[Blake_Stimson,_Gregory_Sholette]_Collectivism_aft(z-lib
Performing Revolution 141in which the general level of dissatisfaction with the revolution was sharpenedby poverty and remoteness, and its threat of stirring up local sentimentwas probably among the reasons why it was eventually blocked.The question of “the public” has dogged much progressive art of the twentiethcentury, in which the aim to engage broadly with the concerns andrealities of people excluded by the high borders of high culture has mostlyproven elusive. In Cuba, while the overall dilemma is shared, the speciWccontours of the situation are distinct.The idea of an expanded public audience for art is coextensivewith a vision of assimilating artistic practice into social practice, and of artas integrated into and integral to the emancipatory project of the revolution.However, Cuban cultural policy has been riddled with contradictions, notablythat it has left bourgeois ideas of high culture intact and dominant (forexample, the national ballet is one of the country’s premier cultural institutions;the national museum showcases painting and sculpture, with almostno space devoted to the various more popular forms of visual creation onthe island) and meanwhile banalized the interpretation and participation of“the masses” according to directives that coincide with the ideological formulationsof the state. This “reductivist, paternalistic and demagogic use ofthe concept and image of ‘the people’ and its applications in the cultural Weld(‘art for the people,’ ‘elitist art,’ ‘popular taste,’ ‘popular sensibility,’ etc.)” 130meant that the populist agendas of the young artists were in direct conXictwith the cultural “massiWcation” programs of Cuban state socialism. Moreover,unlike in capitalist countries, in Cuba the ranks of artists and otherintellectuals have been Wlled by people who are, “by origin, formation andvocation, an essential part of Cuban society,” 131 which makes the social segregationof high culture an even more twisted topography, since popular participationfor the artists was a matter of reaching across rather than down.(Nonetheless, ideas of an artistic avant-garde and other formulations thatplace artists at some remove from the general population have persisted inCuba, alongside socialist ethics: even Arte Calle, the most explicitly interactiveand populist of the groups, worked more with an eye toward destabilizingthe habitual than fomenting real dialogue. 132 This is an interestingparadox: the same group that aspired to radical socialism conceived of theirparticipation in that process as one in which they were not exactly part ofthe social body, but rather a kind of outside irritant.)The signiWcant gap between what the revolution extolled andwhat it administered as cultural policy was catalytic: many artists felt passionatelyabout the possibility of being part of building a truly integrated, revolutionaryculture, “demystiWed and desanctiWed” not in order to be recruited
142 Rachel Weissinto rhetoric but rather to realize its potential as a “practical-transformationalpraxis.” 133 Inevitably, their embrace of the revolutionary path put them on acollision course with the revolutionary apparatus. Moreover, the demands forchange in cultural policy were increasingly a microcosm of questions implicitmore broadly in Cuban life regarding individual rights to question, criticize,and challenge as legitimate participation in the revolutionary project of“emancipation, self-deWnition, and development.” A double kind of operationwas set up in which, to use the language of the day, the socialization ofculture would parallel the democratization of politics, within the historicalproject of the emancipation and disalienation of man. 134 Certainly, then,this question of the audience for art must be held in proximity to that of therelation between art and politics, since it was the artists’ base of politicalcritique that resonated so deeply with the nonart public in Havana.By the end of the 1980s, many artists in Havana had come to see their work,and their responsibility, as effecting political and social transformation. Thiswas understood both as challenging policies and bureaucracies, and equallyin terms of reasserting questions of a just society and digniWed citizenry. Theirswas an idea of art that worked fundamentally “not in visual changes, but asa form of mental transformation.” 135 The Pilón project took this ambition,which until then had mostly been directed toward the transformation of thespectator’s thinking, and turned it inward toward the artists themselves. Theproject was structured such that—in removing all of the assumptions andtacit agreements about art—it fundamentally challenged the artists’ view ofthemselves and of what they were doing. In this, it was perhaps the mosthonest collective project of all, if we understand collectivity as essentiallya manner of relinquishing the defended self-identiWcation in search of atruly social one.The project in Pilón was utopian and it was read, by some at least,as utopian-revolutionary. 136 The artists’ idea was, basically, to live in Pilón,to learn to understand the people and life there, and to make art with themin a fully collaborative process. The work, and the idea of “art,” would arisefrom those people and that place, not from any prior expertise or professionalismthat the artists brought with them: in fact this was the crux of thematter if the project was to avoid becoming just another example, howeverwell intended, of cultural colonialism.Unlike Arte Calle’s works that sought to destabilize ofWcial structures,the Pilón project made a “pact with power.” 137 The project was formallyproposed to and accepted by ofWcials at the Ministry of Culture whooversaw visual art: in fact, it generated such strong support that ArmandoHart himself met with the artists during a visit to the region. 138 Despite—or
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Performing Revolution 141
in which the general level of dissatisfaction with the revolution was sharpened
by poverty and remoteness, and its threat of stirring up local sentiment
was probably among the reasons why it was eventually blocked.
The question of “the public” has dogged much progressive art of the twentieth
century, in which the aim to engage broadly with the concerns and
realities of people excluded by the high borders of high culture has mostly
proven elusive. In Cuba, while the overall dilemma is shared, the speciWc
contours of the situation are distinct.
The idea of an expanded public audience for art is coextensive
with a vision of assimilating artistic practice into social practice, and of art
as integrated into and integral to the emancipatory project of the revolution.
However, Cuban cultural policy has been riddled with contradictions, notably
that it has left bourgeois ideas of high culture intact and dominant (for
example, the national ballet is one of the country’s premier cultural institutions;
the national museum showcases painting and sculpture, with almost
no space devoted to the various more popular forms of visual creation on
the island) and meanwhile banalized the interpretation and participation of
“the masses” according to directives that coincide with the ideological formulations
of the state. This “reductivist, paternalistic and demagogic use of
the concept and image of ‘the people’ and its applications in the cultural Weld
(‘art for the people,’ ‘elitist art,’ ‘popular taste,’ ‘popular sensibility,’ etc.)” 130
meant that the populist agendas of the young artists were in direct conXict
with the cultural “massiWcation” programs of Cuban state socialism. Moreover,
unlike in capitalist countries, in Cuba the ranks of artists and other
intellectuals have been Wlled by people who are, “by origin, formation and
vocation, an essential part of Cuban society,” 131 which makes the social segregation
of high culture an even more twisted topography, since popular participation
for the artists was a matter of reaching across rather than down.
(Nonetheless, ideas of an artistic avant-garde and other formulations that
place artists at some remove from the general population have persisted in
Cuba, alongside socialist ethics: even Arte Calle, the most explicitly interactive
and populist of the groups, worked more with an eye toward destabilizing
the habitual than fomenting real dialogue. 132 This is an interesting
paradox: the same group that aspired to radical socialism conceived of their
participation in that process as one in which they were not exactly part of
the social body, but rather a kind of outside irritant.)
The signiWcant gap between what the revolution extolled and
what it administered as cultural policy was catalytic: many artists felt passionately
about the possibility of being part of building a truly integrated, revolutionary
culture, “demystiWed and desanctiWed” not in order to be recruited