Esther Mera

(Madrid, 1964)

Graduated from the Complutense University of Madrid, she completed a Master's Degree in Fine Arts, Film and Video at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles. His theoretical work focuses on the study of new technologies and their influence on contemporary modes of expression and representation. He has won several awards and his works have been shown at numerous festivals and international art centers such as the San Diego Art Institute, 2003; The Wedge Artists Space Chinatown, Los Angeles, 2002; California Center for the Arts Museum, 2002; ARCO International Art Fair, 2001; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2000; Metrònom Contemporary Art Foundation, Barcelona, 2000.

Participate in Medilab Madrid with the video installation Anatomy of a bomb. Subliminal images and surveillance in the digital age (2004), audiovisual ready-made, where he analyzes an advertisement broadcast on television in the United States. The ad offers free computers with a subscription to an Internet access service. It is a blockbuster that tells how a meteor shower wakes up the inhabitants of a wealthy urbanization. The spectacular nature of the supposed meteor shower and the violence of an imminent catastrophe are mixed in a story with ingredients from Hollywood cinema. By slowing down the image, Mera shows that the spot is full of subliminal images that include dollar bills, religious icons, computers, alcohol bottles, war and patriotic symbols, as well as the commercial logo of the product being displayed. announces. And this is not all: it is later discovered that these computers, offered to company managers, are equipped with a Celeron III chip. This well-known “spy chip” is programmed to track every movement and every transaction made by your employees.