Cuban artists Los Carpinteros (Marco Antonio Castillo & Dagoberto Rodriguez)’s Candela show can be admired at Matadero Madrid Center of Contemporary Creation’s ABIERTO x OBRAS space (January 25 – June 30).
These artists have covered the perimeter of the old Matadero’s cold store with a huge sculpture, which is deployed as a 736 meter-long fire 3D drawing. It was created by applying a common technique from Cuba and other American regions, used for politic propaganda, just like the famous image of Che that has stood for over two decades in Havana’s Revolution Square.
In Cuba, Candela stands for a complicated situation (it’s on fire) or describes a smart person (is sharp-minded), it’s a female name in Spain. It also refers to candle, light, fire, the crux of the matter, definitely fire. It’s a natural, changing and suggestive element, usually linked to such states of mind as love or anger; and social situations like uprisings or revolutions. Its presence can cause opposite sensations just like comfort or danger, and its visual representations have been related to politic and religious symbols.
Abierto x Obras interventions program, created in 2007, tries to foster the dialogue between guest creators and the place, as well as the guidelines of their work or the surrounding social/cultural context.
Since 2007, Abierto x Obras has received works created by such artists as João Maria Gusmão, Almut Linde, Daniel Canogar, Francisco Lopez, Iñigo Manglano- Ovalle, Marlon de Azambuja, Jannis Kounellis, MP & MP Rosado, Mateo Mate, Pablo Valbuena, Roman Signer, Garlos Garaicoa, Cabello/Carceller, Fernando Sanchez Castillo and Jordi Colomer. In the case of Candela, Los Carpinteros have chosen an element that, beyond the multiple interpretations, illustrates the fire that took place in that location back in the 1990s.
Source: Press release
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