Nepantla #1

Experiment Nepantla #1, 2025
Aluminum, truck LED lights, plastic, wiring
Variable dimensions

Experiment Nepantla #1 is the inaugural object in a series of material explorations that are part of José de la O’s doctoral research at RMIT University. The project situates Mexican design in a liminal space, caught between industrial Western paradigms and the hybrid, postcolonial realities of Mexico. Drawing from the Nahuatl concept Nepantla—a word denoting a condition of being "in-between," in ambiguity or transition—de la O creates an object that straddles industrial production and craft, global design logic and local improvisation.

Inspired by the hand-crafted truck bodies seen across Mexico City, this work utilizes aluminum profiles, commercial truck LED lights, and other semi-industrial materials typical of vernacular manufacturing practices. The result is a post-industrial mandala: an asymmetrical lighting object that, when illuminated, recalls the paper lanterns used in rural festivities. Installed in everyday urban contexts, the piece appears to float—like a surreal, unidentified object—generating a tension between the familiar and the uncanny.

With this work, José de la O offers a poetic critique of design as a strictly Western practice, proposing instead an ambiguous and situated aesthetic. Experiment Nepantla #1 does not aim to resolve this ambiguity—it chooses to dwell in it.

*With the support of Escuela de Arquitectura, Arte y Diseño del Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Creative Direction: José de la O
Electronics: Aldo Cañedo, Roxana Gómez
Manufacturing: Miguel Ángel Salazar
Design: José de la O
Photography: Sofía Mendoza