Miguel Novelo: INFRAMUNDO
Institute of Contemporary Art San José
In his first institutional solo exhibition, INFRAMUNDO, Miguel Novelo presents an interdisciplinary exhibition that brings together Indigenous knowledge systems, ecological grief, and emerging technologies. Through immersive, responsive environments, visitors encounter spaces where perception, ancestral knowledge, and technological innovation converge. Motion, sound, and presence activate virtual worlds, inviting reflection on how humans, machines, and the living world exist within interconnected systems.
Born in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, Novelo draws on a landscape shaped by cenotes—natural sinkholes formed by the Chicxulub meteorite impact and regarded as sacred portals to the Maya underworld. Grounded in this geologically and culturally layered terrain, the exhibition connects memory, ancestral knowledge, and deep planetary time.
INFRAMUNDO invites visitors into the underworld, a space where the boundaries between human, geological, and technological forms begin to dissolve. Guided by Maya cosmology and the figures of the bat, jaguar, snake, dog, and crocodile, visitors move through immersive and generative installations that embrace uncertainty and challenge fear of the unknown. Augmented reality works, machine-learning systems, and sculptural environments encourage reflection on death, renewal, and coexistence with nonhuman forms of intelligence.
Through these responsive environments, INFRAMUNDO attunes visitors to intertwined cycles of life, death, and transformation, offering a space to encounter worlds beyond human time and perception (and possibly beyond human patience.)
Curated by Zoë Latzer with exhibition installation and fabrication by Sam Marks, Facilities and Operations Manager, and Paul Gallo. Collaborators include FMT Estudio (Zaida Briceño and Orlando Franco); actors and performers Josué Maychi, Anna Díaz, Joselyn Amaya, Nicté del Carmen, Mariana Mendoza, Andrea Buenfil, Jairo Mukul, Jason Ramno, Maricarmen Sordo, and Pata de Perro Films. Some materials sourced at the Recology San Francisco Artist in Residence Program.
Press Coverage:
Roborant Review, Content Magazine,Roborant Review Interview, Content Magazine Interview, Metro Silicon Valley
