A magazine to deliver to friends

In cinematographic terms, the presentation of the number 48 of the magazine Arte por Excelencias in the Sancti Spíritus hall of the National Hotel as part of the collateral activities of the 41st edition of the New Latin American Film Festival became a kind of audiovisual: audio because several of the guests, visuality for the multiple look to Latin American and world art offers this magazine that just turned ten years old and belongs to the Excelencias Group, chaired by José Carlos de Santiago.

In the ninety-six pages of Arte por Excelencias there is everything, but the tribute of its collective and its collaborators to the 500th anniversary of the city of Havana is not lacking, the same one that has been hosting the most important cinema event of region for four decades. And if camera and action are involved, it includes two works dedicated to the Latin American incursion in the Venice Exhibition: one to highlight that on this occasion the president of the jury was the Argentine director Lucrecia Martell and another to the special presentation that had a restored copy of that classic of the Cuban cinema entitled The death of a bureaucrat, by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (Titón). And of the Havana Film Festival, of course one of its most active protagonists speaks to us: Luciano Castillo, director of the Cinemateca de Cuba, in a work entitled A festival for a Havana of five centuries.

«This magazine coincides as every year with the edition of the Festival - Luciano declared to those present - and as always it pays homage to the cinema and to this party in style. We have achieved a festival of festivals, because in here are the best that has happened through the festivals of Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Toronto. It is a treat to which the Cuban public gives all possible support. This year we celebrate, in addition to the centenary of Santiago Álvarez, the sixty years of the Cuban Institute of Art and Cinematographic Industries (Icaic), the first cultural institution created by the Revolution ».

Two luxury guests were present: the painter and poetess Ileana Mulet, who decks the cover of the magazine with one of her works, and the actor Mario Aguirre, who recently received the Actuar for the work of a lifetime award, to whom are dedicated to two pages of Arte por Excelencias. "I have worked persistently on the theme of the city," said Ileana. I must admit that many times I wanted to abandon it given the bad reputation that the landscape has among critics, as a minor art, but I always said that if an artist works the landscape and puts part of his imagination, there will be poetry, and about that aegis I will continue working ». Mario expressed his satisfaction for this tribute that the magazine does to his almost six decades of artistic life: «I think I deserve many things that I don't have and have given me others that I don't deserve, but this article, these considerations, these awards, deserve my thanks ».

Were also present at the presentation - and some took the floor - executives of the Artistic Agency of the Performing Arts ACTUAR, the Turarte Artistic Shows Agency, the Cuban Fund for Cultural Property, Genesis Galleries and other institutions that are present in each delivery of the publication, as well as representatives of press bodies and filmmakers who participate in the 41st Film Festival.

"What you have in your hand is not a regular publication, but a journey through the events of contemporary art," said Alexis Triana, chief editor of the project. It is a magazine to update, to exchange, to deliver to friends, to enjoy the idea that it can be done from Havana. I invite you to visit the website, to download our application so that you have access to the entire system of publications of the Group. We are talking that in this issue of Arte por Excelencias there is content from fifteen countries. The most exquisite thing it has is that it is an international support for what is best and shines of our institutions and artists, and of the universal culture ».