ivan puig builds a railway exploration probe to tour mexico and ecuador

‘SEFT-1’ by ivan puig, mexicoall images courtesy of the artist  

ivan puig: not a carmagnan metz gallery, new yorkon now through to the 9th of march, 2013 

local artist ivan puig and his brother andres padilla domene have built a vehicle to traverse the abandoned railways of ecuador and their native mexico. the ‘sonda de exploracion ferroviaria tripulada’ or SEFT-1 is a railway exploration probe, designed to traipse both track-ridden or natural landscapes in search of the countries’ otherworldly pasts and infrastructural histories. this is an experiential labor of process, a performative work dependent on documentation of the sensory phenomena of a journey. seeking to create relationships and stories across a range of agricultural, urban and information-age spaces, the futuristic rover and it’s ‘ferronauts’ question the vestiges of industry and progress by creating an alien

vehicle to discover a post-industrial landscape. 

prior to taking off from the national museum of art in mexico and meandering through to ecuador, the SEFT-1 had already made the journey

from the united states/ mexican border into the city of albuquerque, new mexico and is showing at magnan metz in new york. the probe will

then investigate the world’s first public railway system, located in london. one can track the SEFT-1 here. the proximity of railroad history allows

the work to become a anthropological endeavor working within the platform of art and technology.    

night view in a rural landscape 

the manned exploration probe can run on railway or land 

the team during the construction of the SERT-1 

stories are collected across a plethora of landscape, from mountainous small town, to urban centers. 

the SERT-1 took off from the palace of communication and public works in the  national museum of art in mexico city, 

map of the routes

a website tracks the journeys in real time 

some of the ‘ferronauts’ 

interior view