Jessica Martinez

Artist Response

Los Carpinteros

The Carpenters

Los Carpinteros are a group of artists who decided to renounce the notion of authorship by banding together in an attempt to work as past guilds of artists had. However, their group name is also a form of authorship, there seems to be no way of escaping the concept. Marco Antonio Castillo Valdes, Dagoberto Rodríguez Sanchez, and Alexandre Arrechea make up Los Carpinteros, although Arrechea left the group in 2003 to continue his career as a solo artist, maybe he enjoyed the idea of authorship.

All three artists were born around 1970 in Cuba, where they live and work. However, showing in Cuba in recent years has become infrequent, not just for Los Carpinteros but for other Cuban artists as well. As art continues to become more conceptually driven, people in Cuba are having a harder time understanding the art, because they lack the context necessary to engage with the work. The group travels frequently and describes it as necessary part of their process. Moving from place to place requires reinventing and adjusting to that place. So the work they create does respond to the city they’re in, but the themes are internationally applied.

The group deals with society and its relationship to the physical word, that being spatially and in terms of objects. They create seemingly functional objects that are then deemed “fake” or not functional, and in there lies a humorous quality that exists in their body of work or ouve. They have a self directed standard of production in order to ensure their productivity. Thier creative process begins with drawings, that serves as models for the sculptures as well as two dimensional art work. from these models discussions take place on how the sculpture will be made and how effectively their ideas are portrayed. the decision is then made to materialize the object or not.

Los Carpinteros had a desire to produce everything they made and to interact with the work while it was in production. So, when their studio was based in Cuba,  parts had to be manufactured in Madrid, Spain, they felt disconnected with their work, which resulted in moving their studio practice to Spain. This motivation to be in contact with their work comes from their interests in domestic objects, because they are traces of the human hand.

Objects are produced by people, because there is a need or demand for them. Domestic objects, like furniture, and living spaces are all items created with a specific function in mind. Los Carpinteros motivation is to then make that object impractical as part of their creative process and exploration.    

 

Los Carpinteros, Escalera, 2001,

Powder-coated steel, 36.75 × 30 x 54 inches.

TD I also want to ask you about Marcel Duchamp.  (Interviewer)

AA We love Marcel Duchamp. But Marcel doesn’t love us. He is dead—he can’t.