Poly-Auto-Portraits: Drifting Selves Between Scanners, Color, and Algorithms
Photography
2025
In this series, the boundaries of self-portraiture are abandoned and it expands into unstable, multiple configurations.These are not searches for essence or attempts to capture fixed identities.Rather, these images arise from the desire to fragment, multiply, and recombine the self to the point of becoming unrecognizable as a singular unit yet still recognizable as a process.
The project began two years ago with 3D scans of the artist’s head and bust. At that time, the software had not yet incorporated artificial intelligence refinements.The imperfections and rudimentary textures of those early scans werenot obstacles, but rather the starting point for exploring the technical and visual limits of the device.Errors at the edges where the skull met the supporting pillow, volumetric distortions, and poor chromatic definition became expressive resources that were later amplified through digital processes. In these processes, backgrounds and internal structures were reworked with vibrant, unconventional colors.
The series evolved through a sustained feedback loop of scanning, digital manipulation, and algorithmic generation. Ultimately, it arrived at what might be called a poly-portrait: a head that represents not just the artist, but multiple versions of him.Eachportraitistheresultofmerging, crossing, andrecombiningseveralpreviousheads.Embedded in this identity expansion is a genetic speculation: the possibility of considering the portrait as an archive of potential mutations, inheritances, and latent deviations.
Inevitably, theworkdialogueswiththeclassicalhistoryofself–portraiture, fromDürer’sintrospectiveintensity,toVanGogh’sgesturalobsessionsandRembrandt’sluminous,expressivevariations.However, there is no gesture of homage or comparison here. Rather, it offers a contemporary twist in which the self destabilizes, disintegrates, and reconfigures in algorithmic terms.The series engages with current debates on disidentification, digital ontologies, and new post-human modes of representation.
In this context, artificial intelligence is not a passive tool or a mere stylistic effect; it is an active agent that reinterprets, transforms, and proposes new facial configurations.These heads offer an unsettling, clinical visuality that is suspended between the organicity of skin andthe wax-like materiality that emerges from digital scans, far removed from the standardized repertoires that dominate much of AI-generated imagery—populated by smiling humans, manga aesthetics, and domesticated animals.
The result is an expanding visual archive that transcends the logic of the portrait as a static representation. It opens a speculative field in which the self is no longer singular, but multiple. In this field, skin is both surface and frontier, interface and malleable matter. The image is not a mirror, but a territory.
(Spanish)
Poli-autoretratos:Derivas del yo entre escáneres, color y algoritmos
En esta serie, el autorretrato trasciende sus límites históricos y se expande hacia configuraciones inestables y múltiples.No se trata de buscar una esencia ni de capturar una identidad fija.Por el contrario, estas imágenes nacen de la voluntad de fragmentar, multiplicar y recombinar al propio sujeto hasta hacerlo irreconocible como unidad, pero reconocible como proceso.
El proyecto comenzó hace dos años con escaneos tridimensionales de la cabeza y el busto del propio artista, cuando el software aún carecía de los refinamientos que ofrecen hoy en díalas tecnologías basadas en inteligencia artificial.Aquellos primeros escaneos, con sus imperfecciones y texturas rudimentarias, no fueron un obstáculo, sino el punto de partida para explorar los límites técnicos y visuales del dispositivo.Los errores en los bordes de contacto entre el cráneo y la almohada, las distorsiones volumétricas y la pobreza cromática se transformaron en recursos expresivos que se potenciaron posteriormente en procesos digitales en los que los fondos y las estructuras internas se trataron con colores vibrantes y poco convencionales.
La serie creció gracias a la retroalimentación persistente entre los escaneos, la manipulación digital y la generación algorítmica, hasta alcanzar la configuración de lo que podría denominarse un poliretrato: una cabeza que ya no representa solo al artista, sino que condensa múltiples versiones de sí mismo.Cada retrato es el resultado de la suma, el cruce y la recombinación de varias cabezas precedentes.Enestaexpansiónidentitariasubyacetambiénunaespeculacióngenética: laposibilidaddeconcebirelretratocomounarchivopotencialdemutaciones, herenciasydesvíoslatentes.
El trabajo dialoga inevitablemente con la historia clásica del autorretrato, desde la intensidad introspectiva de Durero hasta las obsesiones gestuales de Van Gogh, pasando por las variaciones lumínicas y expresivas de Rembrandt.Pero aquí no hay gesto de homenaje ni de comparación, sino una torsión contemporánea en la que el yo se desestabiliza, se desintegra y se reconfigura en clave algorítmica.La serie se inscribe en los debates actuales sobre la desidentificación, las ontologías digitales y las nuevas formas de representación poshumanas.
La inteligencia artificial no es aquí una herramienta pasiva ni un mero efecto estilístico, sino un agente activo que reinterpreta, transforma y propone nuevas configuraciones del rostro.Lejos de los repertorios estandarizados que dominan gran parte de las imágenes generadas por IA —pobladas por humanos felices, estética manga y animales domesticados—, estas cabezas proponen una visualidad incómoda, clínica y tensada entre la organicidad de la piel y la materialidad casi cerosa que emana de los escaneos digitales.
Poly-Selbstporträts: Abweichungen des Selbst zwischen Scannern, Farbe und Algorithmen
In dieser Serie verlässt das Selbstporträt seine historischen Grenzen und erweitert sich zu instabilen, multiplen Konfigurationen.Es geht nicht um die Suche nach einer Essenz oder die Erfassung einer festen Identität.Im Gegenteil: Diese Bilder entstehen aus dem Willen, das Selbst zu fragmentieren, zu multiplizieren und neu zu kombinieren, bis es als Einheit nicht mehr erkennbar, als Prozess jedoch intensiv spürbar ist.
Das Projekt begann vor zwei Jahren mit 3D-Scans des Kopfes und des Oberkörpers des Künstlers. Zu dieser Zeit verfügte die Software noch nicht über die Verfeinerungen der heutigen KI-gestützten Technologien.Diese ersten Scans mit ihren Unvollkommenheiten und rudimentären Texturen waren kein Hindernis, sondern der Ausgangspunkt einer technischen und visuellen Grenzerkundung.Fehler an den Kontaktstellen zwischen Schädel und Kissen, volumetrische Verzerrungen und die schwache Farbdarstellung wurden zu expressiven Ressourcen, die in digitalen Prozessen mit leuchtenden, unkonventionellen Farben verstärkt wurden.
DieSerieentwickeltesichdurcheineintensiveRückkopplungzwischenScanning, digitalerBearbeitungundalgorithmischerGenerierung,bisschließlichetwasentstand, dasalsPoly–Porträtbezeichnetwerdenkönnte: einKopf, dernichtmehrnurdenKünstlerselbstdarstellt, sondernverschiedeneVersionenseinerselbstinsichverdichtet.Jedes Porträt ist das Ergebnis der Verschmelzung, Kreuzung und Neukombination mehrerer früherer Köpfe.In dieser Identitätsausweitung schwingt auch eine genetische Spekulation mit, die Vorstellung vom Porträt als potenziellem Archiv von Mutationen, Vererbungenund latenten Abweichungen.
DasWerkstehtunweigerlichimDialogmitderklassischenGeschichtedesSelbstporträts – vonDürersintrospektiverIntensitätüberVanGoghsgestischeObsessionenbishinzuRembrandtsausdrucksstarkenLichtvariationen.Es handelt sich jedoch weder um eine Hommage noch um einen Vergleich, sondernum eine zeitgenössische Wendung, in der sich das Selbst destabilisiert, desintegriert und algorithmisch neu formiert.Die Serie verortet sich in aktuellen Diskursen über Desidentifikation, digitale Ontologien und neue posthumane Darstellungsformen.
Dabei ist die Künstliche Intelligenz kein passivesWerkzeug und kein bloßer Stileffekt, sondern ein aktives Subjekt, das interpretiert, transformiert und neue Gesichtsstrukturen vorschlägt.Fernab der standardisierten Repertoires, die einen Großteil der KI-generierten Bilder dominieren – bevölkert von glücklichen Menschen, Manga-Ästhetiken und domestizierten Tieren – eröffnen diese Köpfe eine beunruhigende, klinische Bildsprache, die zwischen derOrganik der Haut und der wachsartigen Materialität digitaler Scans oszilliert.
Das Ergebnis ist einsich erweiterndes visuelles Archiv, das die Logik des Porträts als statische Repräsentation überwindet und ein spekulatives Feld öffnet. In diesem ist das Selbst nicht mehr eins, sondern viele. Die Haut ist darin sowohl Oberfläche als auch Grenze, ebenso Schnittstelle und formbares Material. Das Bild ist kein Spiegel mehr, sondern ein Territorium.
Run: A Photographic Fugue in the Post-Digital Landscape
Marcello Mercado,
2025
In RUN, Marcello Mercado radically displaces the generative image.Through a series of 54 black-and-white photographs taken in Germany, South Africa, Argentina, and Denmark, the artist presents constructed and organic scenes that oscillate between the tactile and the elusive, recognition and erasure.While grounded in the material world, these photographs resist categorical legibility.Instead, theyoccupyasuspendedterrainwhereartificialintelligence, memory, extinction, andanalogsimulationconvergeinapost–digitalsyntax.
The title RUN signals both an escape and a process.It is a departure from the dominant modes of AI-generated imagery, which are often associated with glossy hyperrealism, manga-style illustrations, or cartoonish symbolism.Mercado rejects these tendencies in favor of a simulated historical aesthetic, employing a monochromatic photographic language that evokes 19th-century daguerreotypes and the forensic scrutiny of early anatomical imaging.
There is a quiet violence in theseimages, emerging from the juxtaposition of fur and fiber, bone and bark, ruin and residue.Animal bodies and vegetal remnants are presented not as documents of the natural world but as mnemonic fragments within a broader matrix of loss.In this sense, RUN engages in a visual archaeology of the present.As curator Susan Bright has noted in her reflections on contemporary photography, «The still image holds time in suspension, allowing us to examine not what it is, but what it refuses to become.«Mercado’sphotographsdwellpreciselyinthatspaceofrefusal.
TheworkalsoalignswiththeexpandedarchivetheoryofDavidCampanyandAbigailSolomon–Godeau.Each frame is an image-memory hybrid, neither purely indexical nor constructed, but rather reframed computationally through the latent capacities of AI.This dual encoding of organic matter and algorithmic generation echoes Joachim Schmid’s call to work with images «not as transparent windows, but as residues of human intention and machine logic.«
The black-and-white format further reinforces this ambiguity.Rather than aestheticizing the scene, the format introduces an epistemic distance, which Charlotte Cotton describes as the «photographic uncanny,« where the image appears simultaneously familiar and unreachable.The absence of color is not a deficiency, but a deliberate obstruction—a slowing down of perception in an age of algorithmic acceleration.
