TIME DIVISA |2006-2011 — Antonio Vega Macotela

TIME EXCHANGE 349, 350, 351 |2011 Carved aromatic soaps Three soaps of 12 x 5 x1.5 cm. In exchange for attempting to fix "El gochi's" paralyzed face, he sculpted three aromatic soaps with three prison slang phrases.

TIME EXCHANGE 358|2011 Rat skull 6 x 4 x1.5 cm. In exchange for trying to fix "El gochi's" paralyzed face, he killed a rat in a ritual, making the artist an amulet with its skull .

TIME EXCHANGE 302, 307, 332, 341 348,361 |2006 Drawing on paper 21.5 x 27 cm. In exchange for using my time to get Fernando free, he drew each footstep he took while covering all the possible trajectories inside the prison. In addition, he drew a black footstep every time he encountered surveillance.

TIME EXCHANGE 302, 307, 332, 341 348,361 |2006

TIME EXCHANGE 310, 311, 314 |2010 Carved bricks and electric filament 90 x 18 x 12 cm. Every time the artist attempted to find Mario's son in Córdoba, Veracruz, Mario removed a brick from his cell to write the phrase "así desaparece todo" (" so everything disappears"). When the artist found his son on his third attempt, the expression remained "asi desaparece" – "Thus it disappears."

TIME EXCHANGE 331|2010 Hair on paper 43 x 56 cm. In exchange for the artist spying on his ex-lover in the Zona Rosa, "Eduardo" made a poleana board (a jail board game that is also a visual representation of the prison) using a combination of both his and his current lover's hair.

TIME EXCHANGE 290 |2010 Inkjet on cotton paper Three printings of 40 x 60 cm. In exchange for the artist seeking out barber tools that would allow Enrique to do business within the prison, he found inspiration in an art history book, selecting a photograph May Ray took of a star shaved into the back of Duchamp's head entitled Tonsure.

TIME EXCHANGE 289 |2010 Drawing and finger nails on paper 43 x 56 cm. In exchange for the artist asking forgiveness from Jaime's wife, he collected his cellmates' nail clippings.

TIME EXCHANGE 291|2010 Drawing on paper 21 x 16 x 12 cm. In exchange for the time the artist spent searching for his girlfriend, "El Kamala" used the nervous tick in his right hand to scratch a hole through the center of the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo."

TIME EXCHANGE 172|2009 Drawing on paper 21.5 x 27 cm. In exchange for the artist going to visit Zarate's mother's crypt to speak to her, he created a drawing of the possible forms of scoring a basket in a basketball game against three opponents.

TIME EXCHANGE 148|2008 Cigarette butts on paper 21.5 x 27 cm. In exchange for the artist witnessing his son's first steps, "El super-ratón" collected and ordered all of the cigarette butts that he found in his cell.

TIME EXCHANGE 99 |2008 Drawing on paper Fifteen rubbings on paper 21.5 x 27 cm. Israel made a series of frotages covering the distance between his public and private spaces; in return, I got drunk at his nephew's christening party.

TIME EXCHANGE 66 |2007 Drawing on paper 43 x 54 cm. The artist shook hands with "El brothers" neighbors and relatives in his neighborhood. In exchange, "El brother" recounted a televised basketball match he watched in writing in the shape of a concrete poem.

TIME EXCHANGE 63|2007 Drawing on paper 64.5 x 81 cm. The artist serenaded Ivan's mother at her home, and in exchange, he drew an acoustic map of the prison, codifying the environmental sounds he could hear within a 360-degree radius.

TIME EXCHANGE 62|2007 Drawing on paper 15 x 1400 x 3 cm. " El Gato," in exchange for the artist going to test out the new car someone had bought him for his birthday, walked through the prison with his back against the walls. As he slid his back against the wall, he recorded the textures he felt as a drawing which was then transferred into a touchable ceramic structure.

TIME EXCHANGE 62|2007 Drawing on paper 15 x 1400 x 3 cm

TIME EXCHANGE 19,27,36,48,50,61,62,63,64,70,71,72,73,74,79,83 |2006 Intervened eggshells 21.5 x 27 cm. Every time the artist went to visit the prison, Oswaldo asked him to chat with him for 15 minutes. In exchange for that time, he would bring Macotela the egg he had for breakfast with a drawing on its shell illustrating the topics they covered during their conversation.

TIME EXCHANGE 19,27,36,48,50,61,62,63,64,70,71,72,73,74,79,83 |2006 Intervened eggshells 21.5 x 27 cm

TIME EXCHANGE 55 |2006 Inkjet on cotton paper 80 x 120 cm. In exchange for Macotela organizing Fernando's mother's birthday party, Fernando "El huevo" spent the same hours that Macotela spent with her finding every scar on his body and writing down the story of how he got each one.

TIME EXCHANGE 55 |2006 Inkjet on cotton paper 80 x 120 cm

TIME EXCHANGE 7|2006 Drawing on paper 21.5 x 27 cm. In exchange for the artist listening to his brother sing as he used to do, Chucho simultaneously documented each time he breathed for an hour.

|TIME DIVISA |2006-2011

Time Divisa is a project that explores the possibility of replacing money with a time-sharing system based on the exchange of specific periods where different tasks are done. It consists of 365 individual exchanges with inmates at the Santa Martha Acatitla prison in Mexico City. Tasks are undertaken simultaneously on a specific, mutually agreed upon day and time. Each party performs an action requested by the other. The documentation of each assignment is the currency. Macotela documents the tasks he undertakes for each prisoner as audio or video recordings while the inmates draw and/or produce objects, drawings, performances, and other outputs. The time exchanges are classified according to the specific tasks the artist asks the inmates to perform. He considers the outcomes of each time exchange as individual artworks.

While he presents the objects produced by the inmates as his because they are the result of their time exchanges, he chooses not to show documentation of the tasks he performs for them because they represent the time that belongs to them.