The works in the La tempestad series connect tourist colonialism in El Salvador with space colonization of the Moon and Mars, drawing upon characters from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The black-sand beaches and volcanic formations of the Pacific coast of La Libertad become the idyllic backdrop for a set of short videos examining the expansion of Surf City, a large state-led tourism and real-estate project. Its effects include environmental risks, gentrification, and the rapid physical and cultural transformation in a region that had long remained quiet.
The work takes inspiration from spacesuits developed by NASA and the Soviet Space Program during the Space Race. Vega repurposes second-hand Aloha shirts and local and transcultural embroidered patches to address tourist colonization: a contemporary process in which foreign visitors alter a region’s culture and way of life, exploit its natural and human resources, and impose Westernized logics of modern conveniences to satisfy vacation fantasies. Assembled with wood, aluminium, and recycled rubber sandals, the works underscore how the tourism megaproject and the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender affect local ecosystems and communities.
Credits
La tempestad (2024) [The Tempest]
Crypto-Próspero Spacesuit Second-hand Hawaiian shirts, fabric, embroidery; recycled and painted motorcycle helmet; wood, found objects, live plants. Variable dimensions.
Esta Tempestad Teaser Video art in collaboration with Julio López Fndz (filmmaker and documentarian), with original music by Atilio Montalvo.
Simón Vega
Artist 1972, El Salvador; based in La Libertad
Simón Vega earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico (2000) and a Master’s in Contemporary Art from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2006). His recent work maintains an eclectic character, moving between drawing, installation, sculpture, animation, objects, portable suits, and masks. While space exploration remains a central axis, his practice has expanded to reflect on tourist colonization, the lifestyles of digital nomads, and cultural continuity.
Vega has exhibited widely across Europe, the United States, and Latin America, including the 55th Venice Biennale (Italy, 2013), the 9th Havana Biennial (Cuba, 2006), the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival (Indio, California, 2018), and the Bronx Museum (New York, 2019), as well as more recently at the Centre Pompidou in Cosmopolis 2 (Paris, 2019). His solo exhibitions include shows at the Parrish Art Museum (New York), Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo (Costa Rica), Locust Projects (Miami), Liliana Bloch Gallery (Dallas), and Hilger NEXT (Vienna), among others. He currently lives and works in La Libertad, El Salvador.
