Solidaritätsplakate des revolutionären Kubas

Characterized by extreme colorfulness, little text and a reduced visual language, the posters of revolutionary Cuba spread all over the world starting in the late 1960s. Especially between about 1965-1975, numerous institutions in Cuba began to systematically produce posters for the socialist education of the population, the promotion of culture, and for propaganda purposes. The Organization of Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America, or OSPAAAL, was particularly important in this regard. The political movement was directed against imperialism and worked for the defense of human rights. It was founded in January 1966 in Havana within the framework of the Tricontinental Conference. OSPAAAL included 82 countries involved in anti-colonial and anti-imperial issues during the Cold War, especially in relation to Africa, Asia and Latin America. To spread propaganda and calls for solidarity, the organization produced numerous posters until 2019, which were characterized by short messages in Spanish, English, French and Arabic and colorful and catchy imagery. To spread the messages around the world, they were not hung on walls, but folded and stapled into copies of OSPAAAL's two publication organs: the Tricontinental Bulletin and the Tricontinental Magazine. A defining feature of the posters is the depiction of weapons, which are found on almost every OSPAAAL poster and incorporate Che Guevara's call for an armed liberation struggle.

Video by Lena Geuer and Laura-Maria Schulze.

Text by Laura-Maria Schulze.