Cuban School (Sancti Spiritu) 2011

A virtual portrait of an existing school, situated in the countryside in Southern Cuba. The project, part of a pair of such portraits, is a faithful virtual representation of the site, along with its game courts, garden and other elements.
The scene remade is empty of people, with a particular focus on the architecture.  There is however a caretaker character, who appears both here and in Cuban School (Community 5th of October) to switch on the building’s neon each day at dusk, returning to switch them off some hours later. 
In Cuban School (Sancti Spiritus) 2011, this illumination allows the cartoons painted on walls within the school to be seen at night (GMT -5 hours).

Producer: Werner Poetzelberger
Programming: Helmut Bressler
Modellers / structure : Ulrich Radhuber, Martin Hebestreit
Modelling / character: Michael Maehring
Character Animation: Christoph Staber
Caretaker Model: Noa Avalos Sanchez
Motion capture: Bohemia Interactive

Cuban School (Sancti Spíritus) 2011 was commissioned by Ivory Press, Madrid.

Installed at: John Gerrard
Ivorypress, Madrid, Spain
7 February - 2 April, 2011
site - specific projection

Exhibitions

Cuban School (Sancti Spiritu) at Galway Arts Festival, 2013

15 July – 28 July 2013

The first Irish showing of two recent works by John Gerrard .. two large-scale digital projections presented for his Festival exhibition are meticulous slow-moving ‘virtual portraits' of schools constructed in the 1960's Cuban countryside. The original schools were part of an ambitious education programme by the Cuban government to mix work and study. The disappointing results of the programme and the lack of resources are reflected in the decaying conditions of the buildings. The structures were not abandoned however and Gerrard has referred to them as ‘functioning ruins'. As a group made up of members of staff and students struggled to keep them going against all odds. The schools have however effectively been closed since the making of the work. Gerrard's attention was initially drawn to the strangeness of their architecture in the landscape and their dilapidated appearance. The Cuban School pair is part of a series of works that have focused on architectural and industrial structures. Both works are infinite in duration and powerfully mark the melancholic demise of a political vision. This is his first major Irish exhibition since 2007.    

Galways Arts Festival, Ireland

Cuban School (Sancti Spíritus) 2011 was originally commissioned by IvoryPress, Madrid. 

Install photography : Colm Hogan

Cuban School (Sancti Spiritu) at mima, Middlesbourgh / AV Festival, UK, 2012

1 March – 1 July, 2012
940 cm x 280 cm site–specific projection
solo show curated by AV Festival

The first UK showing of two recent works by Gerrard consolidates his reputation as one of the most innovative artists working today. Cuban School (Community 5th of October) 2010 and Cuban School (Sancti Spiritu) 2011 are meticulous slow-moving virtual portraits of schools constructed in the 1960’s Cuban countryside that are now decaying functional ruins. Both works are infinite in duration based on a continuous real-time 365-day solar cycle, and powerfully mark the melancholic demise of a political vision. Curated by AV Festival in partnership with mima. UK Premiere.
www.visitmima.com
www.avfestival.co.uk

Cuban School (Sancti Spiritu) at Le Fresnoy. Studio National des Arts Contemporains, 2012

11 February – 14 April 2012
'Visions Fugitives du Dessin Animé aux Images du Synthèse'
Group exhibition

Under the heading 'Dessiner - Tracer', Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, presents an exhibition of animation works. Demonstrating the range of technical evolution in this area, the show centers on the theme of the fleeting vision.

www.lefresnoy.net

Cuban School (Sancti Spiritu) at Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia, 2012

7 October 2011 – 8 January 2012
BEYOND (Look at my face: my name is Might Have Been; I am also called No More, Too Late, Farewell)
Group exhibition

Look at my face: my name is Might Have Been; I am also called No More, Too Late, Farewell, thus Edgar Auber phrased his, according to Giorgio Agamben, pretentiousdedication on the back of his photograph, given to Marcel Proust in 1893. Appropriated from Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s sonnet, „The House of Life”, this memorable dedication became the leitmotif of Proust’s life, a guideline that hunted the writer, a synonym of love, memory and remembrance, as well as an evidence of Proust’s authentic passion for photography. Following the promiscuous life of pictures, the exhibition BEYOND refers to Auber’s dedication and considers it as a unique definition of photography which contains reflection upon time and its fragmentation, performance and its exigency as well as a distance and its gesture of separation.

Artists:
Helena Almeida, John Baldessari, Becky Beasley, Iñaki Bonillas, Stefan Burger, Miriam Böhm, Banu Cennetoglu, Sunah Choi, Haris Epaminonda, Dénes Farkas, Geoffrey Farmer, John Gerrard, Caroline Heider, Annette Kelm, Elad Lassry, Tatiana Lecomte, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Marlo Pascual, Alexandre Singh
Curator: Adam Budak
http://www.kumu.ee

Cuban School (Sancti Spiritu) at Ivorypress, Madrid, Spain, 2011

7 February - 2 April, 2011
'John Gerrard'
Solo exhibition
Site - specific projection

Ivorypress Art + Books Space I will be hosting an exhibition of John Gerrard (Dublin, 1974) from 7 February until April the second 2011. This multidisciplinary artist's work combines new technologies with photography and poetic language, while also reflecting on political and social issues.
Among the works on display figures Cuban School (Sancti Spiritus), 2011 – comissioned by Ivorypress – a work that deals with the actual situation in Cuba out of an artistic perspective.
Through hundreds of photographs of a school on the outskirts of Havana, Gerrard has constructed a 3D model and generated a software that allows the viewer to see the building from any distance and perspective. The work changes throughout the day and shows the lighting it would have in Cuba at the same moment we're seeing its image in Madrid. The condition of the building, which still functions as a school even as it falls to ruin, is a way to speak about melancholy and to envisage the effects of time on structures, whether architectonic or human.
www.ivorypress.com

Research

Response

Selected Press
media coverage of Cuban School (Sancti Spiritu) 2011

Sutton, Benjamin: "New Portraits of Old Art", Planet magazine

2013 · CUBAN SCHOOL (SANCTI SPIRITU) / GALWAY ARTS FESTIVAL
Photo: Colm Hogan
2013 · CUBAN SCHOOL (SANCTI SPIRITU) / GALWAY ARTS FESTIVAL
Photo: Colm Hogan
2012 · CUBAN SCHOOL (SANCTI SPIRITU) / MIMA, MIDDLESBOURGH / AV FESTIVAL, UK
Courtesy A/V Festival
2012 · CUBAN SCHOOL (SANCTI SPIRITU) / MIMA, MIDDLESBOURGH / AV FESTIVAL, UK
Courtesy A/V Festival
2012 · CUBAN SCHOOL (SANCTI SPIRITU) / MIMA, MIDDLESBOURGH / AV FESTIVAL, UK
Courtesy A/V Festival
2011 · CUBAN SCHOOL (SANCTI SPIRITU) / IVORYPRESS, MADRID, SPAIN
2011 · CUBAN SCHOOL (SANCTI SPIRITU) / IVORYPRESS, MADRID, SPAIN
2011 · CUBAN SCHOOL (SANCTI SPIRITU) / IVORYPRESS, MADRID, SPAIN
2011 · CUBAN SCHOOL (SANCTI SPIRITU) / IVORYPRESS, MADRID, SPAIN
Working Drawing for Cuban School (Sancti Spiritu) 2011 2011 giglee print on hahnemuehle photorag Edition of 15 + 5AP
Graffiti on a Cuban school photograph by the artist
Graffiti on a Cuban school photograph by the artist

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