Harpo funds will help support the research and production of a new piece called ‘The Equivalence of Silver’ by Jose Antonio Vega-Macotela and an exhibition of this new work and other recent time-based work by the artist at The University of Texas at El Paso Gerald and Stanlee Rubin Center for the Visual Arts.
‘The Equivalence of Silver’ examines the working conditions of a Bolivian silver mining community. For this new project, Jose Antonio Vega Macotela continues to explore concepts of time exchanges that he developed during ‘Time Divisa,’ a project that was created in the male penitentiary of Santa Marta Acatitlan, Mexico City in which the artist carried out tasks at the inmates’ request, orchestrating 365 exchanges of time over five years.
For this new work, the artist will work with miners to generate maps and models of the mine, using drawing as the primary tool, and exploiting the full range of its formal and performative possibilities. (text sourced from grant proposal)