On July 11, several small protests were organized in Cuba in response to the deteriorating material conditions on the island caused by the intensification of the US blockade. Since then, the government of the United States and the far-right Cuban opposition have been doubling down on their attacks against Cuba and the revolution. US president Joe Biden has called Cuba “a failed state” while the mayor of Miami, Florida has suggested that the US should carry out air strikes against Cuba.
Amid the intensification of imperialist attacks on the US, the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research has called on artists across the globe to create art in solidarity with Cuba and against the blockade, to be featured in a ‘flash’ exhibition called #LetCubaLive.
The exhibition will be launched on July 26, which is the anniversary of what is considered to be the beginning of the Cuban revolution. On this day in 1953, a group of more than 100 young revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro attacked the Moncada Barracks in the hopes of securing the barracks, seizing the arms there, and taking forward the movement to overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista. Though the attack itself was militarily unsuccessful, it was a key moment in the trajectory of the revolutionary movement and gave the name to the movement which did eventually overthrow Batista, the 26th of July movement led by Fidel, his brother Raúl, Ernesto Che Guevara, Juan Almeida Bosque, Camilo Cienfuegos, and others.
For more information on the call for art:
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research is launching a solidarity exhibition ‘Let Cuba Live’ on July 26th – the anniversary of the revolutionary movement that brought Cuba to Revolution in 1959. We are inviting international artists and militants to participate in this flash exhibition #LetCubaLive.
For the six decades of the Revolution’s existence, Cuba has been strangled by a US-imposed blockade, which has cost the island US$147.8 billion in damages. The material consequences of this for the Cuban people have only worsened during the pandemic, with serious shortages of medicine and food, the collapse of the tourism industry, and increasing US intervention and misinformation.
In this exhibition, we use art to defend the Revolution and to demand an end to the blockade. #LetCubaLive!
THEME: Let Cuba Live! Lift the sanctions. End the blockade.
FORMAT: 1080×1080 px, 300 dpi (jpg or pdf)
DEADLINE: 24 July
*If you don’t have a Google account, please email your work to: [email protected]
