Tag: validación institucional
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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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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…
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The museum that is not seen
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…
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An image without provenance
On 27 January of this year, the British Museum published a series of images on Instagram and Facebook depicting a young woman contemplating pieces within its galleries. The accompanying text invited viewers to pause: observing with composure is always worthwhile. The images were generated using artificial intelligence, and this was not disclosed in...
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Authenticity does not reside in the material
A painting from four centuries ago has been relined, its varnishes removed and replaced, its frame altered on several occasions, its fissures stabilised, and certain areas repainted by hands other than those of the author. If one were to count the atoms, perhaps very little of the material that emerged from the original studio would remain. And yet…
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The trajectory that cannot be commenced
Para constituir una fundación en España basta, en la práctica, con treinta mil euros: la ley presume suficiente esa dotación. Es una cifra alta para un particular y baja para una institución, y ese equilibrio es deliberado. Lo que la ley no dice, porque no le corresponde, es lo que pasa el día siguiente. Al…
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That which returns
En los últimos años hemos visto algo que parecía impensable hace una generación: objetos que regresan. En 2021 Francia devolvió a Benín veintiséis obras del tesoro real de Abomey, tomadas como botín en 1892. En 2022 Alemania firmó la transferencia a Nigeria de los mil ciento treinta Bronces de Benín identificados en sus museos públicos,…
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Which original must be returned: the restoration of the Sistine Chapel
When the Vatican Museums concluded, in 1994, fourteen years of cleaning the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, the world encountered a Michelangelo it did not expect. Beneath centuries of candle soot, brazier smoke, animal glue, and overpainting from previous restorations, an explosion of colours appeared: pinks, acidic greens, luminous yellows,...
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Twenty-seven seconds
There is a figure that circulates through museum outreach texts with the authority of the obvious: the average visitor looks at the Mona Lisa for fifteen seconds. It is repeated in articles, talks and guides, always to say the same thing, that we no longer know how to look, that contemplation is dead, that we pass before works as before…