Tag: validación institucional
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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…
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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: 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…