Whoever enters the house of Carlos Garaicoa (Havana, 57 years old) immediately finds out what the matter is about.
“Change,” says a piece of terrazzo that the Cuban-Spanish artist had embedded in the hall floor when he renovated his spacious apartment in the center of Madrid, near Ópera.
A house to which people constantly flock, and in which Garaicoa;
His wife, musician Mahé Marty, and their children settled after more than a decade living in Spain.
In addition to its descriptive function, the sign offers an emotional charge.
“It is a little piece of Havana because it is inspired by the terrazzo that used to be placed at the entrances of their stores,” Garaicoa reports.
"It is also part of a work I did a long time ago, a tapestry that said 'Revolt, Battle, Change.'
Here we are left with the change.”
The word has special meaning for a conceptual artist who does not seem interested in finding a recognizable style and repeating successful formulas.
He has made paintings, videos, sculptures and installations, always as careful as they are formally diverse.
Several pieces scattered around the house are proof of this.
A rug with the message “The fight belongs to everyone.
It is everyone's fight”, a sculpture with two Murano glass figures joined by a metal tube, or a three-dimensional painting that represents two geodesic domes, recently produced, one might say creations by different artists, but all are signed by Garaicoa.
Along with them, works by other authors whom he admires or knows.
The living room, decorated with designer furniture from the 20th century and the iconic Isamu Noguchi table.
The carpet and glass sculpture are by Garaicoa himself, part of the Jardin Fragile installation, which he made for the 2019 Venice Biennale.Yago Castromil
All of this is integrated, along with a careful selection of 20th century designer furniture and custom-made wardrobes, in what was a student residence, whose transformation into a family home was in charge of the architect Juan Herreros, an experienced author in the field. artistic, with projects such as the Munch Museum in Oslo.
“We proposed the reform as a three-way dialogue between Juan, Mahé and me,” says Garaicoa.
“He understands the needs of art like few others, and he has a Nordic and rational look that complements ours.
The result is a house that is not luxurious, but luxurious, because of how it meets our needs.”
On February 24, π=3.1416, his fourth individual exhibition, opens at the Elba Benítez gallery in Madrid, where he will present other hybrids of painting and sculpture that he has been working on lately, produced with the collaboration of a carpenter and a painter. of cars neighboring his studio in the Carabanchel neighborhood, and a model encapsulated in a glass urn.
Meanwhile, she participates in the Cuenca Biennial (Ecuador) with a large installation.
And in summer she will open the classical music festival in Lerici (Italy) with Abismo, a video on whose images Mahé Marty will play a clarinet piece by Olivier Messiaen live.
“At my age, I want to give myself the pleasure of doing things I like,” she explains.
In May, a retrospective awaits her at the CAAM in Gran Canaria that will reflect this mutable and joyful trajectory of hers.
'Cambio', Garaicoa's terrazzo installation embedded in the floor of the entrance to his house.
Behind, a work by the Icelandic artist Hreinn Fridfinnsson and another by the Cuban Gustavo Pérez Monzón.Yago Castromil
What all these works share is an interest in politics, and also in architecture and science.
“Art as a mere object does not interest me, so my work is crossed by mathematics, geometry, composition and rhythm,” he explains.
“There is the influence of the Russian avant-garde: Rodchenko, Tatlin.
But also the minimal and conceptual of the 20th century, with Morris, Kosuth, Broodthaers.”
Before dedicating himself professionally to art, Garaicoa completed professional training in thermodynamics.
In 1984, when he was 17 years old, he attended the first Havana Art Biennial, and there he discovered the Chilean painter Roberto Matta, whose work he decided to follow along that path.
He studied at the Higher Institute of Art from the ages of 21 to 24, coinciding with a decisive time for the Cuban scene: “At the end of the eighties there was a revolution in the arts, and I came into contact with that context with great enthusiasm, So by the time I finished my studies I was already pursuing an international career.”
'The fight', a trompe-l'oeil carpet of false terrazzo, the work of Garaicoa.Yago Castromil
After traveling to other countries - Switzerland, the United States - and a residence in Brazil, in 2007 he settled in Madrid with Mahé and his first son, Rodrigo, born in Argentina for practical reasons.
“The difficulties of traveling as Cubans had been traumatic for us, and we wanted to make things easier for them,” she says.
“Santiago, the second, was born here.
He is one hundred percent from Madrid.”
By then, he was already an internationally recognized artist.
He had participated in the Kassel Documenta or the Venice, São Paulo and Liverpool biennials, and exhibited at the MoMA in New York.
He bought an apartment and a studio in the Malasaña neighborhood, but did not lose the relationship with Cuba through his previous studio, which was still active.
However, he was so dissatisfied with the political and social situation on the island that at first he did not consider returning.
The hope of openness that was glimpsed with the relations between Barack Obama and Raúl Castro made him change his mind: “I returned in 2009 to found, together with Mahé, Artista por Artista, a residency where we gave scholarships to Cuban artists and artists from other countries. .
That lasted six years.
Unfortunately, we have returned to a moment of regression, with authoritarianism intensified and many artists persecuted and imprisoned.
There is little space for thought and for founding a country on dialogue and culture.
But I maintain great affection for Cuba.
I believe in the art that is made there.
And I still think that it is better to do things than not do them, so I would like to return to the project.”
The kitchen, where one of the most appreciated pieces is: ceramics by the Sevillian painter Miki Leal. Yago Castromil
Meanwhile, his current house, where he has lived for three years, and his studio function as meeting points for a community of creatives from Spain, Cuba and other Latin American countries.
“I've always thought that when you achieve some success, you have an obligation to share it,” she says.
“Mahé and I like to have people around, have dinners, parties and meetings to create community, strengthening the scene.
First in Havana, and then in Madrid.”
Two years ago he moved the studio – also renovated by Juan Herreros – to Carabanchel, a working-class neighborhood that has recently been experiencing an artistic apogee thanks to the creators and gallery owners who open spaces, which has sparked debates about the difficult balance between cultural flourishing and gentrifying tensions.
“Now is when I finally see that Carabanchel is taking off, and we are trying to contribute to it,” says Garaicoa.
“As I have a reputation for throwing good parties, I came up with the idea of organizing some talks with paella to attract people.
The last event was organized around an exhibition by Héctor Onel, a young Cuban painter who is my assistant in the studio.”
Meanwhile, his previous studio, on Puebla Street, was given to gallery owner Christian Gundín to open a branch of his El Apartamento room in Madrid (originally located in Havana), where he exhibits work by other Cuban artists, such as Yaima Carrazana. or Levi Horta.
Other Latin American artists of his generation, such as the Mexican Teresa Margolles, the Chilean Patrick Hamilton or the Venezuelan Alexander Apóstol, also reside in Spain and, like him, have contributed to the richness of its cultural scene.
Their careers and his lives have been intersecting for decades before coming together in the same country.
“It's funny that we have been colleagues for 30 years and we all came to live here for the same amount of time,” Carlos continues.
“Spain has been very positive for us.
But this cultural transit between continents has also benefited Spain, because its most international artists right now are Latin American.
However, they still do not consider us Spanish, but rather from our countries of origin.
I have been paying taxes in Spain for 15 years, my children are Spanish and I have a Spanish passport, and I only live 20 days a year in Cuba, but for all intents and purposes I am still a Cuban artist.
For the first time, an artist from a country outside of Spain like Sandra Gamarra is going to represent Spain at the Venice Biennale, something she already did.
Sandra has been in Spain for more years than me, and she is more Spanish than anyone!
In universities we should be studied as Spanish artists.
My problems are the same as Spain's.
My only problem in Cuba is nostalgia.”