Escuela Nacional de Artes (1965) Ricardo Porro & Vittorio Garatti & Roberto Gottardi
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Greece
seen from Israel
seen from Cyprus

seen from Canada

seen from Greece
seen from Sweden
seen from United States

seen from Netherlands
seen from Kuwait

seen from United States
seen from Nepal
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Netherlands

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United Arab Emirates
Escuela Nacional de Artes (1965) Ricardo Porro & Vittorio Garatti & Roberto Gottardi
The Home of architect Vittorio Garatti in Milano, Italy
The shell of the unfinished School of Ballet, Escuelas Nacional de Arte, Cuba.
Architect: Vittorio Garatti, 1961-65
The School of Ballet was commissioned to be built on a golf course in an upper-class district of Havana by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, a few years after the Cuban Revolution (1953-59). However, the building proved controversial and construction was halted when it was days from completion. Many reasons have been suggested for this: a reaction against utopian architecture as Soviet influences increased in Cuba; the refusal of key figures of the ballet establishment to dance in the new school; the inability of the building inspectors to sign off the school with its Catalan-style vaulting as structurally sound.
The building is currently a shell awaiting various redevelopment plans to come to fruition. Local rumour has it that when viewed from the air, it has the form of a naked woman (it does not). Workers from the nearby fields use the structure as a place to nap, defecate, and daub pornographic graffiti.
Bottom image: Vittorio Garatti’s image of the school when construction was almost complete.
Monday: Explore Cuba's National Art Schools in the architecture documentary Unfinished Spaces. The free screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and a reception.
[Vittorio Garatti at the School of Ballet in Havana, Cuba, from Unfinished Spaces. 2011. USA. Directed by Alysa Nahmias, Benjamin Murray]
Vittorio Garatti: Costume for the ballet school from Havanna, 1981
Vittorio Garatti
Unfinished Spaces -Trailer. (by tuyomasyo)
What Is It About the Art Schools?