘LHOOQ: exploration of sexuality “in the margins”’.
• A 6-month position of Curatorial assistant for a cuban student - Reynier Guerra Capote and a 2 month internship for French student Samantha de Araujo.
• Instituto de Invierno, a 2-month programme on cultural and sexual diversity based in San Agustinduring winter 2015 that included workshops and a series of performances in public and domestic spaces. Artistic direction: José Alexander Morales Carvajal (Columbia). Cuban participants: Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, Alexis Povea Dreke, Ivette Sáez Quintero, Ulises Padrón Suárez, Reynier Guerra Capote, Dayron Calvet, Esperanza Nuñez Guerrero.

Performance

• Miss Biennal​, an itinerant performance by Luis Manuel Otero Alcantåra.

Moving image

• The Kids of 250, a coming of age telenovela by Canadian artist Kathleen Hearn filmed with non-professional teen actors in San AgustÍn.
• Present: Past/Future, an ongoing interview-based work with Cuban elders by Canadian artist Ed Pien. This project will continue until the death of interviewees or interviewer.
• Le Forum des Rêves, a science fiction film by French artist Olivier Bosson that probes the spaces of personal and collective dreams, inventing a world where dreams can be uploaded and shared online. This project is being developed with the participation of non-professional francophone actors and so far has been filmed in France, Canada, Morocco, Luxembourg and Cuba.
• La vie courante by Franco-Algerian artist Narimane Mari is filmed in the streets of various countries prompting interaction and observing apparently eventless situations to capture a poetic of daily life. Participant/collaborators are invited to respond to footage of places they have never visited with their own soundtracks. The Cuban chapter of La vie courante is planned for December 2015.

Publishing

• La Primavera del Amor Vision – dissemination of the programme as an intervention within El Paquete Semanal – an independent USB-based distribution system for news, entertainment and commentary, sometimes described as ‘Cuban Internet’. This weekly programme is developed with independent Cuban journalist / producer Claudio Pelaez Sordo. 
• Sonrisa (Smile) – a proposal for a publishing project that gathers artists and readerships in Havana and London, UK. Publisher Louise O’Hare (UK) in collaboration with Reynier Guerra Capote and an international editorial board.
• Wondereur: Primavera del Amor Trilogía – an on-line project and screening by Canadian publisher Wondereur featuring Glexis Novoa (Cuban American), Narimane Mari and Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara. Working in collaboration with local photographers these photo-reportages capture the creative process, the specifics of the artists’ personal histories, and the social and political context in which they live and work, through images and quotes. Photographers: Miami: Ryan Stone, Alger: Youcef Krache and Havana: Orlando Garcia Garcia.

         <http://wondereur.com/collections/glexis-novoa#autostart>

         <http://wondereur.com/collections/narimane-mari#autostart>

         <https://www.wondereur.com/artists/luis-manuel-otero-alcantara>

Conversations

• Interviews and commentary by Claudio Pelaez, Catherine Sicot and guests – Teresa Casas, (Toronto-based Cuban-born writer, curator and community animator) and Peter Kingstone (artist, Canada). Diffusion on El Paquete Semanal and during public events.

Partners

Other Cuban and international partners, producers and presenters include:

• the Canadian embassy in Havana (Canada Fund for Local Initiatives)
• L’Ambassade de France the embassy of France in Havana
• the French L’ Alliance Française in Havana
• the Comitato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo dei Popoli (CISP) (Havana, Cuba)
• Laboratorio Artístico de San Agustín (LASA )
• Centrale Electric, Film Production (France)
• The K.M. Hunter Foundation (Canada)
• Wondereur, online cultural platform (Canada)
• Tremendo explote, audiovisual  production team (Cuba)
• Three Letter Words (London, UK) Publication Studio (London, UK)
• Abdelkrim Mediene Stratégie et Valorisation (AMSV, Paris, France)

Some of the artists who were involved in their production costs. Fábrica de Arte Cubano (FAC) hosted a public presentation of the project on May 26, 2015. Sometimes Art Space hosted an event of the Sonrisa project on May 26, 2015.

See La Primavera on FaceBook

*Photo credits:

Top left: Kathleen Hearn, Los Chicos de 250 (Photo Dayron Calvet for LASA/Elegoa) / Top right: Ed Pien, Present: Past, Future (photo Johannes Zits) / Bottom left: Olivier Bosson, Le Forum des rêves (photo Dayron Clavet for LASA/Elegoa) / Bottom right: Instituto de Invierno, curated by Catherine Sicot, artistic direction Alexander Morales Carvajal  participants Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Alexis Povea Dreke, Ivette Sáez Quintero, Ulises Padrón Suárez, Reynier Guerra Capote, Dayron Calvet, Esperanza Nuñez Guerrero.(photo Dayron Calvet for LASA/Elegoa).