Hamlet Lavastida

Hamlet Lavastida Cordoví is a Cuban artist and activist born in Havana, Cuba in 1983. He studied at the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts and the Higher Institute of Art.

Lavastida belongs to a generation of Cuban artists whose work is censored on the island for transgressing the norms established by official cultural institutions. His political and social art draws from revolutionary iconography, ambiguous discourse filled with euphemisms, historiographical reconstruction, repressive techniques, and the failed economic or social policies promoted by the Communist Party of Cuba, as well as anything that enables him to dismantle and disrupt the Cuban totalitarian regime.

He has a long career and a well-established body of work, particularly recognized abroad, where he has participated in several artist residencies: Trinidad and Tobago (2006), Warsaw, Poland (2012), Colombia (2018), and Germany (2020).

Her work has been exhibited at the Łaźnia Contemporary Art Center in Gdańsk, Poland; at Links Hall in Chicago, USA; at The 8th Floor in New York, USA; at the Wifredo Lam Center in Havana; at the Pontevedra Museum in Galicia, Spain; in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and at the Nippon International Performance Art Festival in Tokyo, Japan, among other venues.

In 2018, he participated in Animas with Carlos Garaicoa in Madrid, Spain, and also in Bienal 00 in San Isidro and Damas in Havana.

In 2015, he presented his exhibition "Iconocracy: Image of Power and Power of Images in Contemporary Cuban Photography" at the Atlantic Center of Modern Art in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and at the Basque Museum-Center of Contemporary Art in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.

In 2020, he inaugurated the exhibition "Cultura profiláctica" in Berlin at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien gallery. There, where the young artist had an art residency, he was taken aback by the events of November 27, 2020.

On February 8, 2021, during his segment on the Cuban television news, presenter Humberto López showcased and read a chat from Lavastida in which he suggested using symbolic stamps related to the San Isidro Movement (MSI) and 27N to mark the highest denomination banknotes in circulation on the island. Later, Hamlet himself stated that it was a completely private Telegram chat where he proposed marking the banknotes as an act of civil disobedience, but that this idea was never discussed and was ultimately dismissed.

For this reason, and under the charge of "instigation to commit a crime," Lavastida was arrested on June 26, 2021, while he was in mandatory health quarantine following his return to Havana from Germany four days earlier. A statement issued by the Ministry of the Interior days after his arrest adds to the previous charges the offenses of having incited and called “repeatedly” for “acts of civil disobedience in public spaces” through social media and “direct influence over other counter-revolutionary elements.” It also points to the “execution of actions similar to those that have occurred in Eastern European countries, with provocative intent.”

The artist was transferred to Villa Marista, the headquarters of the State Security Department, an institution known for having a facility specialized in the detention of political prisoners. There, he was stripped of his name and assigned the number 2239. He endured lengthy and distressing interrogations. Lavastida acknowledges that he suffered from hallucinations during the three months he was held, and that after requesting psychological help, he was allowed only one meeting with a specialist. He has also noted that he managed to make a phone call after requesting it seven times, and during that entire period, he was taken outside to get sunlight only four times.

On July 20, 2021, a photo of Lavastida's son, who lives in Poland, was published, in which he requested the release of his father through a message. The photo went viral and became the centerpiece of various campaigns calling for the release of the artist, who had committed no crime and had never been granted the right to an attorney.

On September 25, he was released from prison and forced to leave Cuba along with his partner, the poet and activist Katherine Bisquet. After efforts by Polish diplomats in Havana, the couple arrived in Warsaw on September 27, 2021.

Upon their arrival in Poland, Bisquet explained that both were imposed exile as a condition for Hamlet's release. The activist shared a heart-wrenching account on her social media on September 26, detailing their experiences during the 90 days of imprisonment and the process of leaving the country. She recounts that Lavastida was taken to the airport from a protocol house where he had been isolated since September 20, and she does not know its location, as he arrived from Villa Marista with his head between his legs. Bisquet herself has described in her text that the process by which both were released and exiled was referred to on multiple occasions by more than one agent as "political rationality."

The activist and artist Tania Bruguera was also involved in Hamlet's release, as the State Security proposed that she obtain a plane ticket in exchange for leaving the island. In return, Bruguera provided a list of several people who should be released, which included Lavastida. Although the government did not agree to release everyone, the activist left the country at the same time as Hamlet and Bisquet.