Research

  • Castro's Dream
  • GRANTEE
    Margaret Arbanas & Igor Martinovic
    GRANT YEAR
    2012

Margaret Arbanas, Coppelia Ice Cream Parlor, 2011, Havana, Cuba.

Architecture has always been inseparable from ideology, but that goes especially so for the post-revolutionary period in Cuba. In the ten years following the revolution, Cuban architecture became instrumental in creating the image for a utopian vision of the new order. Unlike the modernist architecture in Cuba prior to the revolution, these extraordinary examples are poorly documented and virtually unknown outside Cuba. Castro's Dream aims to collect knowledge about architecture of the post-revolutionary period in Cuba and to decipher the complex relationships between architecture, politics, ideology, and aspirations of that time. Soon, Cuba will become a part of the globalized world and it is easy to imagine that its immediate post-revolutionary architecture will become the most vulnerable to market pressures. Castro's Dream aims to captivate the collective imagination of experts and the general public alike to make a case for rightfully including this visionary period in the canons of modernism and current preservation efforts.

Margaret Arbanas is a New York-based architect. Arbanas considers architecture to be inseparable from the wider context of cultural and intellectual production, and she specializes in research, strategy, concept, and content development. This approach stems from her extensive experience at AMO, a think-tank within OMA (the Office for Metropolitan Architecture). Between 2003 and 2006, she was one of the driving forces behind AMO, where she applied architectural thinking to disciplines beyond architecture's traditional borders. Arbanas was integral to the creation and production of the exhibition The Image of Europe, which provided a history of European political representation and created new visual identity for the European Union. She has also led two research projects at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design: the first (with Rem Koolhaas) on preservation in 2008, and most recently, one that investigated interventions in public space.

Igor Martinovic is a film photographer and director based in New York. His work is well-known for its unique sense of framing, as well as his use of subtle but effective lighting techniques. He is best-known for his work as director of photography for Man on Wire, which won the Academy Award (2009) for Best Documentary Film, as well as the BAFTA Award (2009) for Best British Film. Martinovic also served as director of photography for Padre Nuestro/Sangre De Mi Sangre (winner of the Grand Jury Prize for drama at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007) and Kenneth Branagh's Wallander, among others. His most recent projects include the feature films Freelancers, with Robert de Niro and Forrest Whitaker, and Sunlight Jr. with Naomi Watts and Matt Dillon. He currently teaches cinematography for Columbia University's Graduate Film Division.