Honoree

The inaugural PEM prize will honor artist Carlos Garaicoa. Drawing on his study of architecture, urbanism and history, Garaicoa creates multidisciplinary artworks that range across a wide range of cultural and political topics.

Born in Havana in 1967, Carlos Garaicoa Manso lives and works in Havana and Madrid. The city of his birth has been an ongoing focus of his installations, videos, photography, sculpture, pop-up books, and drawings. In the tension between the utopian ideals and the lived reality of that storied city, Garaicoa continues to discover new creative and poetic possibilities.

PEM is exhibiting Garaicoa’s extraordinary multisensory installation Partitura, which features street musicians, whose melodic and rhythmic expressions enliven cities around the world. Filming in Madrid and Bilbao, Garaicoa collaborated with some forty musicians, from the amateur to the virtuoso who perform in a diverse range of musical styles and genres. Weaving such dramatically distinct performances into a single uplifting installation Garaicoa embraces multiple traditions, cultures, and styles. Partitura celebrates our potential to create a powerful unity out of the great diversity of our communities.