MARCO A. CASTILLO’S DRAWINGS AS A REVISITATION OF REVOLUTIONARY UTOPIA

The Menorcan venue of the Albarrán Bourdais gallery hosts Héroes Arcaicos, an exhibition of recent works on paper by Marco A. Castillo (Camagüey, Cuba, 1971), complemented by the screening of the video Generación. Together, the project reflects on the continuity of the visual and ideological imaginaries of the Cuban revolutionary utopia, while also positioning drawing at the core of the practice of one of the founders of the collective Los Carpinteros.

Drawing on research into Cuban design from the 1960s and 1970s, the artist revisits in series such as A los Héroes the revolutionary heroic portrait and the pop language of Raúl Martínez, reinterpreting these images from a critical standpoint in which heroes become vestiges eroded by history. Other series on view, such as Petaloides and Wakamba, reference pre-Columbian, Indigenous, and Afro-Cuban imaginaries in order to explore a visual language understood as inherited, revealing how such imagery has shaped—and continues to shape—political narratives and cultural representations.

The bas-reliefs associated with these series derive from Cuban political graphic design and act as catalysts in the transformation of propaganda posters into abstract objects. To achieve this, Castillo appears to strip them of their persuasive function, focusing instead on their materiality. The exhibition is completed by the video Generación, an audiovisual metaphor addressing the cycles of artistic vanguards and the relationship between idealism and failure.

Marco A. Castillo: Héroes Arcaicos can be visited until 3 October 2026 at Albarrán Bourdais Menorca, Costa de’n Deià, Mahón (Spain).