Call For Immediate Release Of Hamlet Lavastida

Warsaw/Berlin/Dresden, June 30, 2021
CALL FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF HAMLET LAVASTIDA
On 26 June 2021, the renowned visual artist Hamlet Lavastida (b.1983) was arrested by Cuban security authorities, and since then is being held in Villa Marista prison in Havana.
Hamlet Lavastida, before he returned to Cuba, completed his scholarship of the international studio programme at Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin, Germany. A few years ago he was a part of the art-in-residency programme in Center of Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw and exhibited his works in Warsaw. He is in conversation with the Albertinum in Dresden for their exhibition and research project on the relation of the GDR to socialist countries of the Global South.  
We were happy and privileged to host him in our institutions. Hamlet Lavastida is an intelligent, provocative, boundary-pushing political artist-activist who highlights the distinctly Cuban spirit of cultural resistance and an art for and by the people. Hamlet Lavastida is a courageous and outspoken artist. He makes his opinions public and open for productive discussion – he hides nothing, but shares in open conversations and exchange. 
We raise our deep concern to learn that the Cuban authorities hold him with no contact to his family and the artistic community of Cuba and worldwide. Hamlet Lavastida is kept in an isolated place to undergo “investigations” – a deeply troubling and haunting echo especially for us in places where this had happened to too many critical artists before. Hamlet Lavastida – just like these artists - believes in art’s role for a country that is inclusive, democratic, sovereign, prosperous, equitable and transnational as stated in the 27N movement manifesto.
We demand immediate release of Hamlet Lavastida and ask other artistic communities worldwide to join us in this call.
Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin      
Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle 
Albertinum Dresden
Teatr Dramatyczny m.st. Warszawy 
Agnieszka Holland 
Agnieszka Wróblewska 
Renata Czarnkowska 
Agata Całkowska 
Krystyna Chojnacka 
Anna Zdrojewska 
Jowita Budnik   
Magda Sendecka 
Dariusz Olszewski 
Maria Krauss 
Ingo Arend 
Norbert Thiel 
Rachel Kohn 
Lutz Rathenow 
Prof. Renata Stih 
Anett Stuth 
Berlin Opus Cuba 
Bankleer (Kasböck / Leitner) 
Prof. Dr. Eugen Blume 
Ares Marrero María 
Katherine Bisquet Hernández 
Camila Lobon