" Piano memMor"
Mateo Chiriboga
2019
No Lugar
It speaks of memory, forgetfulness, and detachment. The piece is a toy piano that my mother bought second-hand when I was a child. As I grew older, I gave it to a younger cousin, and when she grew older, she passed it on to another younger cousin. While creating this project about objects that hold some kind of memory—familiar but abandoned—I sought to reflect on the energy of the people who used it and eventually stopped using it, only for someone new to appear in its life. This cyclical transformation made it look like either a treasure or trash. In this case, it was like a treasure hidden away, forgotten by everyone.
I rebuilt it using technology and a mechanical device with everyday objects. I replaced the keys with copies of the fingers of the family members who played with this old piano toy. When played, it doesn't produce the usual piano sounds; instead, it plays recordings of the voices singing the corresponding notes, like C, D, E, F, G, A, B.
