27 March 2009 — The nerve center for the tenth Biennial Havana Art Fair, the place to be for anyone interested in contemporary art, is above the city and across the bay inside a colonial fortress built in 1764. Such a paradox would be worth pondering if this weren’t Opening Day and if we weren’t in such a hurry to get a first look at all the art on display.

Biennial ushers in colonial-era dress pointed us toward the exhibition spaces tucked into every available corner of the Fortaleza San Carlos de la Cabaña. Among the artists we met here were Liu Xiaodong from Beijing, who is showing oil paintings he made of the "typical Cuban family" whose house he shared for three weeks; and Glenda Leòn, a Cuban artist whose Interpreted World features her Braille-powered music boxes. We liked the installation that Lucia Madriz from Costa Rica made using uncooked rice and beans, called "Eres lo que Comes" (You Are What You Eat).