Hello Boys

More or less 10 years ago, we set off on an adventure called A*DESK. Working in Barcelona, we wanted to reach other places and felt the need to work through art criticism to open up new possibilities and to participate in the creation of critical awareness. During these years we have published our online magazine, held workshops in critical studies and writing in Catalonia, Spain and Latin America, established our program of independent studies, worked as consultants for various institutions, investigated the possibilities of online education and opened a space in Barcelona.

Spain is suffering an immense crisis. Barcelona is a political hotbed and on a cultural level, changes are on the horizon. At the moment we are in the calm before the storm. And these changes won’t just have an effect locally but also globally. For this reason we have decided, in the midst of a savage crisis, to take the plunge and publish everything on our web, including the magazine A*Magazine, in three languages: Catalan, Spanish and English. We want to break down barriers, so that we can establish a more direct dialogue with other people active in the art world. There are still many barriers and the linguistic ones are irrefutable. Our aim is to generate links, to facilitate the exchange of information and to compare and contrast different viewpoints.

In this issue of A*Magazine we consider three major events: Sónar in Barcelona at the hand of Frederic Montornés, Art Basel with Montse Badia and the Venice Biennale in the company of Oriol Fontdevila.