Los Carpinteros

The work Sandalias, from 2004, represents an object of daily use, which is transformed into a three-dimensional urban map. The cartography of Havana neighborhoods is carried on the sole of a slipper (or chancleta, in Cuban Spanish). By deduction, the object makes explicit the connotation of “chancletear” – Cuban slang for “wearing out the sole of your shoe”, or walking through the city. At the same time, having the city literally at your feet. This game of meanings is common to several of the objects in the room, such as the beds that embrace each other when sleeping, suggesting, once again, the object with its own soul and vitality, which assumes a human behavior and thus becomes a surreal object. The work Sandalias, from 2004, represents an object of daily use, which is transformed into a three-dimensional urban map. The cartography of Havana neighborhoods is carried on the sole of a slipper (or chancleta, in Cuban Spanish). And, by becoming a simple syllogism, by deduction the object makes explicit the connotation of “chancletear” – Cuban slang for “wearing out the sole of your shoe/beating your leg”, or walking through the city. At the same time, having the city literally at your feet.

The object is produced from a rapid prototype model and cast in rubber. By producing a limited edition of rubber sandals with relief maps of Havana neighborhoods on the soles, the artists adapted an ordinary object of mass production into a customized and poeticized icon that speaks of place, identity, and culture. Sandalia derives from a series of watercolor drawings of sandals with maps. The right sandal depicts Old Havana and the left Vedado.