Recording of a sound performance executed in October 2016 in the exhibition space of Berlin record store Rumpsti Pumsti. Using sanding machines and a hammer, the Mexican artist
destroyed one copy of each publication ever released by
Tochnit Aleph label. Without an audience present, the action was documented with two dynamic microphones.
This latest addition to the Tochnit Aleph catalogue is premised in a haptic interrogation of each of the label's previous editions (TA001-147). Berlin-based, and Mexico City-born, multi-disciplinary artist Mario de Vega occupied the gallery space of Rumpsti Pumsti (Musik) for three consecutive days in October 2016 with a hitherto complete Tochnit Aleph catalogue, sanding machines, hammer, and recording equipment. Conflating acts of 'playing' with destruction, de Vega took to the recorded works and assorted medias with his spartan toolset, producing a discordant document of his repurposing of the complete archive. Reducing the material to a collection of detritus for exhibition, the sound object is presented as both a conceptual remainder of the site-specific process, and an agitated extension to the label.
Exploring the threshold of human perception and the physicality of listening, the work of sound artist Mario de Vega (born 1979 in Mexico City, lives and works in Berlin) digs into the materiality of sound, the vulnerability of systems, materials and individuals, and the aesthetic potential of unstable arrangements. He has been guest artist and lecturer at Universität der Künste Berlin, Rijksakademie Amsterdam, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Technische Universität Berlin, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris, Centro de Diseño, Cine y Televisión, KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Kyushu University, Tama Art University, Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien and Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, among others. His work has been exhibited in Mexico, North America, Chile, South Africa, India, South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and around Europe.
