Un performance llamado “Oxímorón” donde hizo un graffiti invisible.  Esta pieza de arte acción que unió protesta y psique para llevar el inconsciente hacia una dimensión social. Este acto en si lleva implícita la fuerza de la protesta. En una propuesta lúdica y festiva, Mercedes inició abriendo simbólicamente el espacio para después escribir y pintar de manera patafísica, es decir, pensando en soluciones imaginarias plasmadas de esta manera en el espacio público.

Muchas de las protestas sociales lideradas por mujeres, han sido identificadas en varios casos con la pinta de monumentos o lugares emblemáticos de las ciudades. Ello ha generado polémica ya que muchos consideran válidas las consignas pero no el método.

Cabe mencionar que la Plaza de Armas de Saltillo Coahuila México, está cerrada con vallas, desde hace algunas semanas, lo cual ha generado descontento en la población. La acción artística de Mercedes también pone de manifiesto  el absurdo de cerrar la plaza, mismo que da pie al sentido artístico del acto patafísico; ya que la plaza es un espacio público, para todas las personas, para el encuentro social, político, comercial y cultural, que al cercarse genera una contradicción,  propia del sentido del oxímoron que da pie a la frase de la artista: "A oídos sordos, palabras invisibles”.

“El cuerpo requiere de esa catarsis, por lo cual, fui invitando al público presente a que también se manifestara utilizando los botes de aire comprimido como pinturas y colores imaginarios donde pudieran llevar a cabo esta acción de libertad”, agregó.

Site-specific intervention in a forest. After a conversation with about perspectivism and Amerindian rituals, the participants were asked to think of someone who was not already on this plane, and something they would have liked to have said and had not had a chance. It was said that we would enter the forest in silence and that light would be a protocol between worlds. After arriving in the dark at the place chosen for the intervention, a set of lights flashed following a generative algorithm illuminating the forest in dialogue with fireflies, frogs and the sounds of leaves.

Winner of the second award of the A-Place Mapping contest "Share your artwork" 2021

Miragem was a site-specific intervention in Sunset square, one of the few public spaces in the city of São Paulo that makes it possible to witness the sunset. It is a place that, despite its location in an upscale neighborhood, is frequented by diverse people who gather to socialize, make music and dance, practice sports and yoga, share a picnic or simply relax.

The proposal was to modulate a semi-circular space with LED panels that would amplify the power of the encounter in dialogue with a body of suggestive and inspiring images. The work was activated on several occasions with participative shows, spoken world open to the public and performances.

Located in a vacant train station in Brussels, the aim of three (proposed) interventions was to (re) construct the social, spatial, and material aspects of space with the means of historical imagination, drawing, and mapping.

Past, present & future tenses were used to investigate the changes throughout time and reflect upon the futurities in the public infrastructure.

Project was made in the framework of architectural master studio "Jonction in transition" (KU Leuven, Brussels) dealing with vacant spaces along the busiest train connection along the city - fostering local community, activation, bridging sites between bottom-up and top-down approaches, acting as a mediator.

The final outcome of the work was a short film ( https://youtu.be/Etqzf105UCM ).

The marsh of Monastir (in Tunisia) is a favorable environment for a delegation of migratory birds such as "flamingos", as well as many other types of birds such as ducks and various types of gulls. Despite the construction of the airport and the metro line that crosses the marsh, the birds have remained attached to this ecological station and have not abandoned it. One of the characteristics of this bird is that it forms incubators, as some husbands stay to guard the chicks, while the others start bringing food from nearby slums and distant places to return to their seat to feed their young at sunset. This place is then associated with birth, fertility and life.

Due to the sewage being poured into this lake, the number of birds gradually decreased and the birds' nests became empty.

This problem inspired me to create my project. According to different cultures, the egg is considered a symbol of life, fertility and the victory of the love of life over the darkness of death. According to Finnish legend, the egg is the beginning of the universe or the beginning in which the universe was born.

The legend says that the goddess "Luonnotar" spent her life alone in the vast emptiness of space.  Then she fell from the sky to the earth. Then the seagull came from the distant horizon, and on her lap she built her nest. Then the goddess felt a heat flowing through her body, as if her knee was burning and her veins were melting, the bird laid her eggs on her knee, which trembled, then the eggs rolled on the water and were broken. From the lower part of the eggs was formed the earth, mother of all beings; from their upper part, the sublime sky; from their yellow parts, the radiant sky; from their white part, the bright moon; their speckled debris became stars; their black debris the clouds of the air. "Luonnotar" continued the process of creation, creating the seas, bays and shores, and the depths of the oceans.

From this legend I began my project . I made a sculpture in the shape blue phoenix with two large wings protruding from its head, The phoenix bird symbolizes immortality, resurrection and life after death but this time the bird is weak and his heart is bleeding , I chose the blue to be in harmony with the blue of the sky and the marshes, and to contrast with the color of the ground. Then I distributed a group of gypsum eggs among the marsh grass, indicating that this place is the source of life, fertility and birth so we should protect it and stop polluting it . I colored the eggs blue, referring to male birth, pink to female birth, and purple gradient, which is the mix between pink and blue for other sexual orientations. Then I took photographs of the installation to document it, as the final work will be in the form of photographs, as I have no desire to leave the installation in the marsh or to make the marsh an open exhibition space where I wish to preserve the purity and tranquility of the place and its vitality without leaving a trace, as I am ultimately interested in the images that perpetuate the trace.

New Memories is an interactive audio-visual installation created for the full experience. The work consists of one recycled and reused old and non-functioning Renault car, drawn on with four different line drawings for four different scenes for the four sides of the car windows. Inside the vehicle, a red light is inserted along with a narrative audio file explaining the meaning of the window scenes.
The idea behind New Memories is a revision and re-examination of the present by creating different alternatives for the past and the future. More specifically, by offering an alternative reality in the form of a story to raise the question of what we are doing with them right now and the real future. After getting out of the car, the artist takes a polaroid photograph of the “tourists”, who, following the development of the photo together, receive it as a gift and create new memories.

The piece is a part of a larger body of work, and it consists of a series of interventions in public places either as drawings or images of a confined space with dimensions of a pavement tile. These new mini images made during listless walks and uneventful routes have been left for the random passer-by to discover. The intent of these pieces is to provide an outlet and change the monotonous every day and take the viewer to a whole different magical vista and abstract space. The project is a form of digital and physical photo-documentation of “spyglass”, much like a small map of various locations where the images can be found.
 

The unprecedented protester violence and destruction of the Chilean urban insurrection began on October 18, 2019 with the arson attacks on 20 metro stations in 6 hours in Santiago, the capital city. This terrorism’s epicentre was Plaza Baquedano, now called Ground Zero. After two months of incessant violence and destruction, the material damage was estimated at $US 106 million (not including the Metro of $US 350 million). In Plaza Baquedano are Metro Baquedano and the Monument to General Baquedano with the tomb of the unknown soldier. The Monument was constantly attempted to be toppled and the tomb made a permanent protest pyre. On January 18, 2020  I decided to clean the tomb’s bronze plaque to reveal the embossed text for anyone who could read. I had 7 conversations. 1. Carabineros (Chilean Police) checked my Chilean ID and we talked about the monument.  2. A woman with two children asked, "do you know where’s Matapaco shrine?” (Matapaco means Cop Killer and is the protesters’ mythical mascot dog). 3. Two female Basque tourists talked about protest. 4. Two North American tourists had a Chilean guide who cynically told me that "things can be replaced ..." and I finish his protest slogan for him with "but people can't." 5. A Chilean Father and son read "here is a soldier who fought with General Baquedano and triumphed”. 6. Chilean males approached and threatened me that “March will be hell” without knowing we were on COVIDs threshold. 7. Chilean National Council of Monuments (CMN) representative asked me to stop cleaning because the plaque is heritage listed and protected. CMN removed General Baquedano’s statue on March 15, 2021 to protect it. Its empty plinth and tomb are protected by a 3-meter-high welded metal cube able to withstand the impact of a vehicle travelling at 80KM/H.

The work examines the results of a change, and the way its impact can go beyond the original alteration itself. How an observed change can be considered not merely as a modification that happens in something, but as an initiative for the realization that a change in general can occur? Can a piece of art trigger this realization? Can it act almost as a stimulus?

The artist constructed a concrete sculpture and installed it in the centre of Mavilli square, in the west suburbs of the historical centre of Thessaloniki. Afterwards, he went towards the city center where he got on a taxi heading for the Mavilli square. When they reached their destination, the new image of the area attracted driver’s attention, making him seem doubtful about this new alteration. Despite his disagreement, the possibility of the area’s reformation was then obvious. The driver suggested ideas and proposed further and alternative modifications for that place, creating a potentially new square. When the taxi driver left, the sculpture removed.

Pocket Park

The original site is located in Rasphuis Street, in Ghent, Belgium. The area chosen for the project is a small plot between two houses. Some elements have a significant presence in the original site such as vegetation that grows on the soil and in the walls. Furthermore, the vertical walls around the site have a significant visual presence due to the houses on the sides. Instead of building another house, I proposed a pocket park.

Nature itself is sensorial. Thus, in this project, the pocket park is a means used for the expansion of green spaces in the neighborhood.

Using elements that already exist on site, in this small park project, the plants are free to develop naturally, respecting the changing seasons and the needs of the nature throughout the cycles.

Vertical wooden structures are placed to emphasize the sense of verticality that is present in the site and to resemble trees that cannot be placed in this small space due to the roots and proximity to the houses. In addition, the wooden structures have different sizes and diameters to simulate the diversity of trees, and the small slope at the top of them serves to emphasize the presence and sound of rainwater in the park when it is raining, and for the water does accumulate on the top.

I present the photo of a real house and the model, it belongs to a series of different houses in the surroundings of Buenos Aires, the model usually associated with large architectural undertakings, is seen here in an inverse procedure to capture the diversity of styles, of that Buenos Aires without architects where each neighbor decorates his house to his liking, without the urban rules of the big cities and in which we can read the socio-cultural map of the development of the suburbs in the different decades in those houses of similar construction, personalized with golden lions, deer and religious murals

They are made of cardboard in 1:70 scale. The photo of the house was taken one year ago and the model was made in 1994 and is currently part of the Collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts, Argentina.

In urban centers around the world, inexpensive curbside parking results in increased traffic, wasted fuel and more pollution. The strategies and values that generate these conditions are no longer sustainable, nor do they promote a healthy, vibrant urban Human Habitat ( Shoup , 2011). 

Lahore, as one of the metropolitan cities of Pakistan, has seen an unprecedent growth in its population as well as an uncontrollable urban sprawl. In the mean time public space are shirking at great pace and existing one are being engulfed by private sector to earn profit. All of this has deprived the Lahoris ( those who live in Lahore) of spaces where they can interact , express themselves or simply relax. Park-ing , an initiative by AARC,  aims to directly address this deprivation issue by creating temporary public space pockets in different part of the city.

Employing art -play initiative i.e., combination of local games, participatory art, and recycled urban furniture made of plastic bottles, the artist aims to reclaim the metered parking space as a rich new territory of creative experimentation and activism and to transform one parking space into a park for one day