Space Junk Satélite

Esta obra está inspirada en los satélites espaciales de comunicación y es un comentario comparativo entre primer y tercer mundo y entre la impresionante cantidad de basura satelital que gira alrededor de nuestro planeta ('Chatarra Espacial' o 'Space Junk') y la que satura las ciudades en la tierra, particularmente en el tercer mundo. Este término en sí parece sugerir que nuestro países y ciudades son, para los habitantes de los países ricos, como otro planeta, uno impenetrable e incomprensible. Esto se representa a través de de sonidos casi abstractos transmitidos a través de la parodia anti-tecnológica de un satélite comunicacional, los cuales no son sino sonidos grabados en la calle y los mercados populares de Santa Tecla en El Salvador y armados sin alteraciones por Sonido Chacal.  

This work is inspired by the space satellite communications and is a comparative commentary between first and third world and the amazing amount of satellite debris orbiting of our planet ('Chatarra Espacial' or 'Space Junk') and saturating the cities in the land, particularly in the third World. The term itself seems to suggest that our countries and cities are for people in rich countries, like another planet, an impenetrable and incomprehensible one. This is represented by almost abstract sound transmitted through the anti-technological parody of a satellite communications, which are only recorded sounds in the street and street markets of Santa Tecla in El Salvador, armed and unaltered by Sonido Chacal.

Tropi-Cold War Stories

These works were created during a one month long artist residency at Arlington Arts Center in Virginia.
Initially I started questioning the reason of such a large Salvadorian immigrant population in DC and VA. The main flux of this can be traced back to the 1980s, during El Salvador´s 12 year long Civil War (1980-1992).
These conflict falls within and is also a by-product of the larger Cold War scenario in which the former Soviet Union and the United States fought for world supremacy. Both nations relied heavily on propaganda and while Cuba and Nicaragua became communist and followed the Soviet Union´s cultural lead, El Salvador always remained ruled by a right-wing military government, heavily backed by the U.S. and thus received their Hollywood, T.V.

and other cultural influence.
Both the clean, rigid, linear quality of Washington D.C.´s and Arlington´s urban spaces and the characteristics of the materials I was able to find (mostly clean, hardly used wood; stools, ladders and construction tools used for events and montages at AAC became fundamental elements for the creation of these works.

Aesthetically the works derive from Russian Constructivism, a high spirited, socially involved, art and architectural innovative movement which developed during the early 1900s, decades before the restrictive Stalinist Realism official style.

The works of Vladimir Tatlin (particularly his Monument to the Third International) and the cubist inspired, ‘wall reliefs´ and abstract experiments of Rodchenko and Popova were a fundamental influence for this project. However in this case, these methods of assemblage are used for referring to the Cold War´s tropical front, how these big global phenomena played out in the small, hot, volatile backyard that was Central America.

The Project´s main piece is an anti-monument. If a monument is an official statement of power and permanence, this piece, inspired by Tatlin´s monument but also by space rocket´s support structures, ancient cranes for erecting monuments and El Salvador´s informal architecture is it´s antithesis, but perhaps one that can tell more about this important part of history, often overlooked.

"Timeline"








The wall relief “Timeline” is structured after an AK-47 rifle (choice weapon for salvadorean guerrillas), is a piece which threads historical and personal events that took place before, during and after El Salvador´s civil war and which have influenced the current states of affairs between Washington and El Salvador´s government as well as the immigrant population in the U.S. and the artist´s work.

“Uzi & the Nuclear War Games” is an experimental piece in which the game of tensions between the lattice wood and the objects is all that is keeping things together in this delicate balance. No glue, nails or any other material is used and the compositions is drawn after the 80´s graphics for a possible Nuclear Missile War.

Sputnik NY-Z~011

Sputnik NY-Z is based on the last Sputnik, 10th or better known as Vostok. This capsule is best known for being the one in which Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go to outer space and orbit the earth (1961). This represented a huge achievement for the Soviet Union on what was better known as The Space Race.

