Miguel-Ángel Cárdenas

25 Caramboles and Variations. Birthday Present for a 25 Year Old (1979/1980)

collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

In the context of the research initiative 404 Object Not Found: What remains of Media Art? and the exhibition Thirty Years Dutch Video Art, the installation work '25 Caramboles and Variations. Birthday Present for a 25 Year Old' by artist Miguel-Ángel Cárdenas was selected as one of four case studies used to examine the documentation and preservation of multimedia installations with the purpose of designing a model for installation registration and re-installation.

A game of billiard is the point of reference in this project. Three camera's follow each one billiard ball. The flow of the balls is projected through three monitors with the matching sound. Cárdenas prefers that in a re-installation of his work the possibilities of the current technology is embedded. With the question is raised whether a modern presentation of the installation decreases the visible historical value of images. But the installation has been presented in different ways a couple of times already. Sometimes monitors were placed on top of a billiard table, while other times they were presented on a pedestal. Also the light plan was changed according to the various installation moments.

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Final report on guidelines for re-installation and preservation of 25 Caramboles and Variations. Birthday Present for a 25 Year Old, Miguel-Ángel Cárdenas (english version).
[Download pdf]

As an example, the Cárdenas case study was translated into English, while all other case study guides in the context of this project are provided in Dutch.

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For additional NIMk case studies see: