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Pic by pamela varela

Mutterland  
○ pamela varela


   
     Media-art performance in a multichannel sound installation composed of motherly-figure sculptures from the AdBK’s Nuremberg woodcarving workshop cemetery. It is inspired by the “Map of Nuremberg”, the first ever made map of Tenochtitlan, today’s Mexico City. 

Created for graduation work of the Live Art Forms - Performative Practices Master’s Degree at the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg (DE)

2025
Format  multichannel sound installation and media-art performance
Media quadraphonic sound, relic compass (snake skeleton, umbilical cord stump, wireless electronics), wooden carved sculptures, tree-trunk seats, performance
Hardware speakers, triple axis compass magnetic sensor, ESP32 microcontrollers, computer
Software Pure Data, Reaper, Arduino IDE, ESP-NOW

Concept, creation, text and performance by pamela varela
Sculptures by Stefan Schindler (woodcarving workshop manager of the AdBK)
Sound in collaboration with Concepción Huerta and Daniela Huerta
Technology in collaboration with Marlot Meyer and Gregor Pfeffer

Special thanks to ella hebendanz, Rob Blake, LAF, AdBK, and LEO Labs :)


Exhibited at
Jahresausstellung, Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg, DE, 2025  






The full multichannel narrative can be listened to here in one track. 
This edit was made by Concepción Huerta. 







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        500 years ago, based on the accounts of Hernán Cortés—the Spanish conquistador of Mexico—a map of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital and today’s Mexico City, was engraved on wood. This so-called “Map of Nuremberg” (as it was published there) inspired Mutterland, a multichannel sound installation shaped like an archaeological site and composed of motherly-figure sculptures from the academy’s woodcarving workshop cemetery. It “(m)utters” stories about Mexico—my motherland—plus its connection to Germany, guiding you through mythology, facts, anecdotes, and poetry to tell you stories of our shared heritage. In the performance, my migrating body activates the sound. Led by my umbilical cord linked to a compass sensor, I go back home.

Mutterland ist kein Vaterland.
La matria no es la patria.



Pics by Tim Schütze





Pic by pamela varela





Pics by pamela varela

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People can visit the installation all day long and listen to the stories, which come from one of the sculptures in each of the four cardinal points. The narrative follows stories from the North, the West, the South and the East in a specific order. During the performance, with a compass (NWSE) sensor, I point to one and each of the sculptures in the cardinal points randomly, activating that specific story. 


The borrowed sculptures from the academy’s woodcarving cemetery act as archeological pieces of the work’s environment in Nuremberg. I created a sort of stone circle with them.




Pics by pamela varela

Pics by Tim Schütze


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        The action of the performance works with a Pure Data patch that contains the different speakers in each cardinal point. Wirelessly, an ESP32 sender microcontroller that I carry sends the information of the directions to an ESP32 receiver microcontroller connected to the computer, which then triggers the specific story of either N, W, S, or E.


The relic I carry with my umbilical cord stump and the snake fossil also contains the compass sensor, which is used to activate the story of each cardinal point. 

Pure Data patch made in collaboration with Marlot Meyer.






Laser-engraved drawing of the “Map of Nuremberg” (1524), of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital and today’s Mexico City.



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designed by persophino
pamela varela © 2026