In confronting extinction, decay, and digital translation, RUN positions itself within the spectrum of archival resistance.These are not photographs of what was, but of what persists despite its dissolution.Urs Stahel’s concept of the «slow image» and Siegfried Zielinski’s idea of«deep time« in media archaeology resonate here.Mercado’s work does more than depict time; it embeds temporalities within the image, forcing the viewer into a durational encounter.
Ultimately, RUNisnotaboutflight; itisabouttheconditionsofvisibilityunderalgorithmicregimes.It stages a return, not to a specific origin but to the state of becoming an image before the image exists.Through textures thatfeel almost sculptural and an atmosphere recalling the muted violence of historical processes, Marcello Mercado invites us into a terrain where images endure rather than explain.
(Spanish)
En RUN, Marcello Mercado lleva la imagen generativa a un extremo radical.A través de una serie de 54 fotografías en blanco y negro tomadas en Alemania, Sudáfrica, Argentina y Dinamarca, el artista presenta escenas construidas y orgánicas que oscilan entre lo táctil y lo elusivo, el reconocimiento y el borrado.Aunque se basan en el mundo material, estas fotografías se resisten a la legibilidad categórica.En cambio, ocupan un terreno suspendido donde convergen la inteligencia artificial, la memoria, la extinción y la simulación analógica en una sintaxis posdigital.
El título RUN alude tanto a una huida como a un proceso.Se aleja de los modos dominantes de imágenes generadas por IA, que a menudo se asocian con elhiperrealismo brillante, las ilustraciones estilo manga o el simbolismo caricaturesco.Mercado rechaza estas tendencias en favor de una estética histórica simulada, para lo que emplea un lenguaje fotográfico monocromático que evoca los daguerrotipos del siglo XIX y el escrutinio forense de las primeras imágenes anatómicas.
Hay una violencia silenciosa en estas imágenes que emerge de la yuxtaposición de piel y fibra, hueso y corteza, ruina y residuo.Los cuerpos animales y los restos vegetales no se presentan como documentos del mundo natural, sino como fragmentos mnemotécnicos dentrode una matriz más amplia de pérdida.En este sentido, RUN emprende una arqueología visual del presente.Como ha señalado la comisaria Susan Bright en sus reflexiones sobre la fotografía contemporánea: «La imagen fija mantiene el tiempo en suspensión, permitiéndonos examinar no lo que es, sino lo que se niega a convertirse».LasfotografíasdeMercadosesitúanprecisamenteeneseespacioderechazo.
LaobratambiénsealineaconlateoríadelarchivoexpandidodeDavidCampanyyAbigailSolomon–Godeau.Cada fotograma es un híbrido de imagen y memoria, ni puramente indexical ni construido, sino replanteado computacionalmente mediante las capacidades latentes de la inteligencia artificial.Esta doble codificación de materia orgánica y generación algorítmica evocala invitación de Joachim Schmid a trabajar con imágenes «no como ventanas transparentes, sino como residuos de la intención humana y la lógica de la máquina».
El formato en blanco y negro refuerza aún más esta ambigüedad.En lugar de estetizar la escena, el formato introduce una distancia epistémica que Charlotte Cotton describe como lo «inquietante fotográfico», donde la imagen parece familiar e inalcanzable a la vez.La ausencia de color no es una deficiencia, sino una obstrucción deliberadaque ralentiza la percepción en una era de aceleración algorítmica.
Al confrontar la extinción, la decadencia y la traducción digital, RUN se sitúa dentro del espectro de la resistencia archivística.No se trata de fotografías de lo que fue, sino de lo que persiste a pesar de su disolución.Los conceptos de «imagen lenta» de Urs Stahel y de «tiempo profundo» de Siegfried Zielinski en la arqueología de los medios están presentes aquí.La obra de Mercado va más allá de representar el tiempo, ya que incorpora temporalidades en la imagen y obliga al espectador a enfrentarse a ellas.
En definitiva, RUN no trata sobre la huida, sino sobre las condiciones de visibilidad bajo regímenes algorítmicos.Representa un retorno, no a un origen específico, sino al estado de convertirse en imagen antes de que esta exista.A través de texturas casi escultóricas y una atmósfera que evoca la violencia silenciosa de los procesos históricos, Marcello Mercado nos invita a un territorio donde las imágenes perduran en lugar de explicar.
(German)
Run: Eine fotografische Fuge in der postdigitalen Landschaft
Marcello Mercado
2025
In „RUN” verändert Marcello Mercado das generative Bild radikal.IneinerSerievon54Schwarz–Weiß–FotografienausDeutschland, Südafrika, ArgentinienundDänemarkpräsentiertderKünstlerkonstruierteundorganischeSzenen, diezwischendemGreifbarenunddemFlüchtigen, zwischenErkennenundAuslöschenchangieren.Obwohl sie in der materiellen Welt verwurzelt sind, entziehen sich diese Fotografien einer kategorischen Lesbarkeit.Stattdessen bewegen sie sich in einem schwebenden Terrain, in dem künstliche Intelligenz, Erinnerung, Auslöschung und analoge Simulation in einer postdigitalen Syntax zusammenfließen.
DerTitel„RUN” stehtsowohlfürFluchtalsauchfürProzess.Er stellt eine Abkehr von den vorherrschenden Formen der KI-generierten Bildwelt dar, die häufig mit Hochglanz-Hyperrealismus, mangaartigen Illustrationen oder cartoonhafter Symbolik in Verbindung gebracht wird.Mercado lehnt diese Tendenzen zugunsten einer simulierten historischen Ästhetik ab. Er verwendet eine monochrome fotografische Sprache,die an Daguerreotypien des 19. Jahrhunderts und die forensische Untersuchung früher anatomischer Bilder erinnert.
DieseBilderstrahleneinestilleGewaltaus, dieausderGegenüberstellungvonFellundFasern, KnochenundRindesowieRuinenundRückständenentsteht.Tierkörper und pflanzliche Überreste werden dabei nicht als Dokumente der Natur präsentiert, sondern als mnemonische Fragmente innerhalb einer größeren Matrix des Verlusts.In diesem Sinne betreibt RUN eine visuelle Archäologie der Gegenwart.Wie die KuratorinSusan Bright in ihren Betrachtungen zur zeitgenössischen Fotografie feststellte, hält das Standbild die Zeit in der Schwebe und erlaubt uns, nicht zu untersuchen, was es ist, sondern was es nicht werden will.Mercados Fotografien verweilen genau in diesem Raum der Verweigerung.
Die Arbeit steht zudem im Einklang mit der erweiterten Archivtheorie von David Campany und Abigail Solomon-Godeau.Jedes Bild ist ein Hybrid aus Bild und Gedächtnis, das weder rein indexikalisch noch konstruiert ist, sondern durch die latenten Fähigkeiten der KI rechnerisch neu gerahmt wird.Diese duale Kodierung von organischer Materie und algorithmischer Generierung spiegelt Joachim Schmids Forderung wider, mit Bildern „nicht als transparenten Fenstern, sondern als Residuen menschlicher Intention und maschineller Logik“ zu arbeiten.
Das Schwarz-Weiß-Format verstärkt diese Ambiguität noch.Anstatt die Szene zu ästhetisieren, führt das Format eine epistemische Distanz ein, die Charlotte Cotton als „fotografisch unheimlich“ beschreibt: Das Bild erscheint gleichzeitig vertraut und unerreichbar.DieAbwesenheitvonFarbeistdabeikeinMangel, sonderneinebewussteBehinderung,eineVerlangsamungderWahrnehmungineinemZeitalteralgorithmischerBeschleunigung.
InderAuseinandersetzungmitAussterben, VerfallunddigitalerÜbersetzungpositioniertsichRUNimSpektrumdesarchivarischenWiderstands.Es sind keine Fotografien dessen, was war, sondern dessen, was trotz seiner Auflösung fortbesteht.Hier finden Urs Stahels Konzept des „langsamen Bildes“ und Siegfried Zielinskis Idee der „tiefen Zeit“ in der Medienarchäologie ihren Widerhall.Mercados Werk bildet nicht nur Zeit ab, sondern bettetZeitlichkeiten in das Bild ein und zwingt die Betrachter:innen zu einer dauerhaften Begegnung.
Letztendlich geht es in „RUN” nicht um Flucht, sondern um die Bedingungen der Sichtbarkeit unter algorithmischen Regimen.Es inszeniert eine Rückkehr nicht zu einem bestimmten Ursprung, sondern in den Zustand des Bildwerdens, bevor das Bild existierte.Durch fast skulptural anmutende Texturen und eine Atmosphäre, die an die gedämpfte Gewalt historischer Prozesse erinnert, lädt uns Marcello Mercado inein Terrain ein, in dem Bilder überdauern, statt etwas zu erklären.
Photographic Series Generated by AI and 3D Scanner
Inkjet print on Ultra Satin photographic paper.
Framed with white-painted pine rods.
Sizes: 53 cm x 66 cm and 62 cm x 62 cm
2025.
This series presents a sequence of interventions on the face and body using industrial materials,such as shiny polymers, tension threads, and plastic coatings.The images serve as records of specific configurations and explore the relationship between surface, facial structure, and visual containment devices.
The creative process begins with three-dimensional scanning of a human model using ahigh-resolution 3D scanner.From this scan, artificial intelligence algorithms generate a set of facial variations, trained to explore morphological modifications within defined parameters.These variations materialize as plastic structures that are either applied directly to the face or produced as wearable polymer extensions.
The dominant color, orange, is highly visible.It generates contrastand segmentation and precisely delineates areas of the image.
Faces are covered or modified by taut plastic layers. In some cases, the layers are adhered; in others, filaments traverse them, generating pressure or facial distortion.There is no expressiveness or gesture; all are suppressed to focus observation on the application technique, framing, tension of materials, and degree of skin surface immobilization.
The compositions are carefully calibrated.The lines that traverse the portraits and bodies serve structural functions. They stabilize the visual field, generate force vectors, and define activation zones within the image.Frontallightingandneutralbackgroundseliminatevisualinterference, enablingpreciseanalysisoftexture, shine, volume, andpolymerfittotheface.
Thisseriesisacollectionofvisualstudiesonthetreatmentofthebodythroughencapsulationtechniques, externalmodeling, andreplacingfacialidentitywithplasticstructures.There is no narrative or representation; each image is an independent unit of material observation.
