Mexican artists, Ivan Puig and Andrés Padilla Domene, travelled across Mexico and Ecuador in their custom built road and rail vehicle, to investigate the impact that abandoned passenger railways have had on local communities.
In the second half of the 19th century, the Mexican government partnered with British companies to built a railway line that would connect Mexico City with the Atlantic. This iconic railway infrastructure now lies in ruins, much of it abandoned due to the privatisation of the railway system in 1995, when many unprofitable passenger trains were withdrawn, lines cut off and communities isolated.
The artists, known together as Los Ferronautas, built their vehicle SEFT-1 – Sonda de Exploración Ferroviaria Tripulada or Manned Railway Exploration Probe – to document and transmit a survey of photography, video, audio and text accounts of the artists encounters. Between 2010 and 2012, they investigated the landscape and infrastructure around the routes, as well as interviewed people in their path. Their finding were then documented on the SEFT-1 website where the public could monitor the status of the probe, view its routes plotted on geo-positioned maps, view images and videos of its routes with information and witness accounts edited by a research team.
The map below is a screen grab of one of the routes taken by the artists. The interactive map can be viewed on the SEFT-1 website. The railway lines and corresponding buildings were originally constructed at points where the locomotive had to stop to refuel – they weren’t abandoned because they weren’t functional – but for political and economical reasons.
Many people they met on their journey were angry and suspicious because of the problem the railway and the buildings have suffered from looters. At the start of one route, from Sumidero to Fortin de las Flores, a man, his wife and son offered to accompany them. The wife told them “It’s been 30 years since the train has passed. All of us used to rent in the village”, she showed them pictures of the dump that the place had been before they had arrived, “then in 2003 some people came, they said they were from Ferrosur (a company that was formed in 1998 following the privatisation of Mexico’s railways that took over the southeast concession of the railroad, including the line between Mexico City and the Atlantic port at Veracruz) and took all the rails, they even showed us some documents.”
This was a common story of deception that the artists heard for the duration of their journey.
The unprotected metal structures that had not been looted, had experienced rust and been overwhelmed by vegetation. Rot had eaten away many of the wooden elements. Environmental factors that presented them with problems were landslides and water logged surfaces from heavy rain and poor drainage. Despite these hurdles the vehicle and its crew managed to travel over and through many dilapidated iconic structures including the Metlac Bridge, built in 1872.
The SEFT-1 vehicle was designed on the chassis of a pick-up truck. It has both rubber wheels for traveling on land and a mechanism of metallic wheels that guide the vehicle on the rails. An aluminium shell, with a futuristic aesthetic, housed the crew night and day.
The website now serves as a digital archive, a time capsule of the research project.
Further information
This project was conceived by artists Ivan Puig and Andrés Padilla Domene.
www.seft1.net
V: /bichiento
In the United Kingdom, documentation of their journey was exhibited. The artists collaborated with British expert model railway constructors to create scale reproductions of specific sections of the Mexican railway ruins, originally built by British companies. The SEFT-1 exploration probe was situated outside the gallery for a limited period. The exhibition was commissioned by Arts Catalyst and presented in partnership with Furtherfield Gallery.
The project was supported by Museo Nacional de Arte MUNAL, FERROMEX, CENART, Fundación BBVA Bancomer, FONCA, Mantenimiento y construcciones de equipos y vías férreas MANCEVI S.A. de C.V., Centro Nacional para la Preservación del Patrimonio Cultural Ferrocarrilero and the Museo Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Mexicanos, CONACULTA, Cisneros Fontanals Foundation CIFO, SERVING S.A. and Hi Art.
*Main article image is a photograph of the SEFT-1 vehicle on location in Mexico ©Ivan Puig and Andrés Padilla Domene
