Raúl Cárdenas Osuna
In 1995, artist and innovator Raúl Cárdenas Osuna founded the Tijuana- based Torolab, a consortium of artists and designers who explore ways to improve urban environments. Their project COMA (2006), developed in response to the poor diets of Mexican workers, entailed the creation and distribution of a food product containing the vitamins and nutrients absent from the standard urban Mexican diet. In 2005, Torolab created Nine Families: Emergency Architecture, its first solo exhibition in New York (at the Storefront for Art and Architecture). For this, Torolab conducted research and worked with nine families to develop a proposal for a community designed for the families in Lagunitas, an underdeveloped neighborhood in Tijuana. Raúl Cárdenas Osuna is one of four artists working with the Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Education to develop programs offering new opportunities for public engagement.