Work by Marcello Martinez-Vega

I embody Don Quixote set in the Black Forest.

In the Black Forest there are no windmills and I have no desire to be

charging at them. Neither am I the best poet ever seen...

In a historically and culturally sheltered area, I’m often seen as

foreign, based on my artistic existence and my South American

heritage. This sense of alienation and of being different has become

part of my self-perception and is a gift at the same time. It allows

me the freedom to examine motives from a fresh perspective and

forge them in an unexpected manner.

“Black Forest” is a composition with traditional local origins. The

installation consists of objects and templates made for the creation

of brushes of all kinds. Wießler, a company from Todtnau ceased

using their stock of templates made of wood and metal more than

10 Years ago. I managed to purchase some of these 200 year old

objects. In each template is the writing of the owner engraved;

secret codes which can only be interpreted by the owner and

craftsmen themselves and in this regard may be seen as a

metaphor for the anonymity of present day industry. However, once

translated they explain the identification of the craftsmen with

their work and their products.

In my opinion, these objects are surprisingly complex and well

designed and yet were produced even under circumstances of

poverty and icy weather. Archiving and combining the objects with

modern ideas bring new perspectives to the table. For instance, the

Codices from Todtnau are a prime example of historical preservation.

This self-projection carries its own particular beauty which underlines

the aesthetic composition of the objects.

I have entitled this installation Eros.

The base of Eros is human life in its purest form. However, today the

Eros human sheds tears. It’s natural for him to possess tears of

disappointment, but in this day and age he cries perpetually. He cries

over the influence of commerce, the corset of pornographic templates

and the dispossession of the human body by multimedia. The omni-

present marketing machine devours beastlike every human emotion

and restricts every individual to their template, treating them as

nothing more than goods.

So in turn, Eros becomes just a product.

The product becomes purchasable.

Buying and selling is arbitrary.

The remainders are eaten. The installation ‘Eros’ relates to this feast

and its damage to the self-perception of the human. The installation

‘Eros’ takes inventory: The template and the beast, its ravaged object

and the destructive machine all align.

From this operation stems a continuing tale of past efforts to

establish self-definition on the one hand—and the loss of erotic

humanity on the other.

Don Quixote from the Black Forest.

Done