CUBA. fabrica de Arte Cubano. Esta a solo trescientros metros de las Residencias Alfonso Gonzalez. Una opción interesante.
Cuba's Art Factory aims for
industrial-scale hipness
Nick Miroff and Sarah L. Voisin
People
arrive at the Factor, the creation of a popular Cuban rocker and artist who
manages to keep the place in operation without running afoul of Cuban
authorities.
HAVANA - La
Fabrica del Arte Cubano is the place foreign tourists go to
see a younger, edgier, emerging Cuba.
Or it's the place teenagers who don't have a lot of money can go dancing at 2 a.m. for a $2 cover charge.
You can drink mojitos or Red Bull and see an avant-garde play by a Spanish
theater troupe, or the work of an Israeli photographer or "The Rocky
Horror Picture Show."
La Fabrica (Cuban Art Factory) can do all that
because it is a huge place, with multiple gallery and performance spaces, all
housed beneath the roof of a former cooking oil plant near the Almendares river
in Havana's
Vedado neighborhood.
The idea
is borrowed from Brooklyn and Berlin
and everywhere else that old warehouse spaces are being repurposed as art
galleries or performance venues. But the Factory is 100 percent criollo, all
Cuban, in its ownership and operation but especially in the delicate cultural
politics of facilitating artistic expression in a tightly controlled society.
The
Factory is the creation of X Alfonso, a popular Cuban rocker and artist who
manages to keep the place in operation without running afoul of Cuban
authorities. It is neither a private business nor a state-run facility but
classified as a "community project," allowing it to occupy government
property but operate with a relatively broad degree of independence.
Since
opening last year, the Factory has come under criticism in state media for
appearing too much like a thriving, capitalistic enterprise. Some of its art
also pushes political boundaries -- one fascinating recent exhibit displayed
1950s photographs of Cuban homes that were given away as a promotional stunt by
Candado, a popular soap brand in the era before Fidel Castro's revolution. The
photographer went back and found the giveaway homes today, photographing them
in various states of dilapidation.
A recent
Trip Advisor reviewer called it "the hippest place I have ever been."
Few places in Cuba
have been as successful at creating a space for high-end, high-minded art while
also giving the city's teens a fun place to hang out. On weekends after
midnight, when the discoteca in the Factory's basement really kicks off, crowds
of well-dressed young people line up around the block, fiddling with
smartphones that still don't connect to the Internet.
