The project launches a partnership with the museum and explores how modernity and modernism impacted the architecture in Cuba and how it has survived in the island. The aim of the exhibition is to understand 20th-century Cuban architectural culture in its widest context. Indeed, this project is not just about Cuba, as the architects under consideration spread Cuban culture beyond the confines of the island to countries such as the US, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, France, Spain and many more. The exhibit will focus on several Cuban architects and artists whose work represents the challenges that their generation had to face to establish themselves in a country on the verge of dramatic change, and then as expatriates in various foreign countries.
The exhibition is centered around 8 main topics: Architectural Education & Practice; Art, Architecture & Design; La Casa Cubana, including both the historical house and the modern; Making the City, including the historic city, civic space & civic buildings, and commercial & residential; and Tourism and Leisure. Architects featured include: Carlos Artaud; Daniel Serra Badué (1914-1996); Eugenio Batista (1900-1992); Emilio Fernandez; Emilio Sanchez Fonts (1921-1999); Enrique Fuentes; Evelio Govantes & Felix Cabarrocas/Enrique Govantes (son) & David Cabarrocas (nephew); Enrique Gutierrez & Raul Alvarez; Eugenio Batista (1900-1992); Frank Martinez; José Gelabert & Rosa Navia; Héctor E. Carrillo; Hilario Candela; Hugo Consuegra (1929-2003); Manuel Gutiérrez; Gabriela Menéndez; Mario Romañach (1917-1984); José Martín Domínguez Esteban (1897-1970); Max Borges Recio (1918-2009); Nicolás Arroyo Márquez (1917-2008); Nicolás Quintana y Gómez (1925-2011); Ricardo Porro Hudalgo (1925-2014); Victor Morales; Oswaldo Tapia-Ruano (1930-2014); and others.
Visitors will see original documents, drawings, models, photographs, letters and other ephemera from public and private collections. Many artifacts come from the personal collections of Cuban architects and their families. Lending institutions include CINTAS Foundation, the Bacardi Archives, HistoryMiami, the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami, Miami Dade College, University of Pennsylvania, and the U-SoA.
Videos will portray the Cuban architects’ private lives, examples of Cuban architecture throughout the island, and details about the events in 1959 that affected the profession and teaching of architecture in Cuba.
The exhibit will be on display from November 3, 2016 through February 26, 2017.
