Igualdad Cup Rocking Installation at Lollapalooza Chile 2017

lollapalooza cuprocking pixel intervention pixelart

Cup Rocking Systems and Collective Representation

Lollapalooza Chile 2017

Igualdad marked one of the earliest large-scale applications of Cup Rocking, a construction system developed by the artist in which painted plastic cups are inserted into metallic grids to function as image-building units. Rather than applying pigment directly onto a surface, the image emerges through the spatial organization of thousands of individual elements assembled within an architectural structure.

lollapalooza cuprocking pixel intervention pixelart 01

Created for Lollapalooza Chile 2017, the installation consisted of approximately 7,000 plastic cups painted individually over a three-day production process. Mounted within a 22-meter-long metal framework, the cups collectively formed a monumental portrait visible from considerable distance while revealing its modular construction at close range.

The image was conceived as a symbolic response to contemporary migration and cultural diversity. Instead of representing a specific individual, the portrait fused multiple ethnic characteristics into a single gaze, reflecting the increasing complexity of Chile’s social landscape. Through this visual synthesis, the work proposed equality not as uniformity but as coexistence between different origins, identities and cultural backgrounds.

The project also expanded the artist’s ongoing investigation into modular image construction. Just as pixels generate digital images and tesserae generate mosaics, each cup operated as an autonomous unit within a larger visual system. The portrait emerged through accumulation, repetition and spatial organization, transforming ordinary disposable objects into carriers of visual information.

Installed within one of Latin America’s largest cultural festivals, the work occupied a unique territory between public art, environmental design and image engineering. The use of plastic cups introduced an additional conceptual layer, converting an object associated with mass consumption into a structural component of a monumental artwork.

Within the broader context of PixelArt’s practice, Igualdad represents an important step in the migration of image systems into unconventional materials. Here, the pixel is no longer translated through paint, mosaic or stencil, but through a three-dimensional matrix of industrial objects capable of generating imagery at architectural scale.

The project demonstrates a recurring principle found throughout the artist’s body of work: complex images can emerge from the disciplined organization of simple repeated units. Whether operating through pixels, mosaic tesserae, stencil modules or plastic cups, the image functions as a system whose logic remains intact while migrating across radically different materials and environments.