Frozen Study of a Disaster by Los Carpinteros

Havana-based Cuban artists Marco Castillo and Dagoberto Rodriguez, who make up the collective Los Carpinteros, created ‘In the Frozen Study of a Disaster’ — an apartment caught mid-explosion that looks like a bomb blast.


Chunks of wall is sent flying, the sofa is showered in shards of glass, and the air is filled with dismembered chairs, tables, fridges, beds and electrical items. It’s like a frozen moment in a movie special effect, all suspended in mid-flight on lengths of fishing line and thin steel wires in an instant of explosive disaster.

The artwork made from IKEA and B&Q furniture painstakingly taken apart in mock-explosion makes the tables, cupboards and doors seem flimsy and papery. You walk past the installation, not through it.

As one Carpintero said, “It’s like marriage. Everything starts out as a wonderful dream and ends up a f***ing nightmare.”

The other Carpintero replied, “Hey, but you’ve never been married, man.”