Imprisoned Cuban dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was named one of six recipients of the Prince Claus Impact award in its first year. The biennial prize, which carries €50,000 (about $49,500) and is administered by the Prince Claus Fund, aims to recognize artists and cultural figures “whose work and positive impact on their societies deserve much wider recognition.”
Other honorees include Ailton Alves Lacerda Krenak, an Indigenous Brazilian writer and activist; Alain Gomis, a French-Senegalese film director; Hassan Darsi, a Moroccan artist known for work centered on public space; May al-Ibrashy, an Egyptian architectural engineer whose practice emphasizes heritage as a foundation for development; and María Medrano, an Argentine poet who has published three books.
The jury praised Alcántara for his activism against censorship and authoritarianism. He has been held in Havana since July 2021 and was sentenced in June to five years in prison on what were described as trumped-up charges of “contempt, defamation, and public disorder.” In a joint statement, the five judges said they chose him “for his extremely accessible, honest and non-elitist art practice [and] for his tireless fight for freedom of expression in Cuba.”
Because Alcántara is incarcerated, the Prince Claus Fund said it would coordinate with people close to him to make sure the award is delivered. In 2018, he helped found the San Isidro Movement (SIM), a collective of Cuban writers, academics, and artists created to protest the country’s censorship in response to Decree 349, which required artists to obtain permission before presenting any public or private artistic work.
Throughout his career, Alcántara has used performance and social practice as forms of civil disobedience, including the Museum of Dissidence public art project and a gesture in which he draped a flag over his body in violation of a law governing the use of national symbols. He has also staged repeated hunger strikes while in prison, prompting Amnesty International to describe him as a “prisoner of conscience” and leading artists including John Akomfrah, Julie Mehretu, and Carrie Mae Weems to petition the Cuban government for his release.
In a letter from prison published by Hyperallergic in May, Alcantará wrote: “So many people I love now live in exile, without the possibility of returning because a dictatorship prevents them from doing so. The regime has destroyed my artwork and violated my rights and the rights of my friends in so many other ways.” The Prince Claus Award honors the memory of Prince Claus of the Netherlands, and recipients are celebrated at a ceremony at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. The Prince Claus Fund says it supports artists from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe, especially in places where freedom of expression is restricted.
