April 13 - June 3, 2018
Carlos Garaicoa
Carlos Garaicoa
Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London, Great Britain
Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art will present a solo exhibition devoted to the work of Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa (b. 1967). Exploring a diverse body of work, the exhibition will reflect upon the city – its limitations as well as its potentials and possibilities – as a physical infrastructure, social network and political space. Garaicoa teases at the dialectical relationship between macro-economic architectures and micro-realities by juxtaposing the city at street level and the city from above. Pitting utopian ideologies against dystopian ruins, repression against expression, the local against the global, Garaicoa’s investigation of the urban environment is built on dualities.
Working across a wide range of mediums, Garaicoa adopts a process-oriented, multidisciplinary approach to his art-making, at the core of which stand his consistent use of photography, writing and architecture. Having initially trained as an engineer, Garaicoa came into the art world and art education with markedly different point of view than many other art students. In addition he was raised in the communist regime and culture and was therefore impregnated with the ideas and ideologies of the role of artist in the society, as opposed to the private activity of the artist in the isolation of his/her studio. Garaicoa’s first reaction was to employ the camera as a mechanism for capture, creating situations and displacement of perspective.
Curated by Ziba Ardalan, Founder/Director of Parasol unit, the exhibition will be accompanied by a tailored programme of educational events aimed at engaging the public.
Photo: Carlos Garaicoa, Fin de Silencio/Suelos Contrastados, 2010. Video Installation.
Mini DV video transferred to DVD. 15 min 45s. Still from the video. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Continua (San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Habana)