Antonio Vega Macotela - Artist

Antonio Vega Macotela is a multidisciplinary artist whose work often emerges from long-term fieldwork in conversation with specific communities. His practice engages with ideas of value and exchange, particularly in relation to systems that establish social relations. His long-term work The Q'aquchas Ballade deals with the history of a group of pirate miners in Bolivia during the 18th century, notorious for illegally exploiting the mines.

The exhibition Incendio presents a new chapter of the Ballad consisting of seven large-scale tapestries, two of which were exhibited at CIAP. The tapestries depict forest fires - a motif that can be seen as a contemporary interpretation of historical landscape painting. Images of forest fires were plucked from the internet and transformed into textiles using Jacquard looms. This transformation establishes a link between the construction of digital images and tapestries.

Antonio Vega Macotela (°1980, Mexico) has been artist-in-residence in a number of international programs, including the Rijksakademie Amsterdam, Le Pavillon (Palais de Tokyo Paris) and Intermedia Artist in Residence (Parsons School of Art NY). His works have been exhibited internationally, including at Hammer Museum (LA) and at Documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens (2017). Macotela participated in the 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013), Manifesta 9 (Genk, 2012), and the Sao Paulo Biennial (Macotela) in 2010 and 2019.