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The Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) presents Carlos Garaicoa, an exhibition of one of Latin America’s most high profile artists, Cuban contemporary artist Carlos Garaicoa. The exhibition explores themes of architecture, urbanism, politics, history and human culture through architectural models, drawings, renderings, photography and video. Organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, this will be the most extensive exhibition of Carlos Garaicoa’s artwork in North America to date, as never-before-seen pieces will be added for the ROM’s engagement. For its sole Canadian stop, Carlos Garaicoa will be on display on the main floor of the Weston Family Wing from September 9, 2006 to December 31, 2006.

Born in Havana in 1967, Carlos Garaicoa is among the most original of the generation of Cuban artists born after the 1959 Cuban revolution. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, Garaicoa reflects on such provocative issues as the importance of architecture as an historical force, the failure of modernism as a catalyst for social change, and the decay of 20th century utopias. From a futuristic city made of rice-paper lamps to photographs capturing Havana’s deteriorating cityscape, the exhibition features 15 recent artworks, dating from 2001 to the present.

“We are pleased to present the works of Carlos Garaicoa as the ICC’s first exhibition in the newly renovated southeast gallery in the Weston Family Wing,” said William Thorsell, ROM Director and CEO. “Through his thought-provoking artistic interventions, Garaicoa has transformed and re-imagined his city’s architecture and explored the relationships between the city and its inhabitants. With this exhibition, the ICC continues its important role of presenting relevant current cultural issues at the ROM.”

“The ICC focuses on cultures and cultural issues. Often, the work of artists can be central to the exploration of a specific theme,” said Kelvin Browne, Managing Director of the ICC. “With the opening of the Carlos Garaicoa exhibition, the ICC begins its three-month focus on Cuba, a country with which many Canadians have had first-hand experience. Cuba presents an interesting parallel to Canada in that it is a smaller culture struggling to maintain its identity in the midst of its shared and culturally-dominant neighbour, the United States.”

Working since the early 1990s, Carlos Garaicoa has built an impressive body of work exploring Cuban culture, where political idealism seems disconnected from the reality of day-to-day living. Through the examination of modern architecture, his artworks reveal the contrast between urbanism and utopian ideals, modernity and history, and symbol and reality. Although Garaicoa did not formally study architecture, he is a keen observer of it. Architecture is symbolic of the state of his native Havana, as some buildings have crumbled over the past 40 years since the revolution. Garaicoa has embraced this damaged urban space as an important reference in the majority of this work.

“The streets have been the blood of my work … I try to see them like a big text, where I’m a fragment (a way, an instrument) for their interpretation, and their deconstruction,” said Carlos Garaicoa in an interview at the MOCA engagement. “My work blends sociological ideas, a symbolic archaeology, and architecture, each of them intended to change urban space into a utopian space, a new symbolic and political space.”

Garaicoa’s interest in urban planning is revealed in the exhibition’s first installation, De la serie Nuevas arquitecturas (From the Series New Architectures) (2003). Uniquely positioned onsite by Garaicoa, a myriad of rice-paper lanterns of different shapes and sizes, represents buildings in a fictional utopian city. In a dimly lit environment, the piece possesses a floating quality. Opposite the lanterns, covering an entire wall, is the thread-drawing Porque cada ciudad tiene derecho a llamarse Utopía (Because every city has the right to be called Utopia) (2002).

The interaction between artwork and spectator is an important aspect of Garaicoa’s works. The installation, La verdadera pasión de Capablanca (Capablanca’s Real Passion) (2004), is inspired by Cuban icon and World Chess Champion José Raúl Capablanca. Here, traditional chess pieces are miniature buildings. By moving a building, players are changing the city’s urban composition and creating an endless number of new cities. The installation La habitación de mi negatividad (II) (The Room of My Negativity (II)) (2004) explores the destructive forces and passions of the modern world. Occupying a long room, 84 small trains, made of wooden letters threaded together, form English and Spanish words like “hatred”, “nationalism” and “chaos” along the floor. At one end, video presentations are projected. A Cuban musician will come to Toronto to supervise the recording of a composition, specially-created for the ROM installation of this work.

