Miguel Angel Rios

Born in 1953 in Catamarca (Argentina), he lives in New York.

Miguel Angel Rios' recent foray into video with A morir - (Til Death) has earned him a certain recognition internationally. Hailing from Argentina, the artist has developed a body of work inspired by South American Indian culture and the historical geography of that continent.

For this video, which is screened at les Abattoirs – Musée Frac Occitanie Toulouse, he has drawn inspiration from a game of spinning tops played in the village of Tepoztlan, in Mexico. He has designed and had made various tops of differing shapes and sizes, which are slightly anthropomorphic. Thirty players of this game from the above-mentioned village throw their tops onto a surface marked with lines. The scene is filmed from different angles, and projected onto three synchronized screens surrounding the viewer. This latter is immediately plunged into the dynamics of movement and the brutal nature of impacts and falls whose dramatic qualities are enhanced by the sound. The harmony of this haphazard choreography does not obscure its violence. The tops spin in the pitiless ballet of a blind destiny.