Index, contemporary art magazine

ANGELS AND PROPHETS.

Diego Pérez Pezoa — 2025-07-01

The following text aims to offer a philosophical and aesthetic reflection on the current post-critical nature of art, through a precise analysis between art and religion. It is about highlighting the indissoluble links that exist between creation and salvation as a general mode of existence of the contemporary art system, along with all its components, agents and figures. In this way, the general system of art is historically reconfigured based on its metaphysical figures that attribute to it creative capacities, but, at the same time, foundations of salvation. The figure of the critic and the curator are transfigured into agents of an art system that seeks in the artist, the angel of creation, to capture its metaphysical forces of exhibition and dissemination. Finally, this reflection seeks to visualize that all aesthetic politics is the creation of an atmosphere of meaning, where the artist, the viewer and the critic meet.

Emotional atmospheres and matterical resonances in the spider web

Nebraska Flores Espín — 2025-07-01

The essay explores the concept of “emotional atmospheres” as a way of inhabiting space and time through sensory and phenomenological experiences. It reflects on how natural ecologies inspire us to perceive what often escapes the naked eye. A key example is the work of spiders and their weaving ability, connecting us to the material, the sonic, and the experiential. To illustrate this, How to Entangle the Universe in a Spider Web (2018) by Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno is studied. The analysis highlights the spiders' invisible yet accessible networks that enable cohabitation in new cooperative universes. Additionally, the reflection links the spider web to the idea of “intelligent matter,” containing its own technology that has endured over time. From this perspective, the essay proposes imagining near futures, inspired by the habitats of other life forms, which could offer ecological and sustainable solutions for listening to and engaging with the world.

Placing the body: approaches to feminist artivism in Chile

Marla Freire Smith — 2025-07-01

This article presents findings obtained in the course of the research “XXXXXX” (FONDECYT Nro. XXXXX) funded by the National Agency of Research and Development of Chile (ANID), which investigates feminist artivism carried out in Chile since 2017. A brief historical context will be presented, considering actions that we could be interpreted as feminist, as well as revisions to artivism concept, focusing on what was carried out in the streets by feminist collectives and groups that have contributed to reconfiguring (other) ways of doing politics and influencing contemporary arts. The methodology is qualitative, interpretive and hermeneutic, includes documentary analysis and examines artistic-political interventions in public spaces that have questioned notions such as gender, violence and memory, while problematizing what is public and private.

REVERIE: CAPTURING THE INSTANT

Francesca Fruci — 2025-07-01

In a context of fleeting and liquid modernity, this project proposes a contemplative pause as a poetic act. It explores the desire to experience the present through contemplation and the materialization of an impossible metaphor: capturing the ephemeral instant by holding and encapsulating water and sunlight, symbols of time.

The concept of reverie or daydreaming, as explained by Gastón Bachelard, is explored as a process of active imagination and connection with matter. In this case, glass sculptures act as a bridge between water and the sun. According to this philosophy, the instant is a dreamlike experience where time is suspended, and perception is heightened. Thus, the work investigates how pausing to contemplate can evoke daydreams, alter the internal perception of time, and enable the experience of the present.

Artistic Ecosystems:

cristina Santamaria — 2025-07-01

This article synthesizes the Ecos Vivarium graduation project developed at the School of Visual Arts – Curatorship Track – of the Universidad de las Artes de Guayaquil. It explores how contemporary curatorship has evolved beyond merely selecting and exhibiting works to become a space for knowledge production and interdisciplinary dialogue. Through the case studies of the exhibitions Ecos Vivarium and Todos los caminos llevan aquí (2024), the study examines the integration of living matter and emerging bioethical debates, emphasizing the agency of non-human actors. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Haraway, Bennett, and Bal, the paper introduces a tentacular thought that interconnects diverse materialities and opens new interpretive possibilities. The article argues that the curatorial experience – by integrating space, image, and narrative – fosters the construction of open meanings and the transformation of artistic practices, thereby expanding the investigative capacities of art.

Thoughts and Museographic representations of art and design students

Leobardo Armando Ceja Bravo — 2025-07-01

This research seeks to analyse the ways of thinking an representation of studets through a systematic and sequential monitoring process for 16 weeks. It involves the learning process through the conceptualization and proposal of an exhibition project. The results show the passage from perplexity to understanding through the organization, management and museographic proposal for the benefit of the artista and his work, as well as the need to refine documentation processes and systematization of learning experiences, focusing on the linking of museographic activity with the registration, cataloguing, interpretation, management, assembly and evaluation of artistic exhibitions.

Techno-spiritual futures

Pedro Cagigal — 2025-07-01

This research seeks to compile artistic practices that provide guidelines for thinking about the future from Ecuador, first by identifying three circumstances that distance us, but at the same time, bring us closer to thinking about tomorrow: a dilated present, the distance to patentable technological development and a memory to be filled in and re-signified. Based on these characteristics, we will investigate how artistic practices such as technoshamism and other art forms that seek to remove ritual practices and ancestral knowledge bring us closer to the immanence of a desired, delirious and technodiverse future.

Rethinking Art in the Age of Media Saturation:

Mo Li — 2025-07-01

This interview with Ai Weiwei explores his views on art, cinema, and freedom in contemporary society. He reflects on his career, his relationship with political restrictions, and how these have shaped his work. He questions the relevance of cinema in an era of media saturation, arguing that new forms of communication have transformed the way reality is perceived. He also discusses the challenge of finding a space of complete freedom and how artistic creation always operates within imposed limitations. His stance challenges traditional notions of art, success, and recognition, emphasizing personal commitment over external validation. His words offer a sharp critique of the artist’s role in a world where information and control are deeply intertwined.

