Reverse Engineering — Ximena Garrido-Lecca

Reverse Engineering
Ximena Garrido-Lecca

solo exhibition 

Opening: 09.06.23, 18h

For the exhibition Reverse Engineering, Ximena Garrido-Lecca based herself on the first cigarette rolling machine whose invention in 1881 revolutionized the tobacco industry. She reproduced it exactly, piece by piece, from the patented plans. But instead of using the materials needed to make a functional model, she substituted them with a paste made of tobacco leaves and ashes, a ritual object with magical and purifying virtues called San Pedrito. The reference to reverse engineering is to be considered not only in its proper sense: the study of an object to understand its functioning and method of manufacture; but it also evokes the idea of a rewinding, a potential rewinding of history.