Author: Juan A. Esteban
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Threatening works
In Berlin, the Volksbühne transformed the street outside its doors into a public swimming pool this summer. It named it Volksbad: twenty-five metres of water, free of charge, with no identification required, for a duration of eight weeks. Within that programme, which included days reserved for various groups, there was a six-hour afternoon allocated to an association, EOTO, so that a…
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Capital gain without the artist
Consider a young, unknown painter who sells a painting for three hundred euros. Twenty years pass, the painter has established a reputation, and that same work is auctioned for one hundred thousand. Between these two figures lies a vast disparity, a capital gain of nearly one hundred thousand euros that emerged while the work transitioned from...
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Six tactile paintings
In 2015 the Prado Museum mounted a small and unusual exhibition. It was called Today it is the Prado's turn and consisted of six paintings from the collection reproduced in relief, with textures and volumes of up to six millimetres, so that they could be traversed with the hands: a Velázquez, a Goya, a Greco, a Correggio, a still life…
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What a child learns to admire
On childhood, violence, and what a community decides to consecrate as culture. In municipalities on the Costa del Sol, two languages of cultural policy coexist. Large events in favour of animal welfare, with artists and guests, presented as initiatives of culture, solidarity, and participation. On the other hand, an agenda that dignifies the…
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The light that constructs the work
There is a decision made about every painting you have seen in a museum that no one ever communicates to you: with how much light, and of what kind, you are permitted to view it. It is not a minor decision, nor is it technical in the innocuous sense of the word. It determines which colours reach you, what tonal relationships you perceive,…
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It is not equidistance, it is manipulation: Musk and the myth of a socialist Hitler
On 8 August, the wealthiest individual in the world wrote on his own social network that Hitler was a left-wing socialist. This was neither a slip of the tongue nor an isolated incident: in January of the previous year, he had already endorsed this thesis while in conversation with the leader of Alternative for Germany, who maintained in his presence that…
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Who is accountable for the verdict
The oldest institution of contemporary art will distribute its awards this year by visitor vote. This is neither a citizen participation initiative nor a curatorial experiment: it is what remained when the jury departed and the vacancy required resolution within days. The Venice Biennale has been since…
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The catalogue ornament
An image divided in two is circulating these days. On the left, a downspout gargoyle in the shape of a fish, aged metal against light stone, with scrolls and leaves carved around it. On the right, a grey pipe with its elbow, screwed into a wall. Above, a question: why we ceased to concern ourselves with beauty. And…
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Three months for an outcome
I preside over a small foundation, and everything that follows could be read as the complaint of someone who struggles to demonstrate what they do; thus I begin by conceding what must be conceded. The demand to measure is reasonable and, in large part, is a victory. Public and private money must be justified, and…
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The museum pavement
There is a detail in this story that explains it entirely, and it is advisable to begin with it. On 24 July, a United States executive order mandated the installation of signs warning visitors to the National Museum of American History that its exhibitions should be renewed and directing them to other locations where they might find truthful information regarding the…