artnexus #45

Alexandre Arrechea (1970), Marco Antonio Castillo (1971), and Dagoberto Rodríguez (1969) are the three Cuban artists who make up Los Carpinteros (The Carpenters) group. The beginnings of the collaborative work date back to 1991, while they were students at the Instituto Superior de Arte de La Habana. In 1994 they began to be known by their collective name.

Since their first works, they have utilized wood and the usual tools to work with it. "The name Los Carpinteros is perfect because we wanted to investigate the issue of the different ways of making art," Castillo says. "To talk about a carpenter is to talk about the way something is produced".

Their work has ranged from elaborate drawings to wooden sculptures. The piece on the cover, Fertilizantes (Fertilizers), is an installation made out of wood of different shapes and arid colors. It also uses bricks to create an intervention on the wall. According to Dagoberto Rodríguez, one of its authors, "..this piece is a wall, a transportabl wall, capable of being erected any place, any time, and under any circumstance." The topic of the urban is a growing preoccupation in their work. Such is the case of Ciudad transportable (Transportable City), where they have recreated official architectures and turned them into transportable layers, parodying the empty discourses to which globalization has accustomed us. 

IVONNE PINI