Garaicoa uses another medium to reflect on the idea of failed utopias. Garaicoa contrasts old and new, past and present, traditional and contemporary through six diptychs (of which two are new) and two new photographs in the Sin Título (Untitled) (2001-2005) series. Using a process that he developed, Garaicoa pairs black-and-white photographs of some of Havana’s collapsed buildings with a second image where he has reconstructed the missing parts with coloured threads and pins. By illustrating the absence of these once-great structures, he gives the buildings new meaning.

Three pop-up books depict architectural projects and buildings that were left unfinished or abandoned in Havana after the Cuban revolution. The ROM’s engagement also includes the new pop-up Minneapolis, Mills (2004) inspired by photographs of the old Pillsbury factory in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Garaicoa again addresses the idea of utopian spaces in the exhibition’s final piece Campus o la Babel del conocimiento (Campus, or the Babel of Knowledge) (2002-2004). The multimedia installation comprises a model of a tiered building and a model of a university campus, accompanied by architectural renderings and videos. Despite the highly structured and technologically advanced environment, the building is a place of confusion rather than a temple of higher learning.

Garaicoa’s works have been displayed internationally. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate Modern in London, England have acquired works for their permanent collections. Garaicoa participated at the 2005 Venice Biennale and won the 2005 Prix Monaco (Contemporary Art). The ROM has the unique opportunity to work closely with Carlos Garaicoa, as this is the first time he can participate in the installation and attend the exhibition opening in North America. Due to the U.S. government-imposed travel restriction, he was unable to attend his exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York. Following the ROM’s engagement, the exhibition travels to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia in January 2007.

Other information:
Carlos Garaicoa is the focus of the ICC’s three-month exploration of Cuban culture. Complementary programming is scheduled for Fall 2006, including a week-long Cuban film festival The Many Layers of Reality in Cuba (October 14-20), a panel discussion celebrating the rich diversity of Cuban expression, Cuba in Translation presented by Decant Magazine and the ICC (October 12), a panel discussion entitled Myth & Reality in Cuba – 47 Years After the Revolution (November 10), a reading by one of the top Spanish-language crime-fiction writers, José Latour: Reading and Reminiscences (November 23), and a lecture entitled The Astounding Architecture of Cuba (December 1), generously sponsored by Sherritt International Corporation. Please visit the ROM website www.rom.on.ca in the coming months for more programming details.

On September 30, 2006, the ROM celebrates Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, the City of Toronto’s all night celebration of contemporary art with Noche en Havana, a special night of free programming centred on the Carlos Garaicoa exhibition. Cuban curator Magda Gonzales Mora presents a program of provocative, uncensored video works titled “Plus ça Change: New video from Cuba”. The popular Afro-Cuban band Cimarrón performs an upbeat concert of danceable rhythms. Cuban food and beverages will be available for purchase.

A fully illustrated English-Spanish catalogue, Carlos Garaicoa: Capablanca’s real passion, published by Gli Ori Prato (Italy) 2005, accompanies the exhibition.

The best way to experience the ROM is through Membership. A ROM Individual or Family membership delivers numerous benefits, including free general admission, newsletters, events, previews, discounts in and near the ROM, and much more. Membership prices go up on October 28, 2006 so join today and save! For more information on ROM Membership, please call 416.586.5700 or visit www.rom.on.ca.

Institute for Contemporary Culture
The ICC plays a vital role in a museum whose collections embrace many civilizations, as well as the record of nature through countless ages. In the context of the ROM’s lively documentation of history, the ICC explores current cultural issues through the exhibitions of art and architecture, lectures, film series, and informal gatherings.

The ICC provides a unique forum where the new encounters the historical and anthropological. It explores both the continuity and discontinuity of cultures—their relationships across space and time, to each other and to the natural world. The ROM’s collections provide context and depth to contemporary issues addressed by artists, architects, and participants in ICC events from around the world. For further information on the exhibition, please visit the ICC website at http://www.rom.on.ca/about/icc/index.php.

As part of the ROM’s renovation and expansion project Renaissance ROM, the ICC’s new permanent 6,300 square-foot temporary exhibition space opens in Spring 2007 on the top floor of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.

Carlos Garaicoa is organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

The exhibition is made possible with the generous support of the Jumex Fund for Contemporary Latin American Art; the Katherine S. Marmor Award; Mary and Robert Looker; Mandy and Clifford J. Einstein; David Hockney; Jennifer McSweeney and Peter Reuss; Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy; and the City of West Hollywood Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission.

ROM Fall 2006 Sponsor: Sentry Select Capital Corp.

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