Potosi
2022 - Sculpture (Sculpture)
100.01 x 64.14 x 3.49 cm
Antonio Vega Macotela
The mines at Potosí are both the site and subject of this work, also titled Potosí, by Antonio Vega Macotela. Historically, these mines bankrolled Spanish imperial coinage; the Spanish began excavating the site for silver in 1545 in what is now Bolivia. The mines themselves are situated at great altitude in the Andes, and are inhospitable to animal labor. As such, the Spanish coerced the local Indigenous Quechua people, who are more acclimated to high altitude living than most, into service to work the mines, in conjunction with imported slave laborers from Africa. Vega Macotela’s artwork is a reference to European portable altarpieces and reliquaries, yet instead of portraying Christian saints, Macotela has rendered effigies of mythical outlaw Quechuan miners who snuck into and appropriated the mine during holidays without sanction from the Spanish Crown. These effigies are rendered through an open source 3D modelling software called makehuman. As yet another representation of the site, the back of this neo-altarpiece is in turn a topographic map of the still-operational mine. As a complement to the 3D modelling software, the artist collaborated with a group of anonymous Spanish hackers working on the fringes of crypto currencies to translate the following poem by Andean poet Gauman Poma into code. Then, using digital steganography, the artist embedded the coded poem into the imagery of the work. These info points can be decoded, and as such, present a new form of artwork-as-storage. As reflection on the water, you are illusion As reflection of the lymph, you are appearance, When I think of your smiling eyes, I am in awe When I think of your playful eyes, I fall ill [Unuy rirpu llullam kanki Yakuy rirpu pallqum kanki Chay asiq nawily]kita yuyarispa ulinipuni Chay pukllay nawily/kita yuyarispa unquyman chayani] This work is joined by a series of neo-altarpieces dedicated to other historic mining sites across the globe in which indentured local communities toil with little protection. Tying the past to the present, many of these sites host the minerals necessary to run digital society, and as such, link together a non-linear history of capitalist exploitation.
Antonio Vega Macotela’s multidisciplinary practice is centered around site-specificity, and often engages marginalized communities such as prison inmates, miners, Indigenous communities, and hackers. Examining different forms of currency such as precious metals, fiat, and crypto, Vega Macotela’s work explores notions of labor, value, and exchange. His projects frame these currencies as systems through which social relations are established and negotiated. The artist’s work also investigates the effects that the extraction of these resources have on the environment.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » GALERIE MAGAZINE
5 Standout Works from Judy Chicago’s Groundbreaking Career - Galerie Subscribe Art + Culture Interiors Style + Design Emerging Artists Discoveries Artist Guide More Creative Minds Life Imitates Art Real estate Events Video Galerie House of Art and Design Subscribe About Press Advertising Contact Us Follow Galerie Sign up to receive our newsletter Subscribe “Judy Chicago: Herstory,” 2023...
© » KADIST
Tony Oursler
2012Continuing Oursler’s broader exploration of the moving image, Absentia is one of three micro-scale installations that incorporate small objects and tiny video projections within a miniature active proscenium...
© » ARTNEWS
Musée d'Orsay's Van Gogh Exhibition Breaks Historic Attendance Record Skip to main content By Francesca Aton Plus Icon Francesca Aton Associate Digital Editor, ARTnews and Art in America View All February 12, 2024 3:00pm Visitors taking pictures of van Gogh's The Self-Portrait in the exhibition "Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise, the Final Months" at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, France, 2023...
© » LE MONDE
Avec près de 800 000 visiteurs, l’exposition Van Gogh au Musée d’Orsay établit son record de fréquentation Cet article vous est offert Pour lire gratuitement cet article réservé aux abonnés, connectez-vous Se connecter Vous n'êtes pas inscrit sur Le Monde ? Inscrivez-vous gratuitement « L’Eglise d’Auvers-sur-Oise vue du chevet » et « Paysage sous un ciel tourmenté », peintures de l’artiste néerlandais Vincent Van Gogh présentées au Musée d’Orsay dans le cadre de l’exposition « Van Gogh/Artaud...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (28 January - 3 February 2019) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Weekly To Do January 28, 2019 Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya from 28 January – 3 February 2019 Baron Basuning Studio, together with Galeri National Indonesia, invites you to NOOR, a solo exhibition of Baron Basuning’s works...
© » KADIST
Clarisse Hahn
2011Prisons is part of a series of videos, entitled Our Body is a Weapon , representing individuals who affirm the body as a place of political and social resistance...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Podcast 89: Critics Live: Three Sisters at SIFA 2021 | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints The Pond Photography June 22, 2021 Critics Corrie Tan (SG), Elisabeth Vincentelli (US), Jose Solís (US) and Sharaad Kuttan (MY) chat about Three Sisters by Singapore’s Nine Years Theatre and SITI Company from New York, presented at Singapore International Festival of the Arts (SIFA)...
© » KADIST
Jonas Bendiksen
2021For his project Book of Veles artist Jonas Bendiksen travelled to the small city of Veles in North Macedonia, inspired by a series of press reports starting in 2016, that revealed Veles as a major source of the fake news stories flooding Facebook and other social media sites celebrating Donald Trump and denigrating Hillary Clinton...