Monument to Decree 349
spray paint on newsprint
This hand-sprayed newsprint poster was created by the artist in response to the issuance of Decree 349 by the Cuban government, a censorship law pivotal in the formation of activist groups such as San Isidro and 27N. The artist made several copies for public display in the streets of Havana, originally intending to deliver one copy as a gift of sarcasm to Fernando Rojas, the Vice Minister of Culture. The imagery in the work mixes Chinese propaganda with Stalinist monumentalism, replacing Mao’s little red book with a freestanding ‘349’. This design draws from a constellation of Chinese monuments that Lavastida plans to explore in highlighting other decrees issued by the Cuban government; for example, Decree 270, which impacts freedom of the press.
Hamlet Lavastida (Cuban, 1983) is a political activist by way of his art. The boundary-pushing artist thrives on highlighting the distinctly Cuban spirit of cultural resistance. His work reconstructs old Cuban political and military propaganda using an X-Acto knife, paper and spray paint. The artist delicately and skilfully appropriates the logos of institutions taken as sacred to the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) or the infamous Military Units to Aid Production (UMAP), revealing the absurdity of these historic brands while at the same time examining and demystifying the tools of propaganda. Issues such as cultural policy, design, public sphere, archeology and historiography are addressed from various media such as video, collage, performance, public intervention and installation. Hamlet’s work has been exhibited widely, including at the Artium Museum in Spain, the Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art in Poland, and the Liverpool Biennial Festival of Contemporary Art.
On June 26, Lavastida was detained upon his return from a residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, imprisoned at the maximum-security Villa Marista facility on charges of “instigation to commit a crime” for discussing an unrealized artistic project in a private chat group. He has since been released and exiled from Cuba.
