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
Receive it via email
Entries: 137
-
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…
-
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…
-
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...
-
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…
-
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…
-
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,…