In what sense?
Magid works on the basis of subjectivity, of the most personal emotions, in order to reflect on purely empirical structures. The piece entitled Auto Portrait Pending, which she will show in the Centre, is a good example of this. It takes the form of a plain ring, without a stone, that will be completed when the artist dies and her ashes are processed to make them into a diamond. This is a small work, almost minimalist, that comes accompanied by the contract she signed with the firm she has hired to transform her ashes, a document that Magid has written as if it were a love letter.
What else will be in the exhibition?
We will be presenting a project co-produced with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council that takes as its starting point Jill Magid’s personal experience of returning to New York and encountering the paranoia about security that is so prevalent there. This collective feeling is countered by the dislocation felt by the artist in a city that, for her, has become new again, after having lived abroad for a long time. As is habitual in her work, she engages personal emotions with purely rational systems that, in this case, are represented by the New York subway police, who are here the co-protagonists of the installation.
After Jill Magid, what are you preparing?
In the summer we will do a collective exhibition, in all senses: curators and artists. All of the curators that work with the Centre are involved, and we will include work by artists that have already shown here as well as work by new artists.
For example?
It’s too soon to give any names, we’re still in the middle of defining the thing. But we do know that this will be an exhibition that reaffirms some of the individual works that the Centre has presented. At the same time it will be a show that defines the Santa Mònica, or through which the Centre will be able to identify. After that we will be presenting a performatic project by Dora García, consisting of a series of actions and situations developed in different places around the city that will have a testimonial presence in the exhibition space.
Magid, García, the collective show... What do they have in common?
They are artistic expressions that raise questions, that draw attention to and make us see things in a new way. They propose a very personal exploration of social dynamics and relations.
And how does an independent curator like you relate to an institution like the CASM?
The Centre has a clear curatorial profile in its own right and is very well aware that the freelance curator has to bring her own personal vision to bear. In fact, this is what it asks of the curators that work with it. As a result, at the practical level, for me there is no great difference from the work I was doing from 2003 in the Espai 13 at the Fundació Miró. In both cases the key is the dialogue with people that speak a similar language and are conscious of the dynamic of the curatorial task.
You mentioned the Espai 13, a space that was very important but has perhaps lost some of its incisiveness. In general, how do you see the art scene in Barcelona now?
When you talk to someone who is not from here and you start to list the art centres we have, the overall impression is that Barcelona is well provided. The problem is that all together it constitutes an equilibrium that is too unstable. Just when seems that the situation is stable and moving forward, all of a sudden a space closes and the whole fabric unravels.
What role does the CASM have in this situation?
A role in which it has to be sensitive to this changing reality and adapt to it. Three years ago, at the start of the present phase, the team at the Centre set itself to act as a bridge between the MACBA and project rooms like the Espai 13, the Sala Montcada or La Capella, which perform a consistent and very valid function. Now that these initiatives seem to have been blown off course, we can see that others are starting to take their place.
Such as?
For example, galleries like Nogueras Blanchard, ADN, ProjecteSD or Estrany-De la Mota. With their respective curatorial policies, very rigorous and suggestive, they are at the forefront of a renewal of the gallery scene in Barcelona.
What other positive aspects do you see in our context?
I would highlight the real support that is given to artistic production in Catalonia, which is very considerable in comparison with other places. We complain a lot, but in Germany, for example, