Big names flock to Cuba's first contemporary art space

Havana : For decades, Cubans have been used to the revolutionary slogan "La lucha continua," or "the struggle goes on."

Now the first ever international contemporary art space on the Communist-ruled island has been dubbed "Arte Continua," or "art goes on," reflecting the changes shaping Havana. 

The concept, originally from Italy, brings leading contemporary artists to an island that has been under one-party rule for more than half a century. 

It is an offshoot of a project called "Galleria Continua" which started when Italians Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi and Maurizio Rigillo had the idea of setting up contemporary art spaces in the most unlikely places, starting in 1990 in the medieval Italian village of San Gimignano.

They scored a notable coup when they installed a gallery in China in 2005.

The Havana space includes work from big names including Michelangelo Pistoletto, Daniel Buren of France, British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor, India's Shilpa Gupta and the late Greek-Italian artist Jannis Kounellis.

Pistoletto has already put on his own performance art show in Havana, when he smashed mirrors with a giant hammer in front of a stunned audience in the old city's 18th century San Francisco de Paula church.