Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico
October – November 2008
Project produced with the great help of Nrmal
It was first presented during the Mutek Festival in Mexico City.
The Autotono is a mobile installation built in order to explore how people can interact with an artwork in a public space. My idea was to create a kind of puzzle with 3 designs mixed-up and observe how the people can change them trying to find the original designs (or not!). What I was interested in was not to see people completing the puzzle but to register all the intermediate compositions that were created without my control during the process. My idea with this experiment was essentially to observe and learn.
I was interested in observing the results of the Autotono in different situations, so we build it with wheels to be able to move it easily. We installed it, in busy streets, touristic squares, in parties, in a design fair, in a park, in a school…
The name “Autotono” states for automobile (“un auto” is “a car” in Spanish) and automatic (automaticly created compositions, without the intervention of the artist).
Thanks a lot to Ofimodul for letting us use their spare wood, their installation and for the great help of their workers. Pictures by Rafa, Lalo, Nrmal and Eltono.
During August and September 2008, with my friend and artist MOMO, we have been setting up, without any kind of permission, kinetic sculptures in the New York waterways.
Plaf is a word for splash in both Spanish and French and relates to the on-going project that features kinetic sculptures that have been placed and fastened in several locations in the New York Waterways. Constructed from used materials, the work will be left to the elements as a way to explore the force and power of water that goes unused and unnoticed in New York City. Using the rivers water, wind, tides, and currents, the sculptures will shift and decay, leaving the work just as it is without comment on form or representation.
An indoor exhibition happened at the same time at the Anonymous Gallery.
You can find the complete documentation on the blog of the project: www.eltono.com/plaf
List of the installations we did during the project:
ROJO-Artspace
Barcelona, Spain
July 7th – August 8th 2008
To expose street art in a gallery is always delicate. Without the surrounding elements, the work usually loses its sense. In order to solve this problem, Eltono always tries to create a relation between the street and the gallery. For the exhibition Bermellón, the artist presents/displays collages of wood found in the streets of Barcelona which will use as the support to paint his Invertidos inspired by art originally made in the streets. The Invertidos paintings are inverted interpretations of original works that are in the public space, thus, the artist, works with the emptiness makes the reference to the original ono es, without reproducing or falsifying them and simultaneously questioning the limits of outdoor and indoor exhibitions.
Very special thanks to Sixe, to let me work in his studio!
Sant Andreu, Barcelona by night!
Building the collages
Working on composition…
Gluing...
“The painting produced on this board is the reversed interpretation of an original artwork painted in public space. There is only one “inversed” board for each original painting. This certificate guarantees that the artwork painted on this board is unique.”
Astillas se pretende como una experiencia creativa compartida entre Eltono y el espectador. La instalación irá adquiriendo las formas que el público desee darle al mover las piezas de lugar y establecer todas las combinaciones posibles e imaginables, la instalación irá adquiriendo también la forma de los deseos de todos los participantes. Y a través de ese sencillo modelo de armado y desarmado permanente, la obra dejará de pertenecer a una sola persona, se hará literalmente astillas y será parte de todos. Empiece a mover las piezas y déle rienda suelta a su voluntad.
Video:
Pictures:
When the gallery opened, the walls were empty.
This is how the entrance of the gallery looked at the opening hour.
And then, the public started to act…
Pieces # 1, 2 and 3 in the first room, at 20h20
Piece # 3 in the first room, at 20h29
Pieces # 4 and 5 in the second room, at 22h36
Pieces # 4 in the second room, at 22h47
Pieces # 1 and 2 in the first room, at 23h04
Pieces # 6 in the second room, at 23h10
Piece # 3 in the first room, at 22h55
Piece # 2 in the first room at 23h15
The entrance, 21h45La entrada, 21h45
Pieces # 5 in the second room, at 22h10
Pieces # 4 in the second room, at 22h40
Piece # 5 in the second room, the day after, 20h33
The entrance at 00h10
Finally, the public went much more creative than I expected, Amazing!
Piece # 6 in the second room, at 00h30.
Pieces # 4 and 5 in the second room, the next day at 10h22
Barranco son dos pasos: Bodega “Juanito” para los sanduches y “Trapiche” para el “Arde Papi”.
I spent one day to clean the dust on the 101 boards, Lima is crazily dusty!
I love Barranco… and you?
First step, as usual, the local hardware store!
Second step, find wood in the streets around the gallery. We found a lot on a friend’s aunt rooftop.
Too much wood to carry it walking so guess who helped us...
The friendly Policia Nacional with their brand new pick up!!! They brought everything to the gallery door,
helped us to unload the car, shook hands and kissed girl’s cheek and went back on their night patrol.
The harvest of the night!
Pacific Ocean view from the gallery
Ready to start working.
Lima by night!
I painted during four days.
And used a looooot of masking tape!
Working on the hanging system.
Six hanging systems were installed in the two rooms.
Tate Modern
London, U.K.
May 23rd – August 25th 2008
Curated by Cedar Lewisohn and Rafael Schacter
The Street Art Walking Tour:
An urban tour of site-specific art from a group of five Madrid-based street artists: 3TTMan, Spok, Nano 4814, Eltono and Nuria Mora.
For the Walking Tour, I painted four pieces in the streets around the Tate and did the Public/Private signboards installation in collaboration with Nuria Mora.
Especially for the event, I designed a 9 colours silkscreen print, edited by the Tate Modern, you can see it in the Boutique here: www.eltono.com/en/boutique/patchwork-print
Preparing the “Public/Private” signboard project with Nuria Mora.
“Dear Visitor,
This signboard is part of Eltono and Nuria’s artwork presented with the Tate Modern.
If you want to actively participate in the installation and keep the placard, please bring it to the Tate Modern during “The Long Weekend” on the 24th, 25th and 26th of May between 14.00 and 18.00.
It will be signed and numbered by the
artists and given back to you with its certificate at the end of the weekend.
We kindly ask you to leave the signboard in its place in case you are not interested in this project, allowing someone else the possibility to participate.
Thank you,
Eltono and Nuria”
The McAulay Studio B, in the basement of the Tate, headquarter of the Madrid crew
50 signboards were assembled.
Ready to invade the streets around the Tate Modern.
Mint Park
Our desk at the Tate, where we were waiting for the people to come back with the signboards to get them signed and numbered. A certificate of authenticity was delivered and the signboard was given back to its finder.
At the end of the third day, 47 signboards out of 50 came back to be signed.
