This long-term project draws a parallel between the Q'aqchas —a group of pirate miners from the 18th century Bolivian Potosi infamous for illegally exploiting the mines at times when the catholic church forced imperial miners to rest (by night and on holidays or weekends)— and a group of nomadic hackers, led by N del Abismo, cyber pirate involved in different political and economic events around the world.

Through a trans-historical approach, while researching the Q'aqchas and working with N del Abismo over several years around the world, The Balad of the Q'aqchas explores different narratives of resistance and strategies of subversion that have successfully exploited loopholes to undermine existing power and economic structures.

The ballade of the Qáqchas consists of ten chapters. The first four chapters, listed from latest to oldest, included in this portfolio are "IT IS CORPSE, IT IS DUST, IT IS SHADOW, IT IS NOTHING," "A SECOND," "INCENDIO," and "A 147 KILOBYTES SERENADE".




Antonio Vega Macotela

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Mexico 1980,  Lives and works between Barcelona, Amsterdam and Oslo.

Antonio Vega Macotela among other Fellowships and residencies has been a fellow Resident of The Rijksakademie Van Beldende Kunsten, the National acaddemy of art in Oslo, and more recently the ETH in Zurich.He has exhibited his work in international venues such as the 23th and 34th Sao Paulo Biennial, the 14th Istanbul Biennial, the Second Triennial of the New Museum in NY, Manifesta 9 in Genk Belgium, Prospect 3 in New Orleans, dOCUMENTA 14 in Kassel, the Center Pompidou Metz and The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles among others.