Together, thesephotographs offer a technical approach to the altered body, positioning it in the space between flesh and polymer, biological volume and synthetic surface.
MarcelloMercado:
The Neutrals 01
AI-Generated Photography and 3D Scanner
Inkjet print on Ultra Satin photographic paper.
Framed with a white-painted pine rod.
53 cm x 66 cm
2025
Marcello Mercado:
TheNeutrals02
AI- and 3D-scanner-generated photography
Inkjet print on Ultra Satin photographic paper.
Framed with a white-painted pine rod.
62 cm x 62 cm
2025
MarcelloMercado:
The Neutrals 03
AI-Generated Photography and 3D Scanner
Inkjet print on Ultra Satin photographic paper.
Framed with a white-painted pine rod.
53 cm x 66 cm
2025
Marcello Mercado:
TheNeutrals02
AI- and 3D-scanner-generated photography
Inkjet print on Ultra Satin photographic paper.
Framed with a white-painted pine rod.
62 cm x 62 cm
2025
(Spanish)
Marcello Mercado
Los Neutros
Serie fotográfica generada por IA y scanner 3D
Impresión ink jet sobre papel fotográfico Ultra Satin
enmarcadas con varilla de pino pintadas de blanco
Tamaño 53cm x 66cm y 62cm x 62cm
2025
Esta serie fotográfica presenta una secuencia de intervenciones sobre el rostro y el cuerpo mediante materiales industriales: polímeros brillantes, hilos tensores y recubrimientos plásticos. Las imágenes funcionan como registros de configuraciones específicas, orientadas a explorar la relación entre superficie, estructura facial y dispositivos de contención visual.
El proceso de trabajo parte del escaneo tridimensional de un modelo humano mediante 3D Scanner de alta resolución. A partir de este escaneo se genera un conjunto de variaciones faciales modeladas por algoritmos de inteligencia artificial, entrenados para explorar modificaciones morfológicas dentro de parámetros definidos. Estas variaciones se materializan en estructuras plásticas aplicadas directamente sobre el rostro o producidas como extensiones portables en polímero.
El color naranja, presente de forma dominante, responde a una elección cromática de alta visibilidad. Su función es operativa: genera contraste, segmentación y delimita zonas de la imagen con precisión.
Los rostros están cubiertos o modificados por capas plásticas tensadas, en algunos casos adheridas, en otros atravesadas por filamentos que generan presión o distorsión facial. No hay expresividad ni gesto: se suprime toda gestualidad para favorecer una observación centrada en la técnica de aplicación, el encuadre, la tensión de los materiales y el grado de inmovilización de la superficie cutánea.
Las composiciones están cuidadosamente calibradas. Las líneas que atraviesan los retratos y cuerpos tienen funciones estructurales: estabilizan el campo visual, generan vectores de fuerza y definen zonas de activación dentro de la imagen. La iluminación frontal y la elección de fondos neutros eliminan interferencias visuales, permitiendo un análisis preciso de textura, brillo, volumen y ajuste del polímero al rostro.
La serie es una colección de estudios visuales sobre el tratamiento del cuerpo mediante técnicas de encapsulamiento, modelado externo y sustitución de la identidad facial por estructuras plásticas. No hay narrativa, no hay representación: cada imagen constituye un módulo autónomo de observación material.
En conjunto, estas fotografías plantean un enfoque técnico sobre el cuerpo intervenido, ubicándolo en una zona liminar entre la carne y el polímero, entre el volumen biológico y la superficie sintética.
Transferring, Storing, Sharing, and Hybriding: The perfect humus, 2010 – 2011
Series of Ephemeral Video-Installations
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In Transferring, Storing, Sharing, and Hybriding, a series of ephemeral video-installations created in 2010 – 2011, Marcello Mercado addresses the unstable materialities of memory, inheritance, and technological residues. Drawing from the human genome, sound art, satellite streams, and digital archives, these works cultivate a living humus where organic and synthetic legacies are intertwined, constantly shifting, never fixed.
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Memory is not presented as a static repository but as a volatile negotiation—a territory of transmission, mutation, and erosion. Information, whether embedded in DNA sequences or encoded in cultural databases, leaks, hybridizes, and transforms. It is less about the accumulation of gigabytes, terabytes, or zettabytes, and more about the precarious entanglements that such excess inevitably generates.
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Set within natural environments, these installations articulate an ecology of interdependencies: moss, water, wood, speakers, radio waves, and glass vials compose fragile assemblages where the biological and the technological are co-implicated. Rather than illustrating hybridity, the work enacts it, inserting the viewer into circuits of multispecies, multimodal transmission. The satellite feed merges with the genome, the sound frequencies seep into the moss, the archival impulse dissolves into entropy.
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Contemporary existence, the installations suggest, is conditioned by acts of translation, contamination, and remix. Storage becomes indistinguishable from distortion; preservation, from mutation. Rather than clinging to the idea of pristine archives, Transferring proposes memory as a field of unstable assemblages, a site where pasts and futures cross-contaminate each other.
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This sensibility resonates with a broader shift in curatorial and theoretical practices toward non-linear temporalities, recursive histories, and distributed agencies. The installations breathe with the recognition that every archive—genetic or digital—operates under conditions of uncertainty, exposed to forces beyond control. Storage is never neutral; it is a practice haunted by loss, noise, and decay.
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By embracing the ephemeral, Mercado’s work departs from traditional notions of durability and fixity. It stages memory as performative, fugitive, and entangled with material processes of transformation. The event of the installation is not a means to preserve information, but a way to let it mutate and regenerate—through sound, matter, time.
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In Transferring, no single medium or agent holds primacy. Human, machine, organism, and environment form shifting networks of action and reaction, echoing deeper inquiries into posthuman entanglements and networked materialities. Information is neither inert nor pure: it is an active participant in an ecology of residues.
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Ultimately, these ephemeral constellations reflect a vital awareness: that in an era of accelerating technological proliferation, what matters is not the preservation of stable identities, but the capacity to inhabit instability, to cultivate porous, living archives that remain open to transformation.
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Marcello Mercado
transferring, storing, sharing, and hybriding: The perfect humus
In DELETE, language ceases to be a transparent medium for communication and becomes both subject and residue. Conceived in 2012 as an interactive video installation, the project reflects on the impossibility of truly erasing information within digital and mental architectures. Instead, it proposes the invention of a maintenance-language: an operational system that paradoxically seeks to erase by generating a new linguistic code.
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At the core of the installation lies a speculative alphabet composed of 210 graphemes, each detached from conventional meaning. A grapheme in DELETE is not an «A» or a «B,» but a carrier of fluid semantic densities—philosophical texts, visual data, noise, or pure absence. The work articulates what Simon Sheikh has termed a “linguistic act,” wherein the action of writing, speaking, or coding constitutes an autonomous mode of being rather than a tool of communication. In this context, DELETE manifests not merely as a representation of language, but as an ongoing event of linguistic exhaustion and reconfiguration.
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Throughout the performance-installation, the artist engages in a glossolalic duel: seated before the audience, typing on a laptop while simultaneously articulating invented sounds. Language here is dismantled, compressed, re-coded, and finally suspended in a liminal state between visibility and erasure. The public is invited to participate, not by deciphering meaning, but by contributing their own residues of thought—thus enacting a collective maintenance of mental debris.
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This mechanism resonates with Beatrix Ruf’s reflection on contemporary art’s inclination toward «contaminated systems,» where meaning is always already inflected, unstable, and exposed to collapse. DELETE embraces such contamination, understanding deletion not as a return to purity, but as a continuous cycle of residue production. The act of «deleting» becomes, paradoxically, a generative force—a production of new illegible archives.
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The philosophical tension between inscription and annihilation is further underscored by the use of digital tools: projectors, laptops, audio systems, and satellite data streams, all forming a fragile ecology where deletion leaves inevitable traces. In this sense, Daniel Birnbaum’s notion of «chronology loops»—moments where linear time folds back onto itself—is mirrored in DELETE: every attempt at erasure re-inscribes itself, creating new temporalities within the act of forgetting.
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Through this critical engagement with language and digital memory, DELETE also echoes the concerns articulated by curators such as Hans Ulrich Obrist and Maria Lind regarding the unstable thresholds between performance, documentation, and residual materiality. What remains after the gesture of deletion is not emptiness but a sedimented field of semiotic debris—a landscape of ghost-meanings.
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Finally, the performative logic of DELETE aligns with the traditions of language-performance outlined by RoseLee Goldberg, yet extends them into the space of algorithmic and infrastructural critique. By treating deletion as both a technical impossibility and a poetic necessity, Mercado confronts us with the ultimate paradox of the digital condition: that to erase is, inevitably, to create.
This one-hour performance took place in the Napoleon Suite of a hotel in Baden-Baden in 2009.The artist staged a clinical operation with two plastic containers, each containing compost, California red worms (Eisenia fetida), and a printed version of one of Gödel’s two incompleteness theorems.Each container was assigned a specific theorem – the first and second, respectively – creating an operational dissociation.
The performance followed a precise protocol.Both containers were placed on the bed of the suite, on a sterilized white surface.A laser device was positioned to intermittently activate beams directed at the compost masses.Throughout the one-hour duration, fragments of Gödel’s theoretical formulations – translated into sound – were transmitted to the containers via a CD player and a portable military radio system.No outside audience was present.No symbolic gestures were made.
The action was clinically closed.A sterilized green surgical drape was used to cover the entire scene at the end of the procedure.Nocommentarywasprovidedandnotextualexplanationwasprovidedatthesite.
ThisworkdoesnotintendtorepresentGödel’stheorems.It acts upon them.The performance subjects these theorems – considered fundamental limits of formal logic – to biological decomposition.The worms digest without interpretation.The artist does not take authorship of the decomposition, but becomes its procedural agent.The plastic containers function as epistemological cells: finite environments with a strictly defined purpose.
InlinewithGödel’sformulationofincompleteness – whereanyconsistentformalsystemcapableofexpressingbasicarithmeticisnecessarilyincomplete –performanceintroducesanirreversibleevent: Decomposition.Once subjected to decay, the logical integrity of the theorems is no longer preserved as a cognitive artifact, but as an organic residue.The separation of the two theorems into independent composts suggests a dissociation of limits: one of provability, the other of system self-validation.They are not opposed to each other, but parallel to each other and degraded separately.