During the Cold War, both U.S. and U.S.S.R. fought for world supremacy and having more advance space exploration technology also meant having more capacity for building and launching accurate nuclear missiles.

This installation was presented at the Museo del Barrio Biennial, "the S-Files", during summer of 2011 at one of its five venues, Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, Queens, New York.

Ellaborated with found wood, plastic, aluminum cans and cheaply aquired plastic objects, the Sputnik NY-Z is mostly constructed with the cities scraps as well as garbage brought from El Salvador´s streets and beaches.

The Sputnik´s crash landing at Socrates in New York, plays on the Cold War´s Space Race and nuclear threat paranoia of the 60s-90s, but in this case, a few decades later, the humorous alien capsule is coming not from the gigantic communist force to the East but from the small tropical nations of the third world, which long ago embraced capitalism and consumerism and now invade the first world with some of its own detritus.

This piece was constructed entirely at Socrates Sculpture Park on June, and was on display through August 2011 thanks to the wonderful personel as well as Elvis Fuentes, Rocío Aranda and all the folks at El Museo del Barrio, New York, for making it possible.

details from the capsule´s interior.

tropical mercury capsule

Arriba: Boceto para el Tropical Mercury Capsule; abajo: montaje en el Museo de Arte de El Salvador "MARTE"

Con objetivos científicos como poner a un ser humano en órbita y otros políticos y propagandísticos en el contexto de la Guerra Fría, durante los años sesenta la NASA, al igual que el Programa Espacial Soviético, construyó enormes cohetes espaciales que impulsaban cápsulas, pequeños entornos habitables en los que se reproducía artificialmente las condiciones de vida de la Tierra, para el transporte de seres humanos y otros seres vivos al espacio sideral.

Esta instalación escultórica, presentada para la exposición Coca-Colonizado en el MARTE y curada por Claire Breukel, se inspira en las cápsulas creadas por la NASA para el Programa Mercury, pero ha sido construida con materiales y técnicas de construcción propias de las viviendas informales del tercer mundo y dentro de la cual se encuentran aparatos de tecnología mas primaria como una mini t.v., ventilador, equipo de música stereo, etc. así como plantas reales y elementos de decoración.
La obra refelexiona, entre otras cosas, acerca de la tendencia cada vez mas preponderante en las sociedades occidentalizadas de crear entornos artificales de vida y escape, en los cuales el individuo se aisla cada vez mas del entorno físico que le rodea mientras que a la vez se 'conecta' virtualmente con el mundo y el resto de la sociedad.

Sputnik Z011 Project

Este proyecto consiste en una serie de objetos escultóricos efímeros inspirados en el satélite Sputnik ('compañero de viaje' o 'satélite' en ruso) que el Programa Espacial Soviético lanzó entre 1957 y 1967 y que fué el primero en lograr que un objeto creado por el hombre entrara en órbita alrededor de la tierra así como el primero en llevar a un ser vivo al espacio (la perrita 'Laika'). Desarrollado durante la residencia artística Hybrid Art El Zonte en la costa Pacífica de El Salvador durante enero del 2011, el proyecto consiste en una serie de bocetos y dibujos, tres esculturas-objeto, dos acciones, instalación y fotografía. Las esculturas fueron creadas enteramente de materiales encontrados en la costa como botes y objetos de plástico, madera, espuma, etc. que se encontraban como basura en la playa así como palma y bejucos extraidos de la vegetación local.
Los dos Sputnik 1 y 3 fueron prototipos de pequeñas dimensiones lanzados en órbita en divertidas acciones, éstos eran propulsados por 'cuetes de vara' (gran fracaso el 1o y un rotundo éxito el 3). El Sputnik Z011, un modelo a escala del original, fué instalado y fotografeado en la intervención 'Aterrizaje Forzoso' en la playa El Zonte y mas adelante expuesto suspendido del techo en el MARTE (Museo de Arte de El Salvador) y en la Galería Sol del Río en Ciudad de Guatemala en el 2011.