Cuba: la FAC, l'espace alternatif de La Havane qui oxygène la culture
Dans une ancienne usine de La Havane, un groupe d'artistes a lancé il y a dix ans un lieu alternatif d'art et de divertissement.
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Transcript
00:00 In a former Havana factory, a group of artists launched 10 years ago an alternative art and entertainment place.
00:06 Today world-renowned, the Arte Factory, FAC, breathes a life-saving oxygen into Cuban culture.
00:13 "Since we opened here, it's been managed by artists, always looking at the work and the messages,"
00:19 explains AlaphPix Alfonso, founder and head of the avant-garde project.
00:24 The industrial building located in the easy neighborhood of Vedado is distinguished by the prominent chimney of an old oil mill.
00:31 Every week, from Thursday to Sunday, hundreds of young people come for the equivalent of 4 dollars to listen to concerts,
00:37 attend dance shows, see plays, an artistic installation or just walk around,
00:43 a mojito in hand, in these corridors covered with contemporary works.
00:47 "Here, we can see things that we wouldn't even imagine finding in Cuba," says AlaphPix Olivia Rodriguez,
00:54 a 30-year-old musician, waiting for the performance of Cuban salsa singer Isaac Delgado.
00:59 His performance was part of the celebrations around the 10th anniversary of the FAC.
01:04 Like Havana, the place experienced years of fame after the restoration of relations between Cuba and the United States
01:10 in 2015 under the presidency of Barack Obama, 2009 to 2017.
01:14 Celebrities such as Quincy Jones, Michelle Obama and Joan Bon Jovi visited the facilities of the center.
01:20 Service station for the soul
01:22 American cruise ships landed full of tourists eager to ride in an old convertible and discover the nightlife of Havana.
01:30 In October 2019, the American magazine Times included the FAC in its list of the 100 best places to visit in the world.
01:37 In the absence of a contemporary art museum in the Cuban capital, the plant, as well as similar sites such as La Lavanderia and Studio 50,
01:45 maintain the offer of exhibitions of talented young Cuban creators.
01:49 "The provocative and light proposals of some artists have sometimes caused them problems," admits X Alfonso, without delaying on the subject.
01:57 "We make art, those who want to make it can do it, it's their problem," he estimates,
02:03 according to the accountant of one of the many bars in the place.
02:07 "It's like a service station for the soul and that's what it's about," explains the composer and interpreter,
02:12 Latin Grammy winner of the best folk album for Ancestro with the synthesized group formed by his parents and to which he collaborated.
02:19 Running a project of this magnitude is a journey of the fighter since the marasm of pre-COVID and while Cuba is faced with recurring power outages and fuel shortages.
02:29 With about 300 direct and indirect jobs, the plant is a private company union within a public establishment that self-finances itself, without sponsors, explains X Alfonso, proud of not owing anything to anyone.
02:41 "The most important thing is that the plant is considered a living being, living in Cuba, with all the needs and problems that exist.
02:48 But it is still alive and still trying to live, to survive," he adds.
02:53 In October, the plant was threatened with closure by the authorities who sought to reduce the electricity consumption on the island.
03:00 "It's a small thing among the thousands of others who have come to us," smiles the head of this iconoclastic project on the communist island.
03:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]