MASP

Founded by Cuban artists Dagoberto Rodríguez, Marco Castillo, and Alexandre Arrecha, who remained with the group until 2003, the Los Carpinteros group has become known for its watercolors, sculptures, and installations that transform the usual meaning of everyday objects and architectural elements. Meticulously constructed, their works discuss the relation between art and design, representation and fiction, as in Clavo trece, an iron sculpture in which a twisted nail is rendered in gigantic scale. Although it has its size changed, generating an impossible object, the work is produced with the same material as its original referent, the nail, however, the metal of the sculpture has a rusty aspect. By choosing the nail as a theme, the duo references the materials and construction objects used in their carpentry practice, after which the group takes its name. In other versions of this work—a series of sculptures with the same subject, but different configurations—the pieces were placed directly on the floor with each work of the series titled according to its serial numbering. The material and the variation of shapes from the same procedure of bending or twisting the metal refer to modern sculpture, as in the work of the Brazilian Amilcar de Castro (1920–2002) or the US Richard Serra, but with an ironic gesture, because the series developed by Los Carpinteros evokes the idea of repeated mistakes. The image of the twisted and gigantic nail suggests frustration, but also humor, for besides the alteration in scale, the object rendered impossible to perform its function is eternalized in the sculpture.

— Leandro Muniz, assistent curator, MASP, 2023

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