Henry Klumb's house in Rio Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Klumb's rotating table
view of the dinning room from the outside
the kitchen area, badly affected by a hurricane
gate to Klumb's house
at the house with Klumb expert Enrique Vivoni
Beta Local friends and fellows visiting Klumb's House
earlier in the morning giving a talk at Beta-Local on the Novo Museo Tropical and Tropical Modernity
and Klumb furniture at the documentation centre of the Archivo de Arquitectura y Construcción de la Universidad de Puerto Rico http://aacupr.uprrp.edu/
See a previous post with original photos of the house here
with thanks to Enrique Vivoni from the Archivo de Arquitectura y Construcción de la Universidad de Puerto Rico for opening the house for us
with thanks also to Michy Marxuach and Beta Local, for making my wish come true and organising the visit to Henry Klumb's house, and making possible that finally, after 10 years of going continuously to Puerto Rico I could finally visit Klumb's house. See Beta Local's post on the visit here
Henry Klumb was born in Koln, Germany in 1905 and emigrated to the USA in 1927 to work with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesen West, he also later collaborated with Louis Kahn. In 1944 he moved to Puerto Rico, where he developed an agenda of modernist architecture for the tropics, and was in charge of the new master plan and most of the modern buildings of the University of Puerto Rico. Klumb's own house was located in Rio Piedras, in the outskirts of San Juan, not far from the University where he was designing most of the buildings. The house, located in an existing pineapple plantation, was a traditional wooden house from the XIX century, which was intervened and opened up by Klumb. Walls were brought down and palms planted outside the house to create shade and view. The house was bought by the University after Klumb's dead, but the lack of use and maintenance and the effects of the climate have had an effect on the house, which has become almost a ruin. Now the house has been declared a modern monument and new efforts are being done for its renovation. Hopefully the future (and expensive) renovation, will bring the house back to it's old glory and not transform it into a cartoon of its former self. Klumb's example of tropical modernism becomes even more relevant today in Puerto Rico's contemporary landscape of air conditioned architecture and inhabitants isolated from the exterior world.
download a pdf on Klumb's architecture by Vivoni here.
Bubu Negron and Radames Juni Figueroa welcoming Pablo Leon de la Barra to San Juan International Airport, sign hand painted by Jose Lerma
a bienal that fits in a car, with Radames 'Juni' Figueroa, co-curator of the Bienal Tropical and Jose Lerma, production executive director of the Bienal Tropical
art works arriving to La Comay
Jesus 'Bubu' Negron with his mask works
Jesus 'Bubu' Negron, reproduction of folkloric coconut masks made by the artist following traditional production methods
Radames 'Juni ' Figueroa with the Bienal Poster
La Comai street sign
La Comai, Food Kiosk
La Comai, Bienal Tropical Poster
Radames Juni Figueroa, co-curator of the Bienal Tropical
Carolina Caycedo, exercises for female emancipation
Monica Rodriguez, poster for seed granade recipe
Diagrama Tropical, PLB
Karlo Andrei Ibarra, bananas tattooed with phrases related to the implementation of Free Treaties (TLC) between Caribbean and Central American countries with the USA, tattooed by Omar Velazquez
food at la Comay, arepa with conch meat, whisky and coconut water, rice with crab meat!
Michelle and friend installing Katalina Iturralde's Drama Tropical banner
Katalina Iturralde's Drama Tropical banner
Carolina Caycedo, Live Local Love, banner
Tropical Carl Andre, Carolina Caycedo banner, table with Golden Pineapple prizes
Anomymous, Tropical Carl Andre, free recreation with graffiti spray of the floor at La Loseta
Erika Verzutti, Tropical Family, 2011
(done by instructions)
Radames 'Juni' Figueroa, Rainbow
Jose Lerma and Radames 'Juni' Figueroa, somewhere under the rainbow
Naufus Figueroa, watermelon molotov bomb with transvetite underwear (done by instructions)
Federico Herrero, painted round rock, painted by instructions
Jorge Rodriguez, Mangoneo poster, a hybrid between banana and mango and used in puerto rican slang to mean ____________ and popularised in Melvin Santiago's song el Mangoneo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5blUWLWVoQ
Adriana Lara, Johnny La Gente Esta Muy Loca, banner on side of the road
fake Allora & Calzadilla palm fan
Jose Lerma, graffiti painting done over found doors and palms
Rafael Vargas, Tropical Drink
Stefan Benchoam, coconut pipe for smoking weed (done by instructions)
Jesus 'Bubu' Negron, coconuts wearing copies of traditional folkloric masks made out of coconuts
Pablo Leon de la Barra, curator of the Bienal Tropical wearing the Cheverismo o Muerte cape, a collaboration between Carolina Caycedo, Beatriz Lopez and PLB
Alana Iturralde, utopic participatory sculpture
Yoyo Rodriguez, Duet of Palms, two microphones on two different palms, amplification of sound made by wind passing through palms, you can listen to the recording here
Hammock by Jesus Bubu Negron, 2004
Chemi Rosado, painting left 40 days under the influence of the jungle (recreation of original painting, now lost, and done in 14 hours!)
