Clasificado: A Blast From the Past
by Malcom Vargas
The Projecto Gallery on view October 4 - November 2, 2024
Clasificado is a research/creation project that explores the sensitive, narrative and phantasmatic qualities of analog objects, as well as their cultural impact in the inhospitable Northeast of Mexico. The use of these technologies played an important role in the construction of the historical narrative, the idea of the frontier and post-industrial mythology in the region.
The objects and the multimedia archive exhibited, have been collected through field research to then carry out a process of sensitive interpretation of the stories they keep in the form of magnetic tapes, vinyl grooves and electromagnetic waves. In order to interpret each fragment and story of the research, a laboratory of artistic experimentation was carried out with diverse techniques related to electronics such as: circuit bending, free form soldering and the creation of homemade circuits and manual controllers.
This experimentation with obsolete devices establishes a declaration of technological resistance to the analogical blackout, an act of resuscitation of these devices condemned to oblivion, to invoke the forgotten stories in the immensity of the border desert.
— Malcom Vargas
Malcom Vargas is a visual artist and curator based in Monterrey, Nuevo León. His work in the visual arts focuses on contemporary artistic creation, prioritizing interdisciplinary processes, documentary research, and the exploration of liminal territories between artistic and anthropological tools. He serves as the director of SITIO, a nonprofit independent space dedicated to researching contemporary artistic processes and showcasing related projects. Malcom collaborates with various theater and dance companies as an art director, where he designs from a conceptual perspective to visual materiality, continually seeking new languages of contemporary creation.