A luminous egg-shaped construction glowing by the oceanfront at night was one of the most frequented hangouts during the 2012 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach – an art fair known for its parties and celebrity sightings as much as it is for the art on display. The mysterious cocoon was in fact a temporary wooden bar erected especially for the art fair by one of its main sponsors, Absolut Art Bureau, conceived and designed by Cuban artist duo Los Carpinteros.

Los Carpinteros (The Carpenters) is one of the most important names to have emerged from Cuba in the past decade. Formed in Cuba’s Instituto Superior de Arte in 1991, the trio (consisting of Marco Castillo, Dagoberto Rodríguez, and, until his departure in June 2003 Alexandre Arrechea) adopted their name in 1994, in a conscious decision to renounce the notion of individual authorship and refer back to an older guild tradition of artisans and skilled laborers. Their work focuses on the intersection of art and society and does so by using a distinctively multidisciplinary approach that merges architecture, design, and sculpture in unexpected and often humorous ways. They have exhibited in their native land, including at the 9th Havana Biennial, in Europe and in North America, and have received a number of prestigious awards. On 1 December, the first comprehensive institutional survey show of their work in Germany opened at the Kunstverein Hannover, with some 20 works spanning more than 13 years.

Sleek caught up with Los Carpinteros in Miami after the launch of their temporary bar, dubbed The Güiro, to talk about rendering culturally specific codes and symbols with art, and the space between the functionality and the visual syntax of uselessness.

It’s not always easy for artists to put a survey show together; many feel they are simply too young to have this sort of retrospective take on their work. How did the show in Hanover feel for you?
It felt right! We were so happy when we installed the works because the Kunstverein, as a building, is very well conceived – it makes great use of natural light. We have works in there from 1999, and the latest ones are very recent. Some of the works are also really big, I mean, three-meter-high sculptures and there was room enough to show them properly. Many of the works came from private collections across Europe, too, so we haven’t seen them in a while either. It’s like reuniting with a child you gave up for adoption!

Tell us about the conceptual process of your work.
We work a lot with the functionality of the object; there are objects that we transform in order to cancel out all of their symbolic meaning. Our theory is that manufacturing itself is a language, and we think that things and objects manufactured in the past, for example, reveal a lot about their place and time and the culture of the people who produced them. Our work, in a way, is about translating those codes, which are embedded in the objects, and rewriting them in our language, and to readapt them to our own symbolic purposes. In this sense, we don’t have any preferences in regards to what materials we work with: the nature of the object dictates its conception and execution.

How is the work divided between the members of the trio, or later, the duo?
That’s a complicated one to answer. We worked as a trio for 14 years and in the beginning it was more like an interchange of service. But now we are both behind everything: the discussions of work, their design and production. There are no specifically defined roles. Not anymore. Not after working together for so many years.

How did the idea for the Absolut Art Bar in Miami come about?
The Absolut Art Bureau contacted us wanting to do something, and what attracted us was that they did not see it as a commissioned work, but rather as a collaboration. And I mean a true collaboration, where everyone really worked as a team. The Gürio is a functional open-air bar that also operates as an artwork, a piece of architecture, an open library and performance space. We were interested in playing with the function of a public space.

And where does the name Güiro come from?
Güiro is a percussion instrument made from a hollowed-out dried gourd, and used widely in Latin American music. We wanted to probe the symbolic and cultural meaning of the güiro, particularly in the Caribbean realm and Cuba. It’s such an ancient traditional object imbued with deep cultural implications. But the form of the bar only plays on it; it’s an ambivalent shape and is, in fact, a total abstraction. It’s a very modern ultra-aerodynamic form. We don’t want to anchor the meaning in the fruit alone. Actually, when I saw it built here on the oceanfront for the first time with all the lights on, I thought to myself “We made a lamp!” (laughs).

Humor is an important aspect of your work. It’s often been described as tongue-in-cheek and even irreverent.
Yes it is, it’s our way of introducing political content. We’re exploring performance now as a new avenue and we did one in Havana during the Havana Biennial. We try to do as much as possible there, not to lose contact. We keep a studio in Havana, though we’re based in Madrid now. For the Biennial we showed a dance performance – it was a very politically charged work, but we were able to show it!

What’s next from Los Carpinteros?
We’re experimenting more and more with performance and dance. We’re working on a new video, a Rumba in the Alps, to be filmed this winter, and another one filmed in Havana about intimacy. It will be very sexually charged. The new videos will be premiered at our New York gallery, Sean Kelly, during the art week in May. 

Los Carpinteros
Silence Your Eyes
Kunstverein Hannover
www.kunstverein-hannover.de
Until 2 March 2013

Additional information on the artwork above:

1-3: Güiro: an art bar installation by Los Carpinteros in collaboration with Absolut Art Bureau. Installation view (2012) © Los Carpinteros
Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York/Absolut Art Bureau
Photo: Roberto Chamorro

4: Los Carpinteros
16 m, 2010. Metal, fabric, dimension variable.
Photo: Inaki Domingo, Courtesy Ivorypress, Madrid

5: Los Carpinteros
Cuarteto Rebelde, 2012. Wood, metal, dimension variable.
Courtesy Ivorypress, Madrid

6: Los Carpinteros
Movimiento de Liberación Nacional, 2010. Metal, plastic, 93 x 120 x 120 cm.
Courtesy Ivorypress, Madrid

7: Los Carpinteros
Patas de Rana Turquesa (size s), 2010. Polyurethane-casting, 271,8 cm Ø.
Courtesy Ivorypress, Madrid

8: Los Carpinteros
Ping Pong, 2010. Ping-pong table, PVC, methacrylate, dimension variable.
Courtesy Ivorypress, Madrid