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Back in Cuba after performing at the Pompidou Center in Paris, Cuban artist and activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara reported on Monday that he was detained for four hours by authorities at Havana's International Airport.
Otero Alcántara, who was detained in November shortly after announcing that he would hold an alternative art biennial, publicly stated through his social media that upon arriving on the Island, he was interrogated by customs agents who intended to confiscate the art catalogs he had brought with him.
"Upon returning to Cuba, we were held at the airport for 4 hours for luggage inspection and questioned about our trip, and without any explanation, they wanted to confiscate the event catalogs from the Pompidou," wrote the young artist, who was accompanied by his partner, the curator Yanelys Núñez.
According to his account, when he resisted handing over the catalogs, the agents relented and instead asked him to pay for an external hard drive he had taken from Cuba to France.
"I ended up paying 12 CUP (Cuban pesos) and exhausting my possibility of entering Cuba again, spending a lot on cheap items paying in CUP," he lamented. However, the artist claims that despite the new setback with the Cuban authorities, he feels "super good and happy in Cuba."
As announced earlier this month, Alcántara presented his latest performance at the gala: Another Treaty of Paris, with which he revealed a 'personal testament of Fidel Castro.'
According to a report from Diario de Cuba, the piece recreated a supposed dream of Otero, in which the Cuban leader showed him where he had hidden the document that reflected his last will. And the hiding place was none other than a Havana Club bottle.
The piece was included in a week-long international collective exhibition called The Nation and Its Fictions, in which other artists showcased their personal views of their countries.
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