Here, the clinical approach to logic resonates with contemporary curatorial frameworks.Anita Haldemann’s forensic treatment of conceptual drawing, Chus Martínez’s investigations into speculative epistemologies, and Sebastián Vidal Mackinson’s curatorial approaches to logic-based performativity all support readings that locate performance not in allegory but in direct, structured operation.
Durationplaysacriticalrole.The worms act slowly.The performance does not document transformation – it initiates it.The artist does not accelerate, complete, or alter the natural pace of the event.The decomposition remains partially invisible, imperceptible within the given time frame, yet fully initiated.Maria Lind’s writing on «compost politics« provides a lens for understanding slow, non-representational knowledge production.Similarly, Rosa Lleó’s interest in post-natural time and Catherine de Zegher’s focus on invisible spatial gestures enrich the reading of this temporal layer.
Light Intervention:A handheld laser traced subtle lines across the compost bins, activating the performative space as a site of speculative measurement-mapping invisibilities and referencing both data collection and epistemic limits.
The decomposition of the theorems into their own containers-each a closed system-materialized Gödel’s insight that no formal system can be both complete and consistent.The worms acted as biological agents enacting undecidability, devouring the internal limits of reason itself.
This work continues Mercado’s exploration of the body, language, and information as ephemeral substrates.Theperformancerecallsearlyinterventionsinconceptualandbody–basedpractices, whileestablishinganewdialoguewithstrandsofbioartthatexploreidentity, decay, andtechno–organicthresholds.
In den ausgewählten Zeichnungen von Marcello Mercado entfaltet sich eine systematische Auseinandersetzung mit dem Zeichnen als Ereignis und zugleich als Residuum. Weder illustrativ noch narrativ, offenbaren diese Arbeiten den Akt des Zeichnens als dynamische Spannung zwischen Präsenz und Verschwinden. Sie eröffnen einen Raum, in dem die Technik nicht nur Mittel zum Zweck ist, sondern ein eigenständiges Forschungsfeld, das subtil sowohl an historische grafische Traditionen als auch an die spekulative Dringlichkeit zeitgenössischer Ästhetik erinnert.
Jede Zeichnung wird zu einem Mikrokosmos von Absicht und Zufall, von Eingrenzung und Zerstreuung. Der Bleistift oszilliert zwischen rhythmischer Linearität und fragmentarischer Interferenz. Linien kreuzen sich mit scheinbar spontanen Gesten, die bei näherer Betrachtung eine kalkulierte Dissonanz offenbaren. Diese Dualität – Ordnung im Chaos – steht im Dialog mit den visuellen Codes algorithmischer Ästhetik.
Werke wie „Untitled 2022“ und „Untitled 2010“ zeigen Mercados technische Bandbreite: Die Gegenüberstellung feiner, fast kalligraphischer Linien mit breiten Acrylschichten suggeriert eine Choreographie zwischen Kontrolle und Hingabe. Diese vielschichtigen Gesten erzeugen visuelle Konfliktzonen, in denen sich das Bild nie ganz stabilisiert – es flimmert und verweigert sich der Vollendung. Dieses Konzept der Instabilität spiegelt Catherine de Zeghers These wider, dass die Linie eine flüchtige Gedankenspur ist, ein Überbleibsel physischer Absicht.
Formal erkunden die Zeichnungen Kompositionsstrategien, die sowohl an architektonische Skizzen als auch an neurographisches Mapping erinnern. Formen werden angedeutet, aber nicht bestätigt. „Die Serie M3 beispielsweise bewegt sich auf einer Ebene der Mehrdeutigkeit, auf der Figuration und Abstraktion aufeinanderprallen. Andeutungen organischer Formen tauchen auf, werden aber durch unregelmäßige Eingriffe wieder unterbrochen“.
Die Farbpalette ist oft begrenzt und bevorzugt monochrome oder zweifarbige Farbschemata mit plötzlichen Pigmentausbrüchen. Diese Beschränkung verstärkt die Materialsensibilität jedes einzelnen Strichs. In Werken wie „M3-17“ wird die Sparsamkeit der Mittel zur Stärke: Die wenigen vorhandenen Linien sind mit einer kinetischen Energie aufgeladen, die eine Bewegung über das Blatt hinaus suggeriert. Umgekehrt zeugt die Dichte von Zeichnungen wie «Mapping 2011» von einem fast skulpturalen Ansatz – Schicht für Schicht entsteht ein strukturiertes Bildfeld, das die Komplexität barocker Kompositionen widerspiegelt.
Thematisch changieren die Zeichnungen zwischen Diagramm und Traum. Sie widersetzen sich der traditionellen Erzählweise und setzen stattdessen auf eine poetische Sprache der Zeichen und Brüche. Mercados Verwendung von Schichtungen – sowohl buchstäblich als auch konzeptuell – erzeugt nicht nur räumliche, sondern auch zeitliche Tiefe. Jede Zeichnung wirkt wie ein Palimpsest, das Spuren früherer Gesten, Korrekturen und Auslöschungen enthält. Diese prozesshafte Sichtbarkeit lädt zum Vergleich mit der Tradition der analytischen Zeichnung ein, in der die Linie stets mit sich selbst verhandelt.
Materialmäßig wird die Kombination von Graphit, Tusche und Acryl zurückhaltend, aber präzise eingesetzt. Das Acryl dient nicht der malerischen Wirkung, sondern der Verschleierung oder Akzentuierung – es agiert als aktiver Teilnehmer am zeichnerischen Diskurs. Mal wird es zum Schleier, mal zum Bruch. Ein Wechselspiel zwischen Transparenz und Opazität, zwischen Linie und Fläche.
Stilistisch loten die Zeichnungen Minimalismus und Exzess aus. Die Serien M3-12 und M3-14 beispielsweise konstruieren komplexe Arrangements aus Wiederholung und Rauschen. Die Verwendung von sich wiederholenden linearen Mustern imitiert sowohl digitale Störungen als auch archaische Muster und lässt Zeitlichkeiten in einer einzigen Geste verschmelzen. Solche Arbeiten entsprechen Rosa Lleós Konzept des Kunstwerks als archäologisches Fragment der Gegenwart – vielschichtig, verschlüsselt, in Bewegung.
Aus kuratorischer Perspektive sind diese Arbeiten als Kontinuum zu lesen: nicht als Ansammlung einzelner Objekte, sondern als lebendiges System der Variation. Mercados Praxis, wie sie in diesem Werkkomplex zum Ausdruck kommt, beschäftigt sich intensiv mit zeitgenössischen Fragen der Kognition, der Repräsentation und des Scheiterns von Sprache. Sie bleibt aber auch im Konkreten verwurzelt: im Papier, im Zeichen, im Atem. Die Zeichnungen sind Akte des Widerstands gegen die Verflachung der Wahrnehmung, gegen die Verdichtung von Bedeutung. Wie Manuel Segade vielleicht sagen würde, sind diese Zeichnungen Körper an sich – porös, vielschichtig, verletzlich. Sie laden uns ein, sie nicht nur zu betrachten, sondern ihnen zu folgen, uns in ihren Falten zu verlieren. Sie vollziehen das, was José Luis Barrios die dekoloniale Praxis des Bildes nennt: Die Eindeutigkeit zu verneinen, die Vielfalt zu akzeptieren.
In diesem Sinne aktualisieren Marcello Mercados Arbeiten nicht nur die Sprache der Zeichnung, sondern richten sie neu aus. Indem er sich dem Moment, dem Zerbrechlichen, dem Ungewissen widmet, öffnet er Raum für neue Formen der Aufmerksamkeit und der Auseinandersetzung. Diese Zeichnungen sind keine Illustrationen des Denkens, sondern dessen Sedimente. Sie sind nicht Formen, sondern Schwellen. Sie sind nicht fertig – sie kommen an.
Fractured SyntaxPaintings at the Threshold of Code and Gesture
Marcello Mercado’s paintings invite us into a space where form resists containment. Their surfaces are layered, fractured and shifting – an architecture of marks that seems both deliberate and destabilised. These works do not seek resolution. They pulse with the residual charge of the digital age, yet remain grounded in the material intelligence of the painted surface.
In Mercado’s practice, painting is neither nostalgic nor oppositional. It is a porous, metabolizing field that absorbs algorithmic noise, compression artefacts and the ghost images of obsolete media. These remnants do not function as visual effects, but emerge as sedimented traces within a larger system of painterly thought. Each canvas becomes a palimpsest where code meets pigment, where digital ruins and analogue memory converge.
Mercado’s paintings explore the tension between drawing and its erasure. The line, often submerged or fragmented, functions less as a boundary than as a site of struggle – a trace that flickers between presence and disappearance. This gives the works a temporal quality: a sense that they are not static images but ongoing processes, archaeological in their accumulation and disruption.
The paintings articulate a fragile architecture of collapse. Fragmentation becomes a structure in itself, one that resists the legibility of traditional narrative or iconography. In their broken syntax, these works echo cultural memory – not through overt reference, but through rupture, discontinuity and the aesthetics of interruption. There is a haunting, almost sonic silence in these paintings: the silence of a meaning too fragile to cohere, too urgent to be ignored.
