The book The Decorator's Home delves into Marco A. Castillo's exploration of the development of industrial design in the 1960s and 1970s Cuba, examining its complex and often contradictory ties to the revolutionary ideals of the time. Through a compelling selection of artworks, exhibition views, and critical essays, embark with Castillo on his near-quixotic journey to revive and extend an avantgarde movement that remained unrealized.
Marco A. Castillo (born 1971 in Camagüey, Cuba, lives and works in Mérida, México) is one of the founding members of a collective named Los Carpinteros, founded in 1992 in Havana, Cuba. The group was created as an objection to individual authorship and to engage with a practice that marries architectural forms, design and art. His drawings and installations emerge from the artist's observation of material elements from our everyday life. In his work, Castillo experiments with these aspects in order to explore the relationship between the functional and the non-functional, as well as that between art and society.
Though the collective received important international recognition as a group, Castillo has also been acclaimed for his individual work. In his career as a solo artist, he has experimented with the intersection between fine arts, applied arts and the decorative arts as a means of questioning aesthetic expectations and bias. Castillo often employs elements derived from modernism and soviet designs, which he intertwines with cuban tradition in using techniques such as latticework, and materials like mahogany. His pieces are frequently named after prominent modern Cuban architects and designers—an homage to an often forgotten generation of creators.
