Tagged with Antonio Vega Macotela

DESCENDING INTO MEXICO CITY No. 004: ANTONIO VEGA MACOTELA

 

“Going dancing, visiting a prostitute, watching a son’s first steps, getting drunk at the baptism of a nephew: These are the kinds of ordinary pleasures and transgressions that make up everyday life, and artist José Antonio Vega Macotela has partaken of all of these experiences. There’s nothing remarkable about that – except that in each case, the life Macotela was living belonged to someone else. Neither the son nor the nephew was his, he didn’t know the woman with whom he went dancing, and he limited his interactions with the prostitute to conveying a greeting from somebody else. Over the course of his project Time Divisa (Time Currency), 2006-10, Macotela acted as a …”

–Excerpt from article by Chus Martines, from last month`s ArtForum Magazine

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Oh yes. Toñito is back in town for some weeks–nopal accomplice, bisabuela medium, and artist extraordinaire;  Mexico city boy, but now living in Amsterdam for a couple of years, since he was awarded the ultra prestigious Rijksakademie Residency scholarship.

The image above is part of the Time Divisa project, in which he would exchange time with prison inmates: while he was in the outside world doing errands on their behalf, they would simultaneously and under his instructions create an art work–many of which had to do with measuring the passing of time… here: a book of “The Count of Monte Cristo”, continuously scratched with a single fingernail by a prisoner while Toño did his deeds.

You can read more about it an interview I did with him right here.

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A MAN NOT ESCAPED

Cooking Grill No. 1

Cooking Grill No.2

Glass, plate, spoon

Weapons

Weapons made with the border of windows

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A few days ago we watched A Man Escaped, by Robert Bresson: a film–based on a true story– that recounts a man’s escape from prison by turning ordinary and seemingly innocent objects into his means to freedom: that turning something into something else.

As the movie ended, I remembered an incredible project by Toño Vega Macotela, wonderful Mexican artist. I also remembered the day I accompanied him to one of Mexico City’s largest prisons, to help him take the pictures you see above. Ah. Sí. That turning something into something else. Not for escape: but for life inside jail. These objects you see in the images above where constructed (illegally of course) by the prisoners.

After the break you can read an interview that I did with Toño for Vice Magazine. where you will find a fuller description of his incredible project.

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