Marcello Mercado
DATA_Paintings
A text-based artwork on printed vinyl canvas
60cm x 50cm 23,6in x 19,6in
2025
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on canvas
60cm x 80cm /each 23.6in x 31.4in, diptych
2023
Marcello Mercado
Turtle
mixed media on canvas
30cm x 40cm 11,8in x 15,7in
2013
Marcello Mercado
Insel
mixed media on canvas
30cm x 40cm 11,8in x 15,7in
2013
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
oil on canvas
25cm x 25cm 9.8in x 9.8in
2015
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
oil on wood
35cm x 35cm 13.7in x 13.7in
2015
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
oil on wood
35cm x 35cm 13.7in x 13.7in
2015
Marcello Mercado
Untitled 01, 02 and 03
mixed media on paper
20cm x 35cm each 7.8in x 13.7in
2015
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
oil on canvas
40cm x 30cm 11.8in x 15,7in
2015
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
oil on canvas
201 cm x 388 cm, 79.1 in x 152.7 in
2012
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
oil on canvas
30cm x 40cm 15,7in x 11.8in
2013
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
oil on canvas
80cm x 60cm 31.4in x 23.6in
2014
Marcello Mercado
Amazonas
mixed media on canvas
80cm x 60cm 31.4in x 23.6in
2019
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
oil on canvas
40cm x 30cm 11.8in x 15.7in
2015
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
oil on canvas
40cm x 30cm 11.8in x 15.7in
2015
Marcello Mercado
RY
oil on canvas
20cm x 20cm 7.8in x 7.8in
2010
Marcello Mercado
BL
oil on canvas
20cm x 20cm 7.8in x 7.8in
2010
Marcello Mercado
RB
oil on canvas
20cm x 20cm 7.8in x 7.8in
2010
Marcello Mercado
YV
oil on canvas
20cm x 20cm 7.8in x 7.8in
2010
Marcello Mercado
RB2
oil on canvas
20cm x 20cm 7.8in x 7.8in
2010
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on wood
35cm x 35cm 13.7in x 13.7in
2014
Marcello Mercado
Gedesby
Acrylic on canvas
60cm x 80cm 23.6in x 31.4in
2019
Marcello Mercado
untitled
oil on canvas
30cm x 40cm 11,8in x 15,7in, Diptych
2023
Marcello Mercado
untitled
oil on canvas
100cm x 100cm 39,3in x 39,3in
2015
Marcello Mercado
Homeland light
mixed media on canvas
201 cm x 388 cm, 79.1 in x 152.7 in
2011
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
oil on canvas
30cm x 40cm 15,7in x 11.8in
2014
Marcello Mercado
untitled G3
acrylic and pencil on wood
42 cm x 60 cm 16.5 in x 4.2 in
2011
Marcello Mercado
untitled
mixed media on paper
29,7 cm x 42 cm 11.6 in x 16.5 in
2007
Marcello Mercado
untitled
mixed media on paper
29,7 cm x 42 cm 11.6 in x 16.5 in
2007
Marcello Mercado
untitled
mixed media on paper
29,7 cm x 42 cm 11.6 in x 16.5 in
2007
Marcello Mercado
Untitled, Serie x 9
oil on wood
42 cm x 60 cm 16.5 in x 4.2 in
2013
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
acrylic on paper
60 cm x 80 cm 23.6 in x 31.4in
2022
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on paper
60cm x 80cm 23.6in x 31.4in
2005
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on paper
60cm x 80cm 23.6in x 31.4in
2005
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on canvas
250cm x 150cm 98,4in x 59in
2005
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on canvas
25cm x 25cm 9.8in x 9.8in
2007
Marcello Mercado
Sturm
mixed media on canvas
30cm x 40cm 11.8in x 15,7in
2015
Marcello Mercado
BMW_MERCEDES_RED/BLUE
Enamel paint and oil on wood
42,5 cm x 42,5 cm 16,7 in x 16.7 in
2006
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on canvas
40cm x 40cm 15,7in x 15,7in, Diptych
2005
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on canvas
80cm x 60cm 31.4in x 23.6in
2013
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on paper, Diptych
60cm x 80cm each, 23.6in x 31.4in
2011
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
acrylic and ink on paper
30cm x 20cm 11,8in x 7.8in
2005
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on canvas
60cm x 80cm 23.6in x 31.4in
2014
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
acrylic and ink on paper
20cm x 30cm 7.8in x 11,8in
2005
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on paper
40cm x 30cm 15.7in x 11.8in
2016
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on paper
40cm x 30cm 15.7in x 11.8in
2016
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on wood
30cm x 40cm 11.8in x 15.7in
2016
Marcello Mercado
BW
oil on canvas
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2018
Marcello Mercado
ORG
oil on canvas
40cm x 30cm 15.7in x 11.8in
2016
Marcello Mercado
The man of Pekin
oil on canvas
40cm x 30cm 15.7in x 11.8in
2015
Marcello Mercado
Untitled 01 and 02
acrylic on paper
60cm x 50cm 23,6in x 19,6in
2020
Marcello Mercado
Rosenbaum
acrylic and ink on paper
30cm x 20cm 11,8in x 7.8in
2005
Marcello Mercado
Rosenbaum
acrylic and ink on paper
30cm x 20cm 11,8in x 7.8in
2005
Marcello Mercado
Rosenbaum
acrylic and ink on paper
30cm x 20cm 11,8in x 7.8in
2005
Marcello Mercado
Rosenbaum
acrylic and ink on paper
30cm x 20cm 11,8in x 7.8in
2005
Marcello Mercado
Rosenbaum
acrylic and ink on paper
30cm x 20cm 11,8in x 7.8in
2005
Marcello Mercado
Rosenbaum
acrylic and ink on paper
30cm x 20cm 11,8in x 7.8in
2005
Marcello Mercado
Rosenbaum
acrylic and ink on paper
30cm x 20cm 11,8in x 7.8in
2006
Marcello Mercado
Garten
acrylic on paper
80cm x 60cm 31.4in x 23.6in
2012
Marcello Mercado
Garten
acrylic on paper
80cm x 60cm 31.4in x 23.6in
2014
Marcello Mercado
Dead man with horse
oil on canvas
150cm x 150cm. 59in x 59in
2022
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on canvas, Diptych
60cm x 80cm each 23.6in x 31.4in
2023
Marcello Mercado
untitled
acrylic on wood
42 cm x 60 cm 16.5 in x 4.2 in
2011
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on canvas
60cm x 80cm 23.6in x 31.4in
2013
Marcello Mercado
GR
Acrylic on paper
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2010
Marcello Mercado
untitled
Acrylic and wax on paper
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2011
Marcello Mercado
untitled
Acrylic and wax on paper
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2011
Marcello Mercado
untitled
Acrylic and wax on paper
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2011
Marcello Mercado
untitled
Acrylic and wax on paper
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2011
Marcello Mercado
untitled
mixed media on paper
30cm x 20cm 7.8in x 15,7in
2011
Marcello Mercado
BLR
acrylic on canvas
30cm x 40cm 11.8in x 15,7in
2020
Marcello Mercado
Head
oil on canvas
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2016
Marcello Mercado
Head
oil on canvas
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2023
Marcello Mercado
Head
oil on canvas
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2023
Marcello Mercado
Head
oil on canvas
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2023
Marcello Mercado
Head
oil on canvas
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2023
Marcello Mercado
Head
oil on canvas
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2023
Marcello Mercado
Head
oil on canvas
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2023
Marcello Mercado
Head
oil on canvas
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2023
Marcello Mercado
Head
oil on canvas
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2023
Marcello Mercado
Head
oil on canvas
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2023
Marcello Mercado
Head
oil on canvas
20cm x 30cm 15,7in x 7.8in
2023
Marcello Mercado
Head
acrylic on canvas
50cm x 60cm 19,6in x 23.6in
2010
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on canvas
100cm x 100cm 39.3in x 39.3in
2022
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
acrylic on paper
60cm x 80cm each, 23.6in x 31.4in
2020
Marcello Mercado
Untitled
mixed media on paper, Poliptych
60cm x 80cm each, 23.6in x 31.4in
2010
Marcello Mercado
untitled
watercolour on paper
29,7 cm x 42 cm 116.9in x 16.5 in
2005
Marcello Mercado
untitled
watercolour on paper
29,7 cm x 42 cm 116.9in x 16.5 in
2005
Marcello Mercado
untitled
watercolour on paper
29,7 cm x 42 cm 116.9in x 16.5 in
2005
Marcello Mercado
untitled
watercolour on paper
29,7 cm x 42 cm 116.9in x 16.5 in
2005
Marcello Mercado
untitled
watercolour on paper
29,7 cm x 42 cm 116.9in x 16.5 in
2005
Marcello Mercado
untitled
watercolour on paper
29,7 cm x 42 cm 116.9in x 16.5 in
2015
Marcello Mercado
TERA
Marker on vinyl canvas
Variable size
2025
Fragments, Signals, Surfaces: On the Paintings of Marcello Mercado
Marcello Mercado’s recent paintings unfold across layered surfaces where fractured forms and biomorphic marks speak a hybrid language – technological and organic, intuitive and computational. These are not paintings that offer stable representation; rather, they resist closure. Each canvas functions as a thinking surface, charged with a strange temporal logic, alive with ghostly absences and uncertain presences.
There is a residue of the digital here: the trace of screens, compression artefacts, algorithmic failures. But these echoes are not decorative or illustrative. Instead, they are absorbed into the analogue flesh of the medium, becoming silent inscriptions of a world shaped by data and decay. The material presence of the painting retains these digital ghosts, as if matter could remember a code.
What emerges is a kind of synthetic realism – a pictorial zone shaped by the contamination of machine vision and emotional memory. These works do not long for the past, nor do they celebrate the future. They inhabit a suspended space where glitches become gestures and errors become structure.
The paintings function as silent scripts inscribed with the ruins of narrative, language and gesture. There is an implicit engagement with memory – not as something preserved, but as something constantly broken and reassembled. Form appears only to collapse, signs appear only to disappear. In this sense, the works become counter-archives: places where memory disorganises itself, riddled with noise and poetic dysfunction.
The drawing remains embedded in the process. Lines interrupt and dissolve; they are doubled, erased or buried under chromatic weight. These paintings function as palimpsests – revealing traces of thought and impulse within layers of erasure and distortion. The relationship between transparency and concealment gives the work a temporal quality, as if each canvas had been excavated rather than composed.
What ultimately defines this practice is its resilience. These are not paintings of ease or affirmation. They are documents of resistance – resistance to legibility, to linear meaning, to aesthetic comfort. In their refusal of resolution, they assert the mark as a site of tension, collapse and persistent becoming. They demand to be seen not as images but as surfaces of survival.
IntheselecteddrawingsbyMarcelloMercado, asystematicexplorationofdrawingasbotheventandresidueunfolds.Neither illustrating nor narrating, these works reveal the act of drawing as a dynamic tension between presence and disappearance.They open up a space in which technique is not merely a means to an end, but a field of inquiry in its own right – subtly invoking both historical graphic traditions and the speculative urgencies of contemporary aesthetics.
Each drawing becomes a microcosm of intention and chance, of containment and dispersal.The pencil oscillates between rhythmic linearity and fragmented interference.Lines intersect with seemingly spontaneous gestures that, upon closer inspection, reveal a calculated dissonance.This duality – order under chaos – dialogues with the visual codes of algorithmic aesthetics.
Works such as «Untitled 2022» and «Untitled 2010» showcase Mercado’s technical range: the juxtaposition of fine, almost calligraphic lines with broad acrylic overlays suggests a choreography between control and surrender.These layered gestures create zones of visual conflict where the image never fully stabilizes – it flickers, resisting completion.This notion of instability echoes Catherine de Zegher’s assertion of the line as an ephemeral trace of thought, a residue of bodily intention.
Formally, the drawings explore compositional strategies reminiscent of both architectural sketching and neurographic mapping.Shapes are suggested, not confirmed.«Series M3, for example, operates on a plane of ambiguity where figuration and abstraction collide.Suggestions of organic form emerge, only to be disrupted by erratic interventions.
