Graphic design and political solidarity work in revolutionary Cuba through the lens of OPSAAAL (Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America) and its cultural production.
Armed by Design reflects on the intersection of graphic design and political solidarity work in revolutionary Cuba through the lens of the production of OSPAAAL, the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
OSPAAAL developed out of the 1966 Tricontinental Conference in Havana, a meeting of delegates representing national liberation movements and leftist political parties almost exclusively from the Global South. Based in Havana, OSPAAAL produced nearly five hundred posters, magazines, and books beginning in the late 1960s, with most of their work ceasing by the late 1980s. Until 2019, OSPAAAL was a political organization focused on fighting US imperialism and supporting liberation movements around the world through poster production, regularly produced publications, and a series of books featuring the writings of the intellectual leadership of these movements.
Armed By Design brings together artists and thinkers from around the world whose work has been impacted by the legacy of OSPAAAL. These contributions reflect on impacts of OSPAAAL’s work on regional movements, including in the Arab world and Korea, design iconography, the evolution of tricontinentalism, our present-day relationship to OSPAAAL posters as a commodity, and authorship and reproduction.
This full-color multilingual edition includes ten international contemporary political poster-makers, artists, and designers commissioned to produce OSPAAAL-inspired prints in solidarity with today’s movements: Friends of Ibn Firnas (USA), Yuko Tonohira (Japan/USA), Ganzeer (Egypt/USA), Un Mundo Feliz (Spain), Steven Rodriguez (USA), Dignidad Rebelde, Tomie Arai (USA), Sublevarte Colectivo (Mexico), Jamaa Al-Yad (Lebanon/Worldwide), and A3CB (Japan).
Introduction
Lani Hanna, Jen Hoyer, Josh MacPhee, Vero Ordaz, Sarah Seidman
PART ONE On Tricontinentalism
Sarah Seidman
Third World Struggle in Motion: Alfredo Rostgaard’s Design for the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America
Josh MacPhee
Introduction to the Visual Index of the Tricontinental
Lani Hanna and Rob McBride
PART TWO
As Big as the World: An Interview with Jane Norling
Lani Hanna, Vero Ordaz, and Jane Norling
Cuba and the Revolutionary Option in the Arab World
Nate George
The Winged Horse of Global Solidarity: OSPAAAL Posters and the North Korean-Cuban Alliance
Sohl Lee
Influences Between U.S. and Cuban Poster Art
Lincoln Cushing
PART THREE
The Carlos Vega Collection of OSPAAAL Posters
Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey
Hero Genesis in OSPAAAL Posters and Cuban Comics
Javier Gaston-Greenberg
Los carteles de la OSPAAAL y el efecto de halo
Ernesto Menendez-Conde
Passafronteras: Notes on Archives, Tricontinental Graphic Action, and Solidarity
André Mesquita
Between Two Worlds: A Conversation with Joseph Orzal
Joseph Orzal
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