An independent research space concerning contemporary issues. This is neither a formal academic publication nor an opinion column: it is analytical work supported by data on topics I consider relevant and worthy of rigorous examination, even when they fall outside specialised academic circuits. Open to co-authorship. Proposals to: hola@juanesteban.art
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Entradas: 88
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Illuminating the empty room
In little more than twenty years, Málaga has transformed into a city of museums, and this, stated without irony, is an achievement. Where there was once only sun and beach for the visitor, there is now a density of institutions that few Spanish cities of its size can match: the Picasso, the Pompidou, the...
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At whose expense
One must credit the Vatican with an intelligence rarely observed in an institution of its scale. It understood, before most States and certainly before almost any corporation, that the narrative an institution projects is not altered by press releases or campaigns, but by culture. That if one desires...
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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...
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Two Regimes, One Sculpture
In a field in Montauk, there sits a figure in the lotus position, nearly eighteen metres tall, constructed from twelve shipping containers that traversed the sea for years before being decommissioned. It is titled Meditating Figure, by Matt Johnson, and has been part of an open-air exhibition since late June. For the...
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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...
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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…
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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…
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Threatening works
In Berlin, the Volksbühne transformed the street in front of its building into a public swimming pool this summer. It was named Volksbad: twenty-five metres of water, free of charge, with no identification required, for eight weeks, as an intervention within a city where public space is increasingly privatised and controlled. As part of that programme, which included days reserved…
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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…