Conversation

Jorge Espinosa M. — 2025-07-01

Conversación (Conversation) is a stereo sound installation created by Jorge Espinosa M., originating from a visual composition that evolved into an auditory interaction between two speakers placed on a table facing two empty chairs. Over nearly two hours, the speakers sustain an illusory, choreographed dialogue without genuine interaction, underscoring the absence of authentic communication until two individuals occupy the chairs. The artwork explores the boundaries of sonic dialogue, shifting from subtle to cacophonous moments that move across the table, creating tensions and unexpected encounters, thus questioning the dynamics of human proximity and communication.

Sound creation and action as protest:

Pablo Valencia — 2025-07-01

The article addresses how sound is used for the appropriation and transformation of public space, through the intervention ‘Sound Exploration in Public Space’ (ESEP), conducted on November 30, 2024, at the intersection of Av. Panamá and Calle Imbabura in Guayaquil. This initiative employed sound pieces from the AunAún project, designed to interact with the urban environment and its inhabitants. Despite initial resistance from municipal authorities, the intervention successfully engaged passersby, transforming their routine into a collective experience of dance and celebration. ESEP aligns with initiatives like Buenos Aires Sonora and Reclaim the Streets, aiming to activate public spaces and challenge power dynamics that limit artistic expressions in the city. The action demonstrated the potential of sound as a tool for resistance and social cohesion, underscoring the need for more inclusive and participatory urban spaces

Noise as an Artistic Tool of Resistance and Critique in Ecuadorian Society

Edison Amador Miguez Gordillo — 2025-07-01

Noise as a form of artistic and political expression has gained relevance in various cultural contexts, especially in experimental music and subcultures. In Ecuador, noise has emerged as a tool of resistance, questioning social and political norms through its disruptive aesthetics. Collectives and artists have used this genre to express discontent and promote social critique, adapting international influences to their own context. By challenging conventional perceptions of sound, creates an atmosphere of disorder and chaos that reflects social and political tensions. The influence of movements like Fluxus and artists like John Cage and Luigi Russolo blends with the Ecuadorian reality, providing a space for reflection and action against oppression. This phenomenon is not just a sonic act, but a political stance, where sound becomes a vehicle for change and cultural subversion.

The Role of the Listener in the Reconfiguration of the Sonic Experience

Marco Giusto — 2025-07-01

The figure of the contemporary listener has undergone a profound transformation, shifting from a passive receptor to an active participant in the construction of musical meaning. This paper introduces the notion of the listener-operator, an extension of Adorno’s ideal types, to examine how listening has evolved towards more interpretative and participatory forms. Key moments in this process are analyzed, tracing the redefinition between music and audience —from groundbreaking artistic practices to contemporary approaches that emphasize the listener's creative role. The transformation of auditory experience is explored as a phenomenon that places the listener at the core of meaning-making, demonstrating that the disappearance of traditional codes is not a limitation but an opportunity to explore new modes of engagement with music.

Sound, experimentation and poetic dimensions towards other realities

Melisa Lio Flores — 2025-07-01

This article analyzes the function of sound in relation to the experimentation that some musicians and sound artists have done to generate altered states of consciousness and explore the field of vibration in brain waves. From mystical states to unlimited experiences of realities, sound has always been present in the experiences that shape the branches of science and mysticism centuries ago. However, with the use of new technologies and from the second half of the twentieth century, the exploration of different states of consciousness in relation to sound has generated different approaches that confirm the intimate relationship that exists between brain waves and the frequencies of certain sounds, either because they incite expanded states or because they produce new sound explorations in the field of artistic experimentation.

CURIOSIDADes TECNOPROPULSADas

Patricio Javier Dalgo Toledo — 2025-07-01

This text explores Circuit Bending as a strategy of technological and sonic intervention that subverts the predefined use of commercial circuits. It focuses on its disruptive potential within sound art and music, addressing its relationship with experimental lutherie, and hardware hacking. Through a conceptual and technical approach, it examines its implications in the re-signification of technological objects, interpretative flexibility, and the decentralization of authorship.

In a context of increasing automation and technological control, circuit modification unlocks new creative possibilities, allowing the emergence of erratic sounds and unpredictable systems that redefine the role of electronic devices in artistic production. Beyond technique, Circuit Bending is situated within an artistic and philosophical exploration, where noise becomes a disruptive agent that opens new possibilities for perception, experimentation, and meaning.

Case study of seniors in La Loma Grande

Enrique Villacis Tapia — 2025-07-01

The study analyzes three approaches: the sound medium and space, synesthesia and memory of older adults, and the sound medium and identity in the La Loma Grande neighborhood in Quito. Based on sound archives that facilitate the appropriation of space through memories.

Stories were collected that evoke missing spaces in the neighborhood, promoting a process of identity recovery and appropriation of the environment. Through the analysis, it was identified how sound repetition stimulates memory and facilitates the recreation of spaces through imagination.

It was shown that sound, by activating multiple senses, stimulates cognitive well-being and reconfigures sensory and social experiences, becoming a tool of resistance to the loss of physical spaces.

This study validates the importance of collective memory in the appropriation of territory and highlights the role of the sound archive in preserving the intangible heritage of communities.