No quiero oro, ni quiero plata is composed of a mixed media installation, a public action that enacts an electronic disassembly line, a video that documents a chemical silver extraction process and a website that maps silver mining data in Mexico.

The title references a traditional Mexican song used when hitting a piñata. Dated back to colonial times, Franciscan monks used it as a tool for homogenizing indigenous and catholic rituals. The lyrics suggest the preference of fruits and candies over gold and silver.

The installation consists of debris of the disassembly line of wasted computer keyboards collected through a participatory open call. The center of the installation holds a commemorative 1 OZ silver coin made from 288 keyboard printed circuits. The coin’s front portrays the 4 presidents responsible for extractivism in modern Mexico. While the back depicts a mine and a quote by Eduardo Galeano: “Lungs need air as economy needs silver”.

We question the value that this mineral has within the technological industry and its great environmental and political impact in countries that produce and recover them in precarious conditions. Silver connects Mexican colonial past and with our extractivist present.

The project draws attention to the materiality of technology, from its assembly, disposal and recycling in the Mexican context. We address the life-cycle of electronic devices from a critical situated perspective, making visible the economic cycles that it encompasses.

Phase 1: Disassmblage

Phase 2: Laboratory

Phase 3: Coinage

Installation

Map: Link to map

Presentations

- Jun-ago 2022, La venganza de la basura, Centro de Cultura Digital, CDMX
- Oct-nov 2022, La venganza de la basura, Palacio de la cultura, Tlaxcala
- Feb-mar 2023, Habitat presente, La Clinica, Oaxaca