The 11th Biennial of Havana (May 11 - June 11, 2012), under the banner of Artistic practices and social visions (Prácticas artísticas e Imaginarios socials), expands the site of creation onto the open spaces of streets, theaters and plazas, beyond the traditionally sacred environments of galleries and museums, in order to ensure spectator participation.

Approaching 30 years since its inception (the first edition was held in 1984), this is an event which opened doors for the investigation and dissemination of contemporary art emerging in Latin America and the Caribbean at that time, and later on from Asia and Africa. As its conception evolved, artists from Europe, the United States and Canada were incorporated.

For this year’s event, 178 invited artists from 45 countries, individuals or as part of 10 collective efforts, are presenting their works. A grand visual feast which attracts fans, experts, critics, curators and art collectors, among them 1,300 from the United States, according to Rubén del Valle Lantarón, president of the National Visual Arts Council.

In a brief dialogue at the Casa del Alba, one of the core Biennial sites, Del Valle emphasized the primary idea of drawing in the entire city. "It’s related to the number of proposals we receive and the commitment to not having a single central site."

He recalled that the last Biennial "invited Guillermo Gómez Peña, one of the world’s performance art greats, who said that one of the things which most impressed him was the openness, the diversity, of the event."

"On that occasion," he continued, "social visions were emphasized and we can see now how people are on the streets, following the projects."

Havana’s emblematic sites, the Malecón, the Prado, spaces within the Historic District and Vedado, along with more removed neighborhoods such as San Agustín, are bedecked with paint, sculpture, film, photography and the strength of the show, performance art in the open air or within installations.

As Jorge Fernández, director of the Wifredo Lam Center - which organizes the Biennial - stated during a press conference, "The emphasis is not on the traditional media, but on attracting viewers, venturing beyond discreet cultured sites, getting out onto the streets."

A basic summary wouldn’t be enough. Participating are figures of such artistic renown as Austrian Hermann Nitsch, who after presenting his performance Aktion135 at Advanced Studies Institute of Arts with the help of students there, was awarded an honorary doctorate.

Another icon of performance art is on hand, the Serbian artist Marina Abramovic, who re-inaugurated the Miramar Theater with a screening of her film The Artist is Present.

Also among the international guests are the Russian-United States pair Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, who created, and fulfilled, great expectations with their Barco de la tolerancia, (Ship of Tolerance) a work for which 500 children crafted messages of peace and reconciliation on the ship’s sails. The Barco was erected in the garden of the Castillo de la Real Fuerza.

Making an equally strong impact is the installation Los viajeros silenciosos (Silent Travelers) by the Colombian artist Rafael Gómez. It will remind many of Sobrevivientes, the giant cockroaches erected on the walls of the Museum of Fine Arts by Roberto Fabelo, 2004 Cuban National Visual Arts Prize winner.

Gómez has crafted 600 ants crawling up the façade of the Fausto Theater on Paseo del Prado, and he did so according to the Biennial’s credo, sharing the experience with all those passing through this busy area.

The Biennial is much more than an art show, as exemplified by the collective project MAC/SAN, in the San Agustín neighborhood, which has united artists from Germany, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, France, Switzerland and the United States

They have ‘intervened’ in the community through the newly-named MAC/SAN Building, an abandoned, unfinished structure in the center of San Agustín. Lacking side walls and internal divisions, it now houses installations, sculpture and other interactive works on two levels.

Such communication is also occurring at the Pabellón Cuba, on busy Calle 23, where artists from Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Spain, Haiti, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Cuba are presenting other works which promote participation on the part of spectators.

Within the Lam Center, focal point of the Biennial, is Open Score, which offers, according to its creator Jorge Pardo, "the communion of technology and art through robotics," which the artist described as "an example of the kind of work I do in my studio in California. A robot creates the pieces, according to a preconceived design, until the space is entirely filled."

A first for the 2012 Biennial is the project Detrás del muro, (Behind the Wall), a series of installations placed on the city’s Malecón, from La Punta to the Torreón de San Lázaro, with the participation of several artists, among them Cubans Arlés del Río, Donis Dayán Llago, Alexandre Arrechea, Inti Hernández, Esterio Segura, Marianela Orozco, Alejandro González, Adonis Flores, Humberto Díaz, Roberto Fabelo, Roberto Fabelo Hunt and Duvier del Dago, in as well as Puerto Rican Guillermo E. Rodríguez Rivera, José Ruiz from Spain and Cuban-Americans Rafael Doménech, María Magdalena Campos and Florencio Gelabert Soto.

Readers may wonder about the participation of Cuban-Americans. Rubén del Valle Lantarón explained in a gathering at the Casa del Alba, "It’s a very natural exchange, based on respect for diversity, part of the Revolution’s cultural policy, being inclusive, additive. For example, Jorge Pardo left Cuba at an early age and María Magdalena Campos, an artist who created much interest on the island in the 1980’s, is now a professor at a U.S. university. Both exhibit at the Lam."

Del Valle invited all to be sure and visit the Cabaña Fortress, Pabexpo, and the Hotel Nacional, to see "the largest exposition of contemporary Cuban art, displaying a good portion of the best being produced today." More than 100 Cuban artists are displaying their works at the colonial fortress, including the youngest and the well-established.

Exhibition sales at Pabexpo and the Hotel Nacional are being facilitated by the Fondo Cubano de Bienes Culturales. HB is located at the first site, consisting of works by more than 40 artists, ranging from those who emerged during the 1980’s to recent graduates such as Roberto Diago, Alexis Leyva ( Kcho), Moisés Finalé, René Francisco, Niels Reyes, Esterio Segura, Carlos Garaicoa, Felipe Dulzaides, Sandra Ramos, Fernando Rodríguez, Mabel Poblet, Carlos Quintana , Cirenaica Moreira,  Kadir López,  and the collective Los Carpinteros.

While exhibited at the emblematic Hotel Nacional is AB&C, Maestros de Generaciones, with works by Adagio Benítez, Cosme Proenza, Nelson Domínguez, Flora Fong, Pedro Pablo Oliva, Arturo Montoto, Ernesto García Peña, Eduardo Roca, Lesbia Vent Dumois, Manuel López Oliva, among another 25.