Children & Art: Explosive Mix
Photos and Text by Irina Echarry
HAVANA TIMES, April 7 -The tranquil streets around Old Havana’s Cathedral Square reverberated with the rejoicing of kids this past Saturday afternoon and evening.
As had been announced at the beginning of the tenth edition of the Havana Art Biennial, the Taller Experimental de la Gráfica (Experimental Graphics Workshop) made assessable its presses, inks and accessories so that everybody who wanted to could leave their impressions on white cloth and different-colored paper.
Some of the artists helped the children directly, while others took charge of hanging up the drawings on clothes lines so that everyone could see them.
There were games, races, juggling, singing, face and hand painting, while the group Gigantería (youths who masquerade around on stilts, bringing delight of young and old alike) saw to the music, juggling and jokes.
The laughs resonated like the church bells -though not so accustomed to such an uproar- and couldn’t stop swaying in their towers to the beats of the drums, which at the same time tried to provide some shade to the pavement stones.
When arriving around four in the afternoon, people expected to see the inauguration of works produced in the workshop “Recordings and Impressions: Music, Word and Image,” organized by the Puerto Rican artist Antonio Martorell.
But Martorell is not only a visual artist, he’s is also a music lover. He therefore decided to include dancing to the rhythm of trumpets, choirs and drums – spreading happiness through the streets of Old Havana.
The doors are now open of this experimental center, which has the gift of being able to interact with its environment. New and fresh ideas are now winding around the ancient columns of Cathedral Square under the burning spring sun of this Caribbean island.
Click on the thumbnails to see all the photos in this gallery
Lovely photographs!