Sunday, 29th March

I have a last Cuba Libra with Emeka and a Spanish lady called Elena. Then come the teary goodbyes and I leave Havana.

Saturday, 28th March

The SÍnestas concert

At Wilfredo Lam I meet Black Box, a group of Nigerian photographers who have just arrived to set up their work. I wait at the cathedral steps to meet Susel who has agreed to accompany me shopping. She arrives 45 minutes late, just as I was about to give up on her. We haggle for curios in the markets and I walk away with a bag full of treasures. We walk along the seaboard from Malecón and have a drink in a bar overlooking Havana (Edificio FOSCA). At the huge modernist hotel the Havana Libre, I buy some cigars. We bump into a friend of Susel’s who gives us concert tickets to Síntesis, a group consisting of X-Alfonso’s parents and sister. We attend this and then party until sunrise.

The view from Edificio FOSCA

Friday, 27th March

The Biennial opens today. Andrew’s work has still not arrived. People are setting up furiously and visitors are already swarming around the Cabãna. I have a look at the work, there are some good pieces but most of it is not that impressive. The scale of the Biennial is huge though and it extends far beyond the Cabãna. Logistically it is a remarkable feat.

At 7pm Punkasila perform to a small group on plastic chairs. They don’t give a damn! The lead singer only threatens to stop when the band run out of Bucanero Beer. Later the official opening act is X-Alfonso who performs Cuban fusion music to dancing crowds. An unofficial afterparty begins where Punkasilia performed earlier.

Thursday, 26th March

Another view of the seaboard

On my way into town I bump into Emeka from Nigeria who is also staying at the house. At the Cabãna I have a mojito with Berni Searle. I arrange to meet Emeka and Guy (from Cameroon) later. We go to another exhibition opening and then to a bar where we join Emeka and Guy. We meet some of Susel’s friends and then go back to a house party with them. Everyone is drinking rum. Later Emeka, Guy and myself go back to the house where the hosts serve us food at 3am.

Wednesday, 25th March

Andrew Putter and Susel with the Fortaleza de la Cabãna in the background

With Susel’s help I hang my map and photo works, and tweak my bag installation. I have lunch with Andrew and Minette who is having $5 lobster. We attend the catalogue launch at Wilfredo Lam. Afterwards there is a party and we dance in the courtyard.

Tuesday, 24th March

Alexandro and me in his apartment

At the Cabãna I find someone to paint the walls of my space. Two students do an interview with me. Susel and I catch a lift in a van going to town. We go to the opening of an exhibition where I bump into Jane Alexander. Afterwards we buy a bottle of rum and go to Alexandro’s house near the Capitilo in the middle of Havana. We eat some food, he gives us some paintings and we listen to music. Later Susel shows me some grand colonial hotel where they do not mind admitting Cubans. We have a mojito and I catch an old car home.

Old American cars

Monday, 23rd March

The Fontaleza de le Cabãna

Andrew and I take the bus to Wilfredo Lam. There he discovers his artwork is tied up in Paris. We meet an artist from Surinam called Remy and two artists from Trinidad and Tobago called Steve and Ayodhya. They know Ronald Suresh Roberts. We all head to the Cabãna and check out spaces. Later Andrew and I meet up with Sue Williamson, the Essop twins and Minette Vári in the Cathedral Plaza. We have mojitos. Afterwards they go to dinner while Andrew and I go back to the house for our free rice and beans. In our room we find the members of punk band and artwork, Punkasila sprawled on every other bed smoking clove cigarettes.