Architecture + Urbanism

Drama Turquesa (Turquoise Drama), the first exhibition in Madrid by the Cuban art group Los Carpinteros (Marco Castillo and Dagoberto Rodríguez) hit the headlines in the Spanish cultural press well ahead of its May 4 opening. Popular newspapers such as ABC.es and El Cultural (of the El Mundo newspaper) have already released interviews with the artists as well as articles about the exhibition, which is presented by Ivorypress Art+ Books, the cultural organization run by Madrileña Elena Ochoa Foster.

Alexandre Arrechea, formerly of the internationally acclaimed art group “Los Carpinteros,” recently opened his third exhibition at New York’s Magnan Metz gallery. The show features large-scale sculptures and drawings that defy conventional thinking about Cuban art styles and the role of the artist.

March 22-27, Havana will host “Havana Urban Design Charrette,” the fourth international workshop on urbanism and architecture to focus on planning and development of the city’s waterfront neighborhoods.

In New York’s Times Square, every night this past week at 11:50 p.m., a new element has been added to the usual urban mix: a giant wrecking ball bouncing off the cylindrical, eight-story tower of the NASDAQ building at 43rd Street and Broadway. For ten minutes, the ball smashes against the building repeatedly—only to vanish at midnight.

When American photographer Cathryn Griffith journeyed to Cuba in 2003, she discovered music, the Cuban mojito, and the equivalent of an urban architectural museum. In the streets of Havana, Griffith found styles dating from the late 19th century onward: Eclecticism, Neo-Gothic, Edwardian, Art Noveau, Art Deco, and mid-century Modernism—all transformed by the impact of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959.