A Cuban Artist and his Altruism in Support of the #00 Havana Biennial (+video)

Yanelys Nuñez Leyva

HAVANA TIMES – Artist Reynier Leyva Novo will donate 3,800 cuc (= usd) to the #00 Bienal de La Habana (May 5-15, informed the event’s organizing committe on Monday.

To formalize the gesture in support of the autonomous event, the organizing team of #00 Bienal and the artist, invite the public to the official donation ceremony on Thursday, April 12 at 5:00 pm, to be held at Damas Street # 955 between San Isidro and Avenida del Puerto , Old Havana; including the signing of a legal document certifying the delivery of the funds.

The work, which bears the title “Do not keep me if I die, The transaction”, was recently purchased from Leyva by the National Council of Plastic Arts. The artist then decided to donate the full amount to the #00 Biennial of Havana, an effort by Cuban artists and others from abroad, filling the void left by the Cuba’s cultural authorities when they postponed the official XIII Biennial until 2019.

“From the state to the artist, from the artist to the art, from the art to the market and so on,” explained the press release of the Biennial. The work entails “the volumes of the complete works of Jose Marti, incinerated and arranged in a glass box – and what that may represent by its speculative language according to the different models of operation.”

Yanelys Nuñez

Yanelys Nuñez Leyva: Writing is to expose oneself, undress before the inquisitive eyes of all. I like to write, not because I have developed a real fondness for nudity, but because I love composing words, thinking of stories, phrases that touch, images that provoke different feelings. Here I have a place to talk about art, life, me. In the end, feeling good about what you do is what matters; either with or without clothing.