Carlos Garaicoa

Carlos Garaicoa: architecture and the city as a generating engine of narratives

Carlos Garaicoa explores international societies by approaching urban environments and the context of the city. With a great interest in architecture and urbanism, some of his works are reminiscent of scale modelling and they become a landscape onto which our fears, emotions, thoughts and reflections are projected. Taking his native Havana as his starting point, his work has constantly evolved over the years taking in more diverse cityscapes and including common materials and objects. He now lives and works in Madrid where his studio annually opens to host dual shows with both experienced and new artists. Garaicoa is concerned with the relationship between art and urban spaces and subsequently between rule and utopia. These dualities are elaborated upon in his works that have approached the Cuban context and, latterly, international society. The possibilities, decadence and limits of the concept of utopia are frequently exercised before the viewer through sculpture, installation and drawing, amongst other mediums.The use of architectural language and the city as a generating engine of narratives and languages are absolutely fundamental for understanding Garaicoa’s work and they define him as an artist and intellectual.