Author: st6n
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What a child learns to admire
On childhood, violence, and what a community chooses to consecrate as culture. In municipalities along the Costa del Sol, two languages of cultural policy coexist without apparent conflict. On one hand, major events promoting animal welfare, featuring artists and guests, are presented as initiatives of culture, solidarity, and participation. On the other,...
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The light that constructs the work
There is a decision made regarding every painting you have observed in a museum which is never communicated to you: the intensity and quality of light permitted for your viewing. This is neither a minor decision nor technical in the innocuous sense of the word. It determines which colours reach you, which tonal relationships…
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It is not equidistance, it is manipulation
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 grievance of someone who struggles to demonstrate their impact, so I shall begin by conceding what must be conceded. The demand for measurement is reasonable and, in large part, represents a significant achievement. Both public and private funds have…
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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…
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Painting an impossible sky
On Wednesday, 12 August 2026, a total solar eclipse will traverse Spain: the first visible from the Iberian Peninsula in over a century, according to the National Geographic Institute. It is an opportune moment to recount a matter I find most compelling regarding the phenomenon: that for centuries, European painting depicted an eclipse…
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The common pool
In September 2019, the cellist Zoë Keating published her figures. Two hundred and six thousand and eleven streams on Spotify that month. Seven hundred and fifty-three dollars. A year earlier, she had accumulated two million streams from two hundred and forty-one thousand listeners across sixty-five countries, and that yielded twelve thousand two hundred and thirty…
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Changing the past by decree
Between 2005 and 2009, two Chinese artist brothers, Gao Zhen and Gao Qiang, produced a series of sculptures concerning Mao Zedong. In one, Mao appears kneeling, repentant. In another, seven Maos aim their rifles at the figure of Christ. A third series depicts him with breasts. These are satirical, irreverent and recognisable works…