Author: Juan A. Esteban
-
The artworld in the place of Ideas
What renders a work more than the object that supports it? Why this canvas, and not the one adjacent. Why this urinal and not all the other identical urinals in the world. When Arthur Danto coined the term artworld in 1964, he was responding to that question, and his answer established a significant portion of…
-
Changing skin
We have been convinced for years, and with good reason, that we rely excessively on a handful of American platforms. That the European public discourse occurs within infrastructure designed in California, governed by its laws and refined by algorithms that reward indignation, constitutes a genuine problem of autonomy and democracy. Hence the impulse, increasingly...
-
The security of the name
Anyone working within contemporary art acknowledges, though rarely admits, that the living artist presents a challenge to the institution, whereas the established artist offers convenience. This is not due to a lack of regard, but rather to something colder and more difficult to contest: the logic by which an institution determines its expenditure, its selection...
-
Illuminating the empty room
In little more than twenty years, Málaga has transformed into a city of museums, and this is a significant achievement. Where once there was only sun and sea for the visitor, today there exists a density of institutions that few Spanish cities of its size can rival: the Picasso, the Pompidou, the Thyssen, the Russian Museum, the new MUCAC,...
-
At whose expense
One must acknowledge that the Vatican possesses an intelligence rarely found in other institutions of its scale. It understood, before the majority of states and before almost any corporation, that the narrative an institution projects is not altered through press releases or campaigns, but through culture. That if one wishes to cease being perceived solely…
-
The Empty Sieve
In 1959, a company was founded in New York that sought to accomplish something that then sounded like science fiction: to predict human behaviour using a computer. It was called Simulmatics. It gathered over one hundred thousand interviews from old surveys, divided voters into four hundred and eighty categories, and simulated how each group would react to the issues...
-
Two Regimes, One Sculpture
In a field in Montauk, there sits a figure in the lotus position, measuring nearly eighteen metres, constructed from twelve shipping containers that traversed the ocean for years before their retirement. Entitled Meditating Figure, the work is by Matt Johnson and has formed part of an open-air exhibition since the end of June. For the…
-
Three thousand dollars for my book
On 20 July 2026, a federal judge in California granted final approval to the largest settlement to date between authors and an artificial intelligence company: 1.5 billion dollars, approximately three thousand for each book utilised. What was resolved therein is not what is typically reported. It was not determined whether a machine...
-
Recognition is not protection
In 2018, Spain unanimously and with applause approved the report intended to establish the Artist's Statute. Eight years later, it is worth examining what has been enacted into law and what remains pending, as the disparity between the two reveals much about how we regard the work of creation. I shall begin with the…
-
The narrative we fund
Five and a half kilometres from the centre of Toledo, on an estate known as Zurraquín, lies a five-hectare stage where fifteen hundred years of Spanish history are performed each evening. The production is titled El Sueño de Toledo and serves as the heart of Puy du Fou España, the first complete establishment outside of…