The color palette is often limited, favoring monochrome or duotone schemes with sudden bursts of pigment.This limitation heightens the material sensitivity of each mark.In works such as «M3-17,» economy of means becomes a strength: the few lines present are charged with a kinetic energy that suggests movement beyond the page.Conversely, the density of drawings such as «Mapping 2011» speaks to an almost sculptural approach to drawing – layers upon layers form a textured visual field that resonates with the complexity of Baroque composition.
Thematically, the drawings oscillate between diagram and dream.They resist traditional narrative, opting instead for a poetic language of signs and disruptions.Mercado’s use of layering – both literal and conceptual – creates depth not only in space but also in time.Each drawing appears as a palimpsest, containing ghosts of previous gestures, corrections, and erasures.This processual visibility invites comparison with the tradition of analytical drawing, where the line is always in negotiation with itself.
Materially, the combination of graphite, ink and acrylic is used with restraint but precision.Acrylic is not used for painterly effect, but to obscure or accentuate – it behaves as an active participant in the graphic discourse.In some cases it becomes a veil, in others a break.This interplay between transparency and opacity, between line and surface.
Stylistically, the drawings explore both minimalism and excess.«Series M3-12 and Series M3-14, for example, construct complex arrangements out of repetition and noise.The use of repeated linear motifs mimics both digital glitches and archaic patterns, collapsing temporalities into a single gesture.SuchworksresonatewithRosaLleó’snotionoftheartworkasanarchaeologicalfragmentofthepresent–layered, coded, inmotion.
From a curatorial perspective, these works demand to be read as a continuum: not as a collection of discrete objects, but as a living system of variation.Mercado’s practice, as articulated in this body of work, is deeply engaged with contemporary concerns about cognition, representation, and the failures of language.But it also remains rooted in the tangible: in paper, in mark, in breath.The drawings are acts of resistance against the flattening of perception, against the compression of meaning.
As Manuel Segade might suggest, these drawings are bodies in and of themselves – porous, layered, vulnerable.They invite us not only to look, but to follow, to get lost in their folds.They enact what José Luis Barrios describes as a decolonial practice of the image: denying clarity, embracing multiplicity.
In this sense, Marcello Mercado’s work does not merely update the language of drawing – it reorients it.By attending to the minute, the fragile, the uncertain, he opens a space for new forms of attention and engagement.These drawings are not illustrations of thought, but its sediment.They are not forms but thresholds.Theyarenotfinished–theyarearriving.
The Hypergaussian War is an AI-powered feature film that unfolds a war between obsolete video game characters. Forgotten avatars clash in massive battles, wielding magical forces and navigating vast, surreal landscapes where the history of video games converges with the intricate worlds of 16th-century Flemish painting, itself transfigured into a haunting, playable simulation. As they traverse these impossible realms—video games that never existed and paintings that now pulse with digital life—they engage in relentless action, each seeking ultimate victory.
Artistic Concept & AI Integration
The film reconstructs the evolution of digital game aesthetics, featuring obsolete low-resolution characters from various historical periods:
• 8-bit and 16-bit era (1970s-1980s): Blocky, pixelated sprites.
• 16-bit and 32-bit era (1990s): More detailed sprites and improved animations.
• Early 3D polygonal era (1995-2000): Basic 3D models with low-resolution textures.
• Realism and motion capture (2000-2010): Increasing complexity in character detail and animation.
• High-definition and AI-driven realism (2010-2020): Photorealistic models, AI-enhanced expressions.
These historical aesthetics are intentionally mixed and juxtaposed, creating a layered visual narrative where different generations of characters coexist in the same war. The AI algorithms generate procedural battle sequences and dynamic interactions, further blurring the lines between past and future visual paradigms.
The technical narrative of the film integrates AI-driven editing techniques, reminiscent of classical musical film editing, while deliberately incorporating the visual imperfections of old cinema techniques. For example, the camera movements are inspired by faulty mechanical cranes and imprecise tracking systems, reinforcing the artificiality and nostalgic realism of the simulation.
Hypergaussian functions play a crucial role in both the film’s AI architecture and its conceptual foundation. These functions allow for the generation of complex, high-dimensional transformations that shape the war’s chaotic yet structured aesthetic. In practical terms, they enable:
• Procedural motion synthesis, controlling the erratic yet fluid movement of obsolete characters.
• AI-driven glitch aesthetics, where battle sequences incorporate controlled distortions and unpredictable shifts.
• Audio-visual synchronization, influencing how visual and sonic glitches evolve over time.
The title The Hypergaussian Wars reflects this mathematical influence, suggesting a war fought within high-dimensional spaces, where obsolete forms struggle for relevance in a continuously evolving digital landscape.
(Spanish)
The Hypergaussian War es un largometraje impulsado por inteligencia artificial que narra una guerra entre personajes obsoletos de videojuegos. Avatares olvidados chocan en batallas masivas, empuñando fuerzas mágicas y recorriendo vastos paisajes surrealistas donde la historia de los videojuegos converge con los intrincados mundos de la pintura flamenca del siglo XVI, transfigurada en una inquietante simulación jugable. A medida que atraviesan estos reinos imposibles—videojuegos que nunca existieron y pinturas que ahora laten con vida digital—se sumergen en una acción implacable, cada uno en busca de la victoria definitiva.
Concepto artístico e integración de IA
La película reconstruye la evolución de la estética digital en los videojuegos, representando personajes de baja resolución de diferentes épocas históricas:
• Era de 8 bits y 16 bits (1970-1980): Sprites toscos y pixelados.
• Era de 16 bits y 32 bits (1990): Sprites más detallados y animaciones mejoradas.
• Primera era del 3D poligonal (1995-2000): Modelos 3D básicos con texturas de baja resolución.
• Inicio del realismo y motion capture (2000-2010): Mayor nivel de detalle y animaciones más complejas.
• Alta definición y realismo impulsado por IA (2010-2020): Modelos fotorrealistas y expresiones faciales generadas por inteligencia artificial.
Estas estéticas históricas se mezclan y yuxtaponen intencionalmente, generando una narrativa visual estratificada en la que distintas generaciones de personajes coexisten en la misma batalla. Algoritmos de IA generan escenas de combate procedurales e interacciones dinámicas, difuminando aún más los límites entre paradigmas visuales pasados y futuros.
En el nivel técnico-narrativo, la película integra técnicas de edición con IA, inspiradas en montajes de cine musical, al tiempo que conserva deliberadamente imperfecciones visuales de antiguas técnicas cinematográficas. Por ejemplo, los movimientos de cámara se inspiran en grúas mecánicas defectuosas y sistemas de tracking imprecisos, reforzando así la artificialidad y el realismo nostálgico de la simulación.
Las funciones hipergaussianas desempeñan un papel central tanto en la arquitectura de IA de la película como en su fundamento conceptual. Estas funciones permiten la generación de transformaciones complejas y de alta dimensión, que modelan la estética caótica pero estructurada de la guerra. En términos concretos, posibilitan:
• Síntesis de movimiento procedural, controlando los desplazamientos irregulares pero fluidos de los personajes obsoletos.
• Estética glitch generada por IA, donde las escenas de combate presentan distorsiones controladas y desplazamientos impredecibles.
• Sincronización audiovisual, que regula la evolución de glitches visuales y sonoros a lo largo del tiempo.
El título The Hypergaussian Wars refleja esta influencia matemática y sugiere una guerra librada en espacios de alta dimensionalidad, donde formas obsoletas luchan por su relevancia en un paisaje digital en constante transformación.
(German)
The Hypergaussian War ist ein von KI betriebenes Spielfilmprojekt, das einen Krieg zwischen veralteten Videospielcharakteren entfaltet. Vergessene Avatare kämpfen in gewaltigen Schlachten, setzen magische Kräfte ein und durchqueren weite, surreale Landschaften, in denen die Geschichte der Videospiele mit den detailreichen Welten der flämischen Malerei des 16. Jahrhunderts verschmilzt – selbst verwandelt in eine gespenstische, spielbare Simulation. Während sie diese unmöglichen Reiche durchqueren – Videospiele, die nie existierten, und Gemälde, die nun mit digitalem Leben pulsieren – stürzen sie sich in unerbittliche Action, jeder auf der Suche nach dem ultimativen Sieg.
Künstlerisches Konzept & KI-Integration
Der Film rekonstruiert die Entwicklung digitaler Spielästhetik, indem er veraltete, niedrig aufgelöste Charaktere aus verschiedenen historischen Epochen darstellt:
• 8-Bit- und 16-Bit-Ära (1970-1980): Klobige, pixelige Sprites.
• 16-Bit- und 32-Bit-Ära (1990): Detailliertere Sprites und verbesserte Animationen.
• Frühe 3D-Polygon-Ära (1995-2000): Einfache 3D-Modelle mit niedrig aufgelösten Texturen.
• Anfänglicher Realismus und Motion Capture (2000-2010): Zunehmende Detailgenauigkeit und komplexere Animationen.
• Hochauflösung und KI-gesteuerter Realismus (2010-2020): Fotorealistische Modelle, KI-gestützte Gesichtsausdrücke.
Diese historischen Ästhetiken werden bewusst vermischt und gegenübergestellt, wodurch eine mehrschichtige visuelle Erzählung entsteht, in der verschiedene Generationen von Charakteren in derselben Schlacht koexistieren. KI-Algorithmen generieren prozedurale Kampfszenen und dynamische Interaktionen, wodurch die Grenzen zwischen vergangenen und zukünftigen visuellen Paradigmen weiter verschwimmen.
Auf technisch-narrativer Ebene integriert der Film KI-gesteuerte Schnitttechniken, die an klassische Musikfilmmontagen erinnern, während gleichzeitig visuelle Unvollkommenheiten alter Filmtechniken bewusst beibehalten werden. Beispielsweise sind die Kamerabewegungen von defekten mechanischen Kränen und ungenauen Tracking-Systemen inspiriert, um die Künstlichkeit und nostalgische Realismus der Simulation zu verstärken.
Hypergauss-Funktionen spielen eine zentrale Rolle sowohl in der KI-Architektur des Films als auch in seinem konzeptionellen Fundament. Diese Funktionen ermöglichen die Erzeugung komplexer, hochdimensionaler Transformationen, die die chaotische, aber strukturierte Ästhetik des Krieges formen. Konkret ermöglichen sie:
• Prozedurale Bewegungssynthese, die die unregelmäßigen, aber fließenden Bewegungen veralteter Charaktere steuert.
