Arte Calle

The Arte Calle [Street Art] Group (El Grupo Arte Calle) was a Cuban art collective founded by Aldo Menéndez Lopez(Aldito)[1] and Ofill Echevarria in 1986.[2] The group, as first was documented by a documentary of the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión (EICTV) de San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba (International School of Cinema and Television of San Antonio de los Baños), directed by Pablo Dotta as his thesis work and copyrighted, 1988, Entitled: "Viva la Revolu",[3] consisted of eight students of visual art in ages between 16 and 23 years old,[4][5] most of them from the legendary Academy Of San Alejandro, who staged a series of "Murals", "Graffitis", “Happenings” and "Performances" between 1986 and 1988.[6][7] The group transformed icons from pop culture to make ideological metaphors.[8]

Arte Calle's "Mural de Zapata" Vedado, Havana Cuba. Circa 1988.

The group, which in the beginning was "non officially" led by Aldito Menéndez and that after his voluntary separation from it in 1987, continued its work equally successfully until its break-up one year after, consisted of: Aldito Menéndez, Ofill Echevarria,[9] Eric Gómez Galán, Ernesto Leal Basilio, Iván Alvarez, Ariel Serrano,[10] Leandro Martínez Cubela and Pedro Vizcaíno.[11][12]

Arte Calle was also well known by including friends and all kind of young artists in its actions. Some of them achieved a name as well, as part of the famous Havanan group, such as: Hugo Azcui, Nilo Castillo, Alan Iglesias, Max Delgado, among others.

One of the emblematic works of the group was the street performance, nearer to a street demonstration, where Menéndez painted on a canvas the phrase "Relive the Revolu" and stood next to a container with a sign asking the public for their donations to finish the work.[13][14][15]

References
  1. Coco Fusco Dangerous Moves, 2015, p 162 " Aldito Menéndez, claims that his band of upstarts were influenced by documentaries they watched about graffiti art and breakdance in New York. "
  2. Enrique del Risco En Arte Calle fuimos verdaderos rebeldes, an interview to Ofill Echevarria, Cubaencuentro.com 29/08/2007: Creo que fue en el 86: Aldito y yo pintamos unas cosas, una mañana en la Playita de 16, y firmamos cada quien por su lado "Grupo Arte Calle". Después los hippies y la gente que asistía con frecuencia al lugar (que era en su mayoría joven y con preocupaciones) empezaron a impulsarnos y a comentar sobre un grupo que pintaba y escribía cosas en las paredes.
  3. Nelson Herrera Ysla Ya Sé Leer: Image and Text in Latin American Art, ArtNexus, Issue #82 Sep - Nov 2011 ...The galleries at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam and the Villena Gallery promoted a search for works in small format and the inclusion of videos shown on screen that would make it possible to present in the museographic grid a larger number of artists active in the fascinating audio-visual universe. Several stood out: one devoted to remember the confrontational experience of the Havana group Arte Calle-in the midst of the crisis of the second half of the 1980s in Cuba-created in 1988 by Pablo Dotta (Uruguay) with the title of "Viva la Revolu".
  4. Coco Fusco Dangerous Moves, 2015, p162. "A group of very young artists, the adolescent members of ArteCalle, were among those who led the way in taking performance out of private spaces and into the street."
  5. Francine Birbragher - Performance cubano en los años 80 ArtNexus #37 - Arte en Colombia #83 "Los miembros de Arte Calle, jóvenes cuyas edades oscilaban entre los 15 y los 18 años, mantenían sus proyectos en secreto y aprovechaban eventos que se llevaban a cabo en la ciudad para realizar intervenciones sorpresivas."
  6. Coco Fusco Dangerous Moves, 2015. p162. " In just three years, they were able to pull off some of the most memorable performances to have taken place in post-revolutionary Cuba."
  7. William Luis Culture and customs of Cuba 2001 p166 "Arte Calle, led by Aldito Menéndez (born 1970), opposed the art establishment and the idea of biennials. The group was more concerned with making art than with art itself. For example, at the UNEAC conference on art in 1987, members walked ..."
  8. Aleš Erjavec, Boris Groĭs - Postmodernism and the Postsocialist Condition: Politicized Art 2003 p232 "But in the second half of that decade, the plastic arts became the most daring platform, and some street performances of the eighties were true street demonstrations, such as those of the Grupo Arte Calle."
  9. Alexander Lamazares: Cuban Art Under Late Socialism Contested Spaces (Revolutionary Aesthetics and the Creation of a New Art Market), 2008. p52. :"In an interview with Ofill Echevarría, one of the original members of Arte Calle, the artist claims that his group was responsible for changing the cultural and artistic landscape of Cuba."
  10. Coco Fusco Dangerous Moves, 2015. p162. "...at Galería L in 1988 – Nine Alchemists And A Blind Man. Enraged that ArteCalle member Ariel Serrano had placed his large portrait of Che Guevara on the gallery floor and enlisted dancers to perform moves on top of the revolutionary martyr, a man claiming to be a Communist student leader attacked Serrano, dispersed the audience and shut the artists inside an adjacent auditorium to subject them to such a trial."
  11. Jose Clemente Gascon Martinez (Asociacion Aragoneza de Criticos de Arte) - La Decada Prodigiosa del Arte Cubano Contemporaneo, 2013 p11. "A partir de septiembre de 1986, en el primer año en la Academia de Bellas Artes de San Alejandro, el grupo se fue reduciendo a los miembros más comprometidos con el proyecto, Ofill, Leandro, Serrano, Aldito Menéndez y posteriormente fueron añadidos cuatro nuevos miembros: Ernesto Leal, Erick Gómez, Iván Álvarez y Pedro Vizcaíno."
  12. Andrea O'Reilly Herrera Cuban Artists Across the Diaspora: Setting the Tent Against the House 2011 p20 "ARTE CALLE - The inclination toward the popular and the vernacular was also evidenced in Arte Calle (Street Art), a group founded by Aldito Menéndez consisting of eight artists who staged a series of spontaneous “art happenings” between 1986 and 1988. In addition to Menéndez, the group consisted of Ofill Echevarria, Eric Gómez Galán, Ernesto Leal Basilio, Iván Álvarez, Ariel Serrano, Leandro Martínez, and Cafetero Pedro Vizcaíno"
  13. Jürgen Harten, Antonio Eligio Tonel, program notes to exhibition Arte actual de Cuba editors Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf 1990 p13 "Aldito Menéndez, inspirador del Grupo Arte Calle, pintó un letrero que decía » Reviva la Revolu«, y debajo convocaba a una colecta para terminar la obra. Si los estudiantes han rebautizado la asignatura Comunismo Científico con el nombre ..."
  14. Ines Anselmi, Eugenio Valdés Figueroa Neue Kunst Aus Kuba. Art Actuel de Cuba. 1999 p8 ".., y algunos street performances de los 80, como los del Grupo Arte Calle, fueron verdaderas manifestaciones callejeras. ... Aldito Menéndez, membre du groupe, peint sur une toile la phrase «Reviva la Revolu» et place a cóté, un récipient avec un ... "
  15. Pablo Oyarzún, Nelly Richard, Claudia Zaldívar Arte y política- 2005 p15 "Pero ya en el segundo lustro la plástica devino la tribuna más osada, y algunos street performances de los 80, como los del Grupo Arte Calle, fueron verdaderas manifestaciones callejeras. Aldito Menéndez, miembro del grupo, pintó sobre un lienzo la frase «Reviva la Revolu» y puso al lado un recipiente con un cartel pidiendo al público su contribución para terminar la obra."
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