Hirst and everything else

The speed with which events are happening almost calls into question a tool like Twitter. News bombshells fall one after another, the subjects have to be dealt with in five minutes before the next one comes crashing down and we jump to the new subject, as the last one is already out of date. State your opinion fast or lose your turn. Although, in the end, as far as losing is concerned, it will all be lost. Who knows. With Twitter the archive is of no interest.

In this speedy context, Damien Hirst has his five minutes. He earns them by controlling the tools that disseminate the information, using just the right words (or lack of them) to make his stuff not seem too complicated, that it can enter into the usual modes of communication. Genius, mad, provocative, art and money. Without forgetting male and white. Then one has to see whether the art sector has the capacity to articulate an interesting debate, discussing key, or not so key, ideas about what art is today, its roles, processes and reception. Ideas that also oblige a rethinking of the type of contact visitors have with the exhibitions: if communication is the way it is, if the dominant language is that of the media, what to do with exhibitions? Does the exhibition have to play with the same words? Is the exhibition a context for another type of approximation? Will exhibitions that don’t follow the canons defined by the media be considered news?

Hirst, exhibitions, contact and formats and, on the other hand, proposals that seek other rhythms or stem from another idea about what an impact is. It is important that the spectre be wide ranging, that there exists a variety of possibilities. Nothing is exclusive, although some might be visible and others invisible.

In this edition of A*Magazine we present three situations. Alba Mayol takes a look at the commotion surrounding Damien Hirst at the Tate Modern, Haizea Barcenilla analyses the symposium recently organised in Bilbao by ENPAP and Consonni, looking at the meaning in art of public, and Oriol Fontdevila takes a look at a proposal in two times and locations by Job Ramos at Bòlit in Girona.