Carlos Garaicoa starts with the study of modern architecture and goes on to tackle a broader theme: the difficult political and social reality of his country. To achieve this, the Cuban artist, born in 1967, uses a wide range of materials (glass, wax and rice paper along with models, renderings and photographs) that give life to unreal and surreal “cities” in sharp contrast with contemporary urban models.
 
This is also the case in 13 new installations, created especially for this exhibition, which describe the crisis of the Castro approach to real socialism, associating it at the same time with another failure produced by the Caribbean island, that of the modernist utopia. As always, Havana acts as both model and laboratory for his experimentation. “Could architecture change the course of history?” is the provocative question put forward here. E.S.

6.3.2005 – 12.6.2005
Carlos Garaicoa
MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art Pacific Design Center 8687 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles
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https://www.moca.org