Painting project in Cuba gets complicated for Philly muralist

Painting project in Cuba gets complicated for Philly muralist
Michelle Angela Ortiz and her team of Cuban artists are still waiting
for permission from the Cuban government to paint a mural in Central
Havana. Meanwhile, they went to Regla, a municipality across Havana's
harbor, were they were able to paint a mural with members of the community.
ABEL FERNÁNDEZ
staff@InCubaHoy.com

Philadelphia artist Michelle Angela Ortiz headed to Cuba in January to
embark on a painting project with a group of local artists — a
large-scale mural in the heart of Havana.

But applying the brush strokes to make the mural come alive has been
more complicated than expected.

After four months and two trips to the island, Ortiz and her team are
still waiting for permission from the Cuban government, and they are
running out of time. The design is under a "review process" that could
take until the end of July, and the project is under an 8-month limit
for implementation.

"Creating art work in public spaces in Cuba is a challenge," said the
artist, who traveled to Cuba as part of a cultural exchange program
sponsored by the U.S. State Department. Ortiz has worked in communities
in the United States and other countries as part of projects seeking
social change through murals painted in public spaces by members of the
community.

Cuba, which has gotten worldwide recognition for its Havana Biennial Art
Exhibition, and also for showcasing a rich diversity of voices and
styles at museums and galleries, is particularly sensitive to art
projects in public spaces, even if they are projects by local artists,
Ortiz said.

"It is a very sensitive issue, especially in Havana. The first thing
they see is an American artist," said Ortiz, who was born in
Philadelphia of Puerto Rican and Colombian parents.

For the project, in which residents of the community take part in the
design and creation of a mural that expresses their visions and
realities, Ortiz chose a team of four talented artists from different
parts of Havana: Javier Martinez, Alberto Matamorros, Osdaly Diaz, and
Yoan Barrios.

The main obstacle they now face is obtaining government approval for the
project. The mural designs must first be reviewed by the Advisory
Council for Monumental Sculpture Development (Codema) and subsequently
by the Ministry of Culture.

Ortiz said she has learned to be patient and blames bureaucracy for the
delay, not censorship.

Magia Lopez, the project coordinator, said the delay is due to the fact
that this is the first time in more than 50 years such as an endeavor
has been undertaken.

"There is a thick pipe that we are trying to unclog," said Lopez, a
musician with the Cuban hip hop group Obsesión, who serves as the
project coordinator through the House of Artists and Creators, an
institution of the Municipal Department of Culture. "We are treading the
way for the project."

While they wait for the permit to paint the mural at Parque Antonio
Maceo, Ortiz and the Havana artists began working on another public arts
project in Regla, a municipality across from Havana's harbor with a
major influence of Afro-Cuban culture and home to some of the best
examples of the island's religious syncretism.

Regla is also one of Havana's poorest communities, where residents often
lack water and many houses are in precarious condition.

Ortiz and her team were able to work in Regla without a permit because,
unlike Central Havana, it is not considered a historical site, said
Terry K. Harvey, president of Meridian, the Washington-based
organization that obtained the State Department grant to carry out the
project.

In April, Ortiz and her team, along with dozens of volunteers, painted a
mural in Regla depicting the daily life of those who live there: A boy
fishing; the boat used by neighbors to travel across the bay to Havana;
the local saint known as the Virgen de Regla; and the image of a black
girl named Carla who represents the children of Regla playing on the
streets.

"My role as an artist is not to have the community paint my vision, but
to create art with the community," said Ortiz, who believes in a kind of
artistic expression that does not impose any message, but is born from
the reality of the people in the communities.

Ortiz, who has learned to appreciate the patience and determination of
Cuban artists, is optimistic that the same can be done in the Parque
Antonio Maceo in Central Havana, where a diverse group of residents from
the area helped design a mural depicting their own reality: a young
father and daughter observing a bicitaxi from a balcony; a trumpeter
playing on the Malecón; and the hands of a woman worshipping Aftro-Cuban
gods Oshun and Yemaya.

Another portion of the proposed mural shows an elderly woman named
Mercedes with a multicolored stained glass as background. Neighbors of
the community decided that Mercedes, who sells flowers on the market,
would represent Havana's aging population.

Cuba was one of eight countries selected for the cultural exchange
program sponsored by the State Department and organized by Meridian
International Center.


A Meridian delegation, who had traveled to Cuba in December to meet with
local artists and scout the city in search of a possible location for
the work, proposed to paint the mural on the pedestrian tunnel at Parque
Antonio Maceo, which Ortiz later found to be "the perfect place" for the
public art.

At the time, Philly.com reported that the project had been approved by
Cuba's Ministry of Culture and the mural was scheduled to be unveiled in
mid-February.

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