A Million Keys

Carolina Caycedo- Local Motion (2006)

This piece was included in a solo show for Carolina Caycedo at London gallery Blow de la Barra last year. Caycedo’s work deals with identity, nationality, immigration, and economic exchange in an era of globalization.

Local Motion is a jukebox containing 60 CDs collected by Caycedo from all the different cities she’s worked or lived since 1995 as well as music projects developed by Caycedo from Bogota and her recordings from Spain and Brasil. The jukebox is both a documentation and soundtrack of the artist’s migratory life.

This piece in particular reminds me of the Babel Series which I posted a few weeks back. It similarly deals with the global media’s participation in the formulation of a universal “pop language” through popular music. While Brietz suggests that this process degrades communication through uniformity, Caycedo’s project shows how popular music may be individualized. In turn, visitors can change and manipulate her soundtrack for their own experience. The fundamental difference between the two is that Brietz assumes a static subject whereas Caycedo participatory one.

Click for more shots from the Locomotion show and an interview with the artist