In his work, the artist and researcher Federico Pérez Villoro (Mexico, 1987) investigates how the power of the state, large corporations, and institutions materializes through the strategic use of information technologies.

Through texts, videos, satellite images, and mathematical resources, the artist scrutinizes the operational nature of images, allowing us to go beyond their figurative dimension, revealing the political layers and economic interests present in their construction and circulation. He invites us, therefore, to a counter-pedagogy of surveillance.

During his residency at Pivô in the first semester of 2023, by employing such methodological tools, Federico proposed a study and approach to the waters that shape the city of São Paulo, specifically the Tietê River – or Anhembi, the original name of this watercourse in Tupi-Guarani, meaning true river. The artist sought to study how the technical dimension of what is understood as progress overrides ecosystems, generating processes of landscape control and domestication of natural bodies that transform watercourses into technical objects and legal entities.

In the project developed during the residency, “The Machine”, Federico speculates about the inversely proportional relationship between the processes of progress obsolescence and the survival of species other than humans. In a way, he refutes Heraclitus’ maxim that we cannot step into the same river twice, as, closer to Ailton Krenak, he questions our agency as humans in relation to other beings and invites us to be water.

Mônica Hoff and Ana Roman

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The Machine
A project by Federico Pérez Villoro

Text: Federico Pérez Villoro
Soundtrack: Luisa Lemgruber
Software: Alberto López
Spanish-Portuguese Translation: Ana Roman

Portuguese Editing: Mônica Hoff
Text reading: Julia Sampaio Alves Correa

Special thanks to Fernanda and Elvis Japão for bringing us closer to the Mata Atlântica with the care and respect it deserves, and to Mayara Campos and Fernando Maia, from the Educational Sector of the Museum of Energy in Salesópolis, for their time and willingness to engage in dialogue.

We also appreciate the complicity and exchanges during the residency to Abigail Campos Leal, Aiko, Ana Roman, Cláudio Ribeiro de Mendonça, Diana Barquero Pérez, Erick Peres, Henry Palacio, Jaqueline Santiago, Juca Fiis, Julia Retz, M0XC4, Marina Schiesari, Martina Mino Perez, Mônica Hoff, Natalia Sosa Molina, Samara Paiva, and Victor López Zumelzu.

The narrative of the text refers to and is informed by the work of W.V. Quine, Odette Carvalho de Lima Seabra, and Suely Rolnik. We thank the teachers, in this life and others, for paving the way for action and thought.

Developed during the Pivô Pesquisa Residency 2023, Cycle 1.