Featuring a combination of photography and found objects, Carril Bici enthusiastically celebrates the spirit of DIY innovation and Cuban expressions of the bicycle.
Global Bike Project Trip Route:
01. We flew into Varadero. It's pretty much just a strip of big state-run resorts, and a small town-center. Turns out, most of the Cubans that work in the hotels commute in form the neighbouring city of Cardenas. People said Cardenas was the official "City of Bikes".
02. Cardenas was probably the most amazing place we stayed the whole 10 days we were in Cuba. Imagine a very poor city, decaying wood and stone facades on every street, no tall buildings. the critical thing was: good roads. this solid network of hard, flat concrete allows Cardenas to support a population of 150,000 - and well over 100,000 bicycles.
03. We got a tip to head down to Santa Clara, apparently it was home to a bike-centric university and training program for young cyclists looking to join the national team. When we got there, we discovered the art university was just across the road from a military university, and figured we wouldn't push our luck traipsing around snapping photos of soon-to-be officers.
04. After deciding to pass through Santa Clara, the town of Remedios seemed like a good consolation destination. We actually found it so agreeable, we ended up staying for a few extra days. It was definitely the most rural place we stayed, and most of our days were spent tracking down and interviewing some very old, and very interesting bike mechanics, or shooting pictures of field workers and other people that used bikes in different ways to make a living.
05. Next, we made the big road trip to Havana for a total change of scenery. It was like a 5-hour teleport that took us form one Cuban bike extreme to another. People in the big city definitely use bikes differently. There were hardly any bikes on the road that weren't bici-taxis, and all the cars definitely made it much more difficult to get around.
Carril is currently exhibiting this series at LE GALLERY 1183 Dundas St. W. Toronto until May 22nd 2011.
globalbikeproject.com
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