Intervention “Replicant Piñatas”
Uriel Fogué and María Jérez
June 9, 2017
The history of “piñata”, a traditional object, is the proof of how popular ritual arises from a creative chain of misunderstandings: a succession of assimilations and appropriations of a foreign ritual that has been replicated in different ways in distinct cultures across different times and spaces. It is hard to pin down the origin of this ritual of encounter and celebration. According to Marco Polo, piñatas are of Chinese origin. But the know that from there they traveled to Italy, from Italy to Spain, and from Spain to Mexico, etc. The nature of the piñata is illegitimate.
Over the last few days we have manufactured bastard piñatas. We have taken the return journey: from Mexico to Spain. After exploring Mexico City’s overflowing universe of piñatas, we proceeded to create an impossible replica in Madrid. Using WhatsApp, we have exchanged the plans for the piñata, sketched out with emojis and visual characters. Relying on misunderstanding, we have generated two replicas. One is the misunderstanding of the other. They are twins, but different.
ABOUT REMOTE INTERLUDES: In an era when the instantaneity of emails has been overcome by the use of applications for mobiles (almost extensions of our bodies), and have supplanted face-to-face communication, the project Remote Interludes sets out to investigates how to build a link between two points in real time, through a shared and publicly displayed language. Remote Interludes revolve around the topics of the space between us, of the distance –be it large or small– that separates us and how to subvert it through a connection.
