Operative Poetics As Civic Action: Omni Zona Franca As a Vortex in Havana

Omni Zona Franca was a socio-community project born in Alamar neighborhood, Havana, in 1997. Following “special period” crisis that afflicted the country after the fall of Berlin Wall, Omni Zona Franca was formed with the aim of spreading the sense of solidarity, freedom, peace and collective love through artistic practices. It was created under the guidance of anarchist writer Juan Carlos Flores together with the artist Amury Pacheco. They both coined the definition of “Operative Poetics”: on the basis of the word understood as empirical action, it was believed possible to create a movement of self-taught artists capable of improving the living conditions of the neighborhood and of Cuban people.

Over the years, the project became part of the debate on civil society. Emerging following the ideological crisis produced by the economic crisis, this debate on civil society took up the thought of Antonio Gramsci and it was conducted both by the academic intellectual class and by underground cultural producers, with a view to a possible reformulation of a “bottom-up” socialism. The practices of OZF ranged from the creation of poetry and performance festivals, to spirituality workshops, social theater, collective actions in public spaces. Although the project was born from writing, the strongest element was the body. The bodies of OZF members had the political function of representing “otherness”: black bodies, dreadlocks, eccentric and poor clothes, religious attributes, love and brotherhood were shown instead of heroism, strength, victory. For this reason the actions took on connotations of political criticism and the project was opposed by the national authorities.

OZF is therefore proposed as a case study of the intervention starting from the images of the activities carried out over the years and from the interviews conducted with its members Amaury Pacheco, Eligio Pérez, and various former participants of the project.