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
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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 amassed two million streams and two hundred and forty-one thousand listeners across sixty-five countries, which yielded twelve thousand two hundred and thirty-one...
-
Changing the past by decree
Between 2005 and 2009, two Chinese artist brothers, Gao Zhen and Gao Qiang, created a series of sculptures about Mao Zedong. In one, Mao appears kneeling and repentant; in another, seven Maos point their rifles at the figure of Christ; in a third, they represent him with breasts. They are satirical, irreverent works, and recognisable within…
-
That which no longer launches
On 31 December 2020, Adobe withdrew support for Flash. Twelve days later, it blocked the execution of any content still utilising it. For almost everyone, this was a footnote, the end of a technology that had been dying for years. For museums that had collected internet art, it was another…
-
The unseen museum
When one traverses a great museum, one has the impression of viewing its collection. One is not viewing it. One is viewing a minuscule selection, and the remainder—the vast portion—resides elsewhere: in climate-controlled warehouses, in numbered crates, on grid racks where paintings hang on edge like folders in a filing cabinet. The…