• KI-generierte Glitch-Ästhetik, bei der Kampfszenen kontrollierte Verzerrungen und unvorhersehbare Verschiebungen enthalten.
• Audiovisuelle Synchronisation, die beeinflusst, wie visuelle und klangliche Glitches sich im Laufe der Zeit entwickeln.
Der Titel The Hypergaussian Wars spiegelt diesen mathematischen Einfluss wider und suggeriert einen Krieg, der in hochdimensionalen Räumen ausgetragen wird, in denen veraltete Formen um ihre Relevanz in einer sich ständig weiterentwickelnden digitalen Landschaft kämpfen.
(French)
La Guerre Hypergaussienne est un long-métrage propulsé par l’intelligence artificielle qui raconte une guerre entre des personnages de jeux vidéo obsolètes. Des avatars oubliés s’affrontent dans des batailles titanesques, maniant des forces magiques et explorant d’immenses paysages surréalistes où l’histoire des jeux vidéo converge avec les mondes complexes de la peinture flamande du XVIe siècle, elle-même transformée en une troublante simulation jouable. En traversant ces royaumes impossibles—des jeux vidéo qui n’ont jamais existé et des peintures qui vibrent désormais d’une vie numérique—ils se lancent dans une action acharnée, chacun cherchant la victoire ultime.
Concept Artistique & Intégration de l’IA
Le film reconstruit l’évolution de l’esthétique des jeux numériques, en mettant en scène des personnages obsolètes à basse résolution issus de différentes périodes historiques :
• Ère 8-bit et 16-bit (années 1970-1980) : Sprites pixelisés et anguleux. • Ère 16-bit et 32-bit (années 1990) : Sprites plus détaillés et animations améliorées. • Première ère de la 3D polygonale (1995-2000) : Modèles 3D rudimentaires avec textures en basse résolution. • Réalisation réaliste et capture de mouvement (2000-2010) : Complexité croissante des détails et animations. • Haute définition et réalisme basé sur l’IA (2010-2020) : Modèles photoréalistes et expressions améliorées par l’IA.
Ces esthétiques historiques sont volontairement mélangées et juxtaposées, créant une narration visuelle stratifiée où différentes générations de personnages coexistent au sein d’une même guerre. Les algorithmes d’IA génèrent des séquences de bataille procédurales et des interactions dynamiques, brouillant encore davantage les frontières entre les paradigmes visuels du passé et du futur.
La narration technique du film intègre des techniques de montage pilotées par l’IA, évoquant le montage classique du cinéma musical, tout en incorporant délibérément les imperfections visuelles des anciennes techniques cinématographiques. Par exemple, les mouvements de caméra s’inspirent de grues mécaniques défectueuses et de systèmes de suivi imprécis, renforçant l’artificialité et le réalisme nostalgique de la simulation.
Les Fonctions Hypergaussiennes et l’Architecture de l’IA
Les fonctions hypergaussiennes jouent un rôle crucial tant dans l’architecture IA du film que dans sa fondation conceptuelle. Ces fonctions permettent la génération de transformations complexes et multidimensionnelles qui façonnent l’esthétique chaotique mais structurée de la guerre. Concrètement, elles permettent :
• Synthèse de mouvement procédurale, contrôlant le déplacement erratique mais fluide des personnages obsolètes. • Esthétique glitch pilotée par l’IA, où les séquences de combat intègrent des distorsions contrôlées et des variations imprévisibles. • Synchronisation audio-visuelle, influençant l’évolution temporelle des glitchs visuels et sonores.
Le titre La Guerre Hypergaussienne reflète cette influence mathématique, suggérant une guerre menée dans des espaces multidimensionnels, où des formes obsolètes luttent pour leur pertinence dans un paysage numérique en perpétuelle évolution.
Variations Van Gogh
Installation
7-channel video installation, drawings, books, photography,sound sculpture, DNA – objects
6 m x 2,50 m 236.2 in x 98.4 in
2012 – 2015 Kunsthalle Osnabrück
Grant for Media Art 2013 of the Foundation of Lower Saxony at the Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art, Oldenburg, Germany
ARCHIVE – INSTALLATION
Variations Van Gogh (2014) is a project that unfolds across objects, books, and a seven-channel video and sound installation, presented on seven LCD flat panels mounted on shelves. Alternatively, the work may be projected asynchronously onto seven walls in a dark, carpeted room, running continuously in an eight-minute loop, accompanied by amplified stereo sound.
Kunsthalle Osnabrück 2015
PERFORMANCE
A. Concept
This project engages critically with the material and symbolic transduction of archival practices in contemporary media art. It draws upon Vilém Flusser’s reflection comparing the «mass» to a giant worm: information passes through its body, consumed and expelled, recycled endlessly without memory or recognition—a cycle of ingestion and excretion of undigested matter. Through this allegory, Variations Van Gogh proposes a medial-organic circulation of visual, chromatic, and genetic data, where residues and nutrients become interchangeable within the techno-organic archive.
Keywords: Database, transduction, transformation, media enzyme, digital-organic, organic-digital, image as enzyme, recontextualization, invention, performance, human-human interaction, human-machine interaction, exploration, monitoring, projection, sound, acoustics, data processing, media preservation.
B. General description
Variations Van Gogh investigates speculative strategies for archiving and preserving Vincent van Gogh’s seven sunflower paintings. Rather than pursuing documentary fidelity or museographic reproduction, the work activates a multiplicity of experimental technologies:
Data gathering with drones,
Topological mapping and orthophotography,
DNA extraction and DNA-based performance,
Google Earth as performative interface,
Code language as plastic writing,
Three-dimensional sound environments,
3D printing as sculptural gesture,
Robot-generated musical notations on staff paper.
C. Archival variation: Hexadecimal Compost
In one of the project’s most emblematic iterations, Mercado digitally extracts all yellow tones from Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings using Photoshop’s color picker tool, encoding these as hexadecimal (RGB) values. Approximately 280 shades of yellow are printed on paper, shredded, and composted with Californian red worms. The resulting humus becomes the soil substrate for planting new sunflower seeds, closing a transductive and symbiotic cycle: color as data, data as residue, residue as fertile ground for germination.
D. Installation scheme
The spatial configuration privileges asynchronicity and fragmentation. The seven out-of-sync screens or projections establish a dispersed architecture that emphasizes the discontinuous nature of the archive. Amplified stereo sound accompanies this perceptual drift, creating an immersive atmosphere in which painterly, organic, and digital resonances converge.
1. Description
In Variations Van Gogh, all yellow tonalities present in Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings are meticulously extracted using the digital pipette tool in Photoshop, each chromatic instance transcribed as hexadecimal RGB values—a translation of pigment into data. Approximately 280 distinct yellows, emblematic of Van Gogh’s iconic palette, are then printed on paper, fragmented through shredding, and subjected to a composting process mediated by Californian red worms.
This humus, a residue both organic and informational, becomes the substrate for planting new sunflower seeds, closing a speculative circuit in which color becomes data, data becomes material, and material returns to life.
By transducing pigment into code, code into waste, and waste into biological potential, this work interrogates archival logic, proposing a media-ecological metabolism where the history of painting is not simply preserved but decomposed and generatively recirculated.
fig.01. Hexadecimal Compost: The Pipette, the Palette, and the Decomposition of Colour
fig.02. Hexadecimal codification of chromatic data (RGB values)
fig.03. The approximately 280 extracted yellow tones were materialized as printed swatches on paper, subsequently shredded and subjected to a composting process
mediated by worms.
fig.04. Hexadecimal compost
fig.05. Sunflower seeds, hexadecimal compost, and algorithmically reconstituted sunflowers
fig.06. Final installation: Object 1 — Copper box 01 containing DNA preserved in test tubes and enveloped sunflowers
fig.07. Final installation: Object 2 — Copper box 02 containing six packets of “Hexadecimal compost”
2. Archive Variation: Extraction of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid)
The DNA of the cultivated sunflowers was meticulously extracted through enzymatic protocols, each enzymatic sequence facilitating the dissolution of vegetal structures, allowing genetic material to be isolated and collected in test tubes—transforming the biological trace into an archival specimen at the intersection of organic life and media process.
fig.08. Extraction of sunflowers´DNA
3.
Archival Variation: Van Gogh Bio-curation (DNA Performance)
A clandestine performance—conceived as an interventionist curatorial gesture toward Van Gogh—was enacted during Documenta (13) in Kassel, 2012. In this action, DNA extracted from the Hexadecimal-reared sunflowers was discreetly dispersed across various surfaces, both inside and outside the Fridericianum Museum, inscribing a latent biological trace within the institutional and urban fabric.
Fig. 09. Biocuration: DNA Performance, Kassel, 2012 (Basement, first floor, second floor)
4.
Archival Variation: Satellite The seven sunflower images were algorithmically transcribed into textual data and transmitted via satellite into outer space.
In this variation, the seven sunflower paintings were algorithmically transcribed into text and transmitted via satellite into outer space—a gesture that displaces Van Gogh’s iconic imagery from the pictorial to the orbital register, transforming archival preservation into a speculative cosmic transmission.
This act resonates with NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, a project that sent a robotic spacecraft to the asteroid Bennu. In March 2016, NASA and WIRED launched an open call titled #WeTheExplorers, inviting individuals worldwide to submit drawings, images, and videos to be included in a data archive aboard the spacecraft, to accompany its journey to Bennu and back—a gesture of planetary inscription and return.
Archive Variation: Satellite reinterprets this historical moment of public participation in interplanetary data transfer, positioning Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings as part of a fictional archive destined for deep space. Here, the images are stripped of their visual form and reduced to pure textual information before being disseminated beyond Earth’s atmosphere, enacting a speculative archival protocol where the canonical history of painting intersects with media technologies of planetary scale.
5. Archive Variation: Searching the yellow colour: Data gathering with drones, topological-mappings and ortho-photography
This phase of the project was carried out in collaboration with Skyvision Unmanned Aviation (responsible for planning and logistics) and Azimuth Geodetic (data post-processing).
Site: Soest, The Netherlands Coordinates: 52° 9’14.63″N, 5°17’47.07″E
Hardware: Two drones (one hexacopter and one octocopter)
Software: GPS navigation systems; GIS software; Azimuth proprietary processing software; Autodesk 3ds Max for 3D modeling and visualization.
This part of the project was realized in cooperation with Skyvision unmanned Aviation (planning and logistics), Azimuth Geodetic (data post-processing)
fig.10.Soest, The Netherlands: Work zone
The objective of this variation was the conservation and storage—for future generations of artists—of the Dutch yellow tonalities as they might have been perceived by Van Gogh himself.
