The ArtReview’s Power 100 placed the artist collective San Isidro Movement and 27 N on the 67th position of the most influential people in the contemporary art world in 2022.
In 2018 the Cuban regime introduced a new law, Decree 349, that required any cultural activity to be authorized by the state. The law was aimed at independent artists and intellectuals to silence them.
In response artists, writers, academics founded the San Isidro (MSI) Movement to protest against the new law and demand lifting the decree. On November 27, 2020, over 300 artists started an unprecedented protest in front of the Ministry of Culture in Havana. They demanded an end to the persecution of independent artists and to repressions and violence against the San Isidro Movement. This is how the 27N movement was born – their members call themselves artivists (art+activism).
“Power takes strange forms, and on the face of it, imprisonment and exile should render an individual powerless. For Cuban artists like Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Hamlet Lavastida, their repression at the hands of the state has catalysed collective action.” – Art Review Power 100
Luis Manuel Otero Alccántara is one of the leading figures of the San Isidro Movement, who in July 2021 when the mass protests started in Cuba, was arrested and sentenced to prison. He is in Gunajay prison until this day.
Hamlet Lavastida, the member of 27 N movement, was incarcerated by state security on June 26, 2021 in Villa Marista detention center where he was charged with “instigation to commit a crime” allegedly for proposing an artistic performance in a private message sent to his fellow artists.
https://artreview.com/artist/san-isidro-movement-27n/?year=2022