Michael Linares, Hombre Mata abstract paintings (Hombre Mata are solitary masturbators who harass woman in the beaches in this area)
Chaveli Cifre, wearable collars with drinking jugs
Chaveli Cifre, Boho-Hobo tent
Chemi Rosado, model for a floating skate bowl
Chemi Rosado's sunset sand sofa
Mima and Cesar Reyes
Chaveli Cifre, circle of fire
Marxz Rosado, construction of lamp on palm tree
Cesar Reyes and Radames Juni Figueroa
Piña Dorada (Palm Dior) prizes
Piña Dorada for best young artists, shared in four parts between Guillerme Rodriguez, Chaveli Sifra, Alana Iturralde and Yoyo
Jesus 'Bubu' Negron, standing on the Tropical Carl Andre. Bubu, winner of the Piña Dorada for the best art work of the biennale, and double price for attending all the exhibitions at La Loseta during the year
late arrival, Edgardo Larregui's guava seed cock
another last minute arrival, Marxz Rosado's palm tree giant lamp
Chaveli Sifre lighting Carolina Caycedo's offering to Yemaja
Carolina Caycedo's offering to Yemaja
our new friend's from La Comai food kiosk
and Green Cubicle exhibition at Roberto Paradise's toilet gallery!
A project by Pablo Leon de la Barra for La Loseta participating artists: Alana Iturralde, Bea Santiago, Bubu Negron, Carolina Caycedo, Chemi Rosado, Chaveli Cifre, Esteban Gabriel, Guillerme Rodriguez, Jorge Gonzalez, Jose Lerma, Juni Figueroa, Karlo Ibarra, Katalina Iturralde, Marxz Rosado, Michael Linares, Rafael Vargas, Yoyo Rodriguez, and friends... with guest artists: Adriana Lara, Beatriz Lopez, Erika Verzutti, Federico Herrero, Naufus Figueroa, Stefan Benchoam, Wilfredo Prieto
“The myth of “Tropicality’ is much more than parrots and banana trees: it is the consciousness of not being conditioned by established structures, hence highly revolutionary in its entirety. Any conformity, be it intellectual, social, or existential, is contrary to its principal idea.” Hélio Oiticica, Tropicalia, March 4, 1968
The Jury of the Gran Bienal Tropical was conformed by: Michy Marxuach, co-director and founder, Beta Local Mima y Cesar Reyes, collectors Gache Franco, art supporter, mother of art curator Marina Reyes Franco Carla Acevedo, writer, critic, curator, editor of DaWire Jose Lerma, artist
The Gran Bienal Tropical jury awarded the following Piña Dorada (Golde Pineapple) awards:
- The 1st price was given unanimously to Jesus 'Bubu' Negron, for his way of questioning puerto rican folklore and reincorporating it to contemporary life.
- The second price for best young artist was shared between: Alana Iturralde for re-incorporating ideas of participation within the life of the aesthetic object Guillerme Rodriguez for rethinking and re-using the inherited structures of tropical modernities; Yoyo Rodriguez for amplifying the sound of the tropics in a poetic way; and Chaveli Sifra for creating new forms of energy which revitalise and reinvent life in the tropics.
- The price for the best guest artist was given to Erika Verzutti, for rethinking the idea of constructing tropical sculptures
- A life time achievement award was given to La Comay, the place being an art work in itself, but also for the celebration of life, food and friendship that is made possible within the place.
A possible future Biennal Tropical might happen again in La Comay, but might also happen in the jungles of Tabasco or Palenque, near Tikal in Guatemala, somewhere in Costa Rica or Panama, in the island of Solentiname in Nicaragua, in the Peruvian Amazons of Iquitos or the Colombian Amazons of Leticia or the Brasilian Amazons or Manaos or somewhere in between, in Rio de Janeiro or in Salvador de Bahia, or in Cape Verde, Mumbai, Pondichery, Bangkok or Vietnam...
The Bienal Tropical was financed through the economy of friendship with special thanks to Roberto 'Tito' Paradise for providing accommodation for the bienal.
