Kabakovs’ Cuban project provokes US
American children allowed to travel to Havana
By Charmaine Picard. News, Issue 236, June 2012
Published online: 30 May 2012
A project by the artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov during the
11th Havana Biennial was nearly derailed when the US Department of the Treasury
denied the artists the necessary public performance and exhibition licence that
would allow five US children
to travel to Havana , saying the project was “not
consistent with the current US
policy on Cuba
“We had help from senators, congressmen and people in the
art world trying to find out why we were denied the licence,” says Emilia
Kabakov, who trained as a classical pianist in the Soviet
Union before becoming a visual artist. According to the Kabakovs,
their application had been sent to the US Department of State for further
review because their project was seen as politically sensitive and would
receive international attention as part of the Havana Biennial.
A government official, who declined to be named for this
article, says the state department was afraid that the American children would
be used for political propaganda by the Cuban government. “Our argument to the
state department was if the US Cuba
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