Cuenca Biennale 2018 faces funding crisis as government withholds $100,000

The 14th Bienal de Cuenca, scheduled from November 23, 2018 to February 3, 2019 in Ecuador, is threatened by a budget shortfall. An open letter signed by executive director Christopher Zapata, curators Jesús Fuenmayor and Felix Suazo, and 53 participating artists states that the Ministry of Culture has not disbursed the promised $100,000 subsidy. Founded in 1987, the biennial is Ecuador's most important cultural event. This year's theme is "Strutture Viventi. L'arte come esperienza plurale" (Living Structures: Art as a Plural Experience), with works displayed in about 20 venues across Cuenca. The funding crisis stems from austerity measures under President Lenin Moreno, and this is the smallest public subsidy the biennial has ever received. Artist José Luis Macas has scaled back his public art project—a 3 km installation tracking the sun during equinoxes—due to cuts. Mexican artist Pablo Helguera, exhibiting at the Museo de Historia de la Medicina, noted that Latin Americans are used to such bureaucratic problems but stressed that a biennial cannot be made without money. Zapata stated the biennial will not cancel anything but will face a deficit.