→Quentin Alcayna

Biography

My objects draw on mythological narratives and old stories, often distorted, transformed or partially reshaped through collective memory. These stories and the imagery they have generated continue to influence the way we perceive and imagine the contemporary world. I use this material as the basis for a combinatory practice—a kind of speculative science of bricolage, in which fragments, forms, techniques and references are brought together to create new configurations. From this process emerge a series of retro-futuristic phantasmagorias: strange objects that seem to belong simultaneously to an imagined past and an impossible future. Their technologies appear advanced yet anachronistic, obsolete or deliberately used against their intended purpose. Through this playful misuse of technology, the objects take a slightly ironic look at our faith in technological progress as a promise of emancipation. The toy and the game occupy an important place in this practice. They provide a space where imagination, symbolism and experimentation can coexist, allowing me to question the boundaries between the functional and the fictional, the familiar and the strange, the past and the future.