Two drones conducted aerial surveys over an area of approximately 20 hectares near Soest, The Netherlands, collecting nearly one terabyte of ortho-photographic data to construct a comprehensive 3D mapping project.
This endeavor was not solely concerned with capturing yellow hues; it encompassed a broader attention to color saturation, luminosity values, vibrational qualities, and chromatic contrasts within the total environment—trees, soil, water, reflective surfaces—situating Van Gogh’s palette in an ecological and atmospheric context.
The drones were programmed to associate specific altitudes with precise hexadecimal values corresponding to Van Gogh’s sunflower palette, effectively scanning and filtering the yellow tones vertically:
Example correlation:
10 cm → #8B8B00
20 cm → #EEEE00
30 cm → #FFD700
etc.
The fusion of ortho-photography and topographical mapping yielded a 3D archival model—a digital topography of yellow tonalities—serving as both an artistic artifact and a speculative repository.
The accompanying soundscape consisted of a synthetic voice systematically reciting the 280 hexadecimal codes derived from Van Gogh’s sunflowers, transforming numerical color data into an acoustic register.
Example:“Number sign eight B eight B zero zero” (where “number sign” denotes the symbol #, also known in German as Doppelkreuz or Raute).
The resulting digital model was preserved as a “Van Gogh Perceptive File”, an archival construct designed to be retrievable in scenarios of environmental degradation, climate change, planetary catastrophe, or profound alterations in the qualities of light itself—a poetic gesture toward future conditions of perception.
About orthophotography: An orthophoto (orthophotograph or orthoimage) is an aerial photograph that has been geometrically corrected (“orthorectified”) to ensure uniform scale across the entire image. Unlike an uncorrected aerial photograph, an orthophoto can serve as an accurate cartographic reference, allowing for precise measurement of true distances as it compensates for topographic relief, lens distortion, and camera tilt. Orthophotographs are commonly integrated into Geographic Information Systems (GIS), where they enable operators to digitize linework, annotations, or geospatial symbols. Some software platforms can even automate this process, extracting structural and geographic features directly from orthophotographic data. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthophotography)
fig.11.Soest, The Netherlands: Work zone: Drones view
fig.15.Ortho-photographic 3D Model and mapping
fig.16.Ortho-photographic 3D Model and mapping
fig.17.Ortho-photographic 3D Model and mapping
6. Archive Variation: Virtual tour of the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise, France (Google-Earth Interface-Performance)
This variation stages a virtual visit to Van Gogh’s grave, executed through the Google Earth interface as a performative exploration of digital cartography and its omissions.
In Google’s photographic logic, cemeteries are typically excluded from documentation, and here a virtual wall rendered the entire cemetery inaccessible. Van Gogh’s grave, situated directly adjacent to this barrier, became the focal point of an interface-performance whose objective was to symbolically “breach” this digital prohibition.
Throughout this traversal, algorithmic anomalies emerged: glitches in Google Street View, interruptions by automated notifications such as “The user (Van Gogh) has not updated his profile,” and the uncanny discovery that many landmarks across the town of Auvers-sur-Oise—a park, a public swimming pool, a bakery—were named after Van Gogh, collapsing historical memory into digital branding.
The soundtrack accompanying this performance was generated algorithmically, converting the chromatic data of Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings into text and rendering it audible through a synthetic voice, transforming visual legacy into machinic utterance.
fig.18.Van Gogh’s grave. Auvers-sur-Oise, Francefig.19.Van Gogh’s grave. Auvers-sur-Oise, France
fig.20.Google street glitches
7.
Archive Variation: Conversion to Sound and 3D Print
A. In this variation, seven images of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers were processed using sonogram software and translated into seven distinct sound archives. This process transforms visual material into acoustic data, establishing a dialogue between image and sound, matter and information.
fig.21.Software: Virtual ANS: A Software simulator of Synthesizer ANS
fig.22.The sound archives. Schema
B. The seven sound archives were combined and transformed into a single 3D object in real time, translating sonic information into spatial form.
C. The resulting 3D object was materialized as a physical artifact, produced in plastic using 3D printing technology.
fig.25.3D-Sound-Object printed on plastic
D. Sunflowers images were transformed into sound and subsequently reconstituted as new images, completing a cycle of translation between visual and acoustic forms.
fig.26.Sunflowers images were transformed into sound and subsequently reconstituted as new images, completing a cycle of translation between visual and acoustic forms.
fig.27.Final installation: Object 3, a copper box containing a 3D sound object accompanied by three sound-glitch photographs.
8. Archive Variation: Notations
In this variation, musical notations were generated and inscribed by robots onto staff paper, collectively titled The Variations Van Gogh Opera. This project transforms algorithmic processes into graphic scores, where mechanical inscription becomes an integral part of the work.
The resulting publication, Van Gogh Variations: Compositions for Small Motors and Robots (2014), is an 82-page volume measuring 20.5 × 25.5 cm and weighing 500 grams—a score composed entirely through automated processes, extending the artwork into both performative and material dimensions.
“Van Gogh Variations: Compositions for small Motors and Robots”,
82 pages, 20,5 cm x 25,5 cm, 500g, 2014
fig.29. “Notations – Van Gogh Variations: Compositions for small Motors and Robots”,, 2014
Parts of The Variations Van Gogh Opera:
01.Das Gelb in der Ferne. Larghissimo (01. The yellow in the distance) 02.Ich sehe Zeichnungen. Andante (02. I see drawings) 03.Charles Bargue und Jean-Léon Gérôme Duett. Appassionato (03. Charles Bargue and Jean-Léon Gérôme Duet) 04.Arie der Besucher. Agitato (04. Aria of the visitor) 05.Vincent Monolog. Pesante (05. Vincent monologue) 06.Abschied von Arles. Lacrimoso (06.Farewell to Arles) 07.Todesmotiv. Lento (07.Death motif) 08.Finalterzett. Trionfante (08.Final trio) 09. Archive Variation: Language – Code
9. Archive Variation: Language – Code
In this variation, the seven Sunflowers paintings were algorithmically transformed into text and then translated into an invented language of my own creation. This language was conceived as a way to erase alphabetic conventions, bypass operating systems, and engage with algorithmic residues that cannot be destroyed by physical means—residues that resist erasure even by hammers.
fig.29.“Seven sunflowers deleted”, 60 pages, 25,5 cm x 20,5 cm, 500g, 2014
10. Archive Variation: Van Gogh’s Sunflowers – 115 Variations
This variation consists of a book containing 115 hand-painted variations—executed in acrylic, ink, and oil—based on the seven original Sunflowers paintings. Archive Method:Scriptorium
fig.30.“Van Gogh´sunflowers: 115 Variations”, hand painted, 115 pages, 54 cm x 39 cm x 3 cm (1,08 m open), 900g, unique item, acrylic, oil, ink, pigment and paint on paper, On the reverse signed and dated , 2014
fig.31.“Van Gogh´sunflowers: 115 Variations”, hand painted, 115 pages, 54 cm x 39 cm x 3 cm (1,08 m open), 900g, unique item, acrylic, oil, ink, pigment and paint on paper, On the reverse signed and dated , 2014
fig.32.“Van Gogh´sunflowers: 115 Variations”, hand painted, 115 pages, 54 cm x 39 cm x 3 cm (1,08 m open), 900g, unique item, acrylic, oil, ink, pigment and paint on paper, On the reverse signed and dated , 2014
fig.33.“Van Gogh´sunflowers: 115 Variations”, hand painted, 115 pages, 54 cm x 39 cm x 3 cm (1,08 m open), 900g, unique item, acrylic, oil, ink, pigment and paint on paper, On the reverse signed and dated , 2014
fig.34.“Van Gogh´sunflowers: 115 Variations”, hand painted, 115 pages, 54 cm x 39 cm x 3 cm (1,08 m open), 900g, unique item, acrylic, oil, ink, pigment and paint on paper, On the reverse signed and dated , 2014
11. Archive Variation: Drawings
In this variation, three sunflowers were drawn by six robots and small motors, enacting a semi-autonomous process of mechanical mark-making. Archive Method:Semi-autonomous robots
fig.35.Sunflower 01 behind glass with 2 cm wide wooden frame, 75 cm x 65.5 cm x 4 cm, pencil on paper,
unique item, signed and dated on the front, 2014
fig.36.Sunflower 02 behind glass with 2 cm wide wooden frame, 75 cm x 65.5 cm x 4 cm, pencil on paper,
unique item, signed and dated on the front, 2014
fig.37.Sunflower 03 behind glass with 2 cm wide wooden frame, 75 cm x 65.5 cm x 4 cm, pencil on paper,
unique item, signed and dated on the front, 2014
fig.38. Final Installation: 3 Sunflowers: Drawings
12. Archive Variation: Diary
A book documenting the entire project process, serving as an archive of its development and variations.
fig.39.“Variations Van Gogh : Diary”, 34 pages, 12 cm x 16 cm x 0,8 cm (20 cm open), 150g, unique item, On the reverse signed and dated , 2014
13. Meeting Variation
In 1995 we were both programmed at the FIPA festival (Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels) in Nice, France, together with film director Theo van Gogh (born 1957 – died 2004), and we had a brief personal encounter. He presented his short film De Wanhoop van de Sirene and I participated with La región del tormento.
14. Facebook Likes Variation
This year, and in previous years, I have “liked” the paintings of Lieuwe van Gogh on Facebook. Lieuwe is the great-great-grandson
of Theo van Gogh, Vincent’s younger brother, who was a crucial supporter throughout the artist’s life.
15. PDF Variation
Creation of a PDF document compiling the curriculum vitae of Vincent van Gogh. Due to his very few exhibitions during his lifetime,
the file has minimal digital weight: only 61 KB.
16. Variation: Meeting the Sunflower
I visited the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich and stood before Vincent van Gogh’s Vase with Twelve Sunflowers (1888), one of his iconic sunflower paintings on display there. In that moment, I referred to it as “My Van Gogh Formula,” marking it as the final Variation—at least for now—in this ongoing project, bringing the series to a personal and conceptual close.
17. Van Gogh Formula Variation
D. Installation Scheme
Variations Van Gogh (2014) 7-channel video/sound installation, color Displayed on seven LCD flat panels mounted on a shelf, 8 minutes duration or Projected onto seven walls in a dark, carpeted room; projections are unsynchronized with amplified stereo sound. Continuously running.
A. Installation scheme:
Version 01 7-channel video installation (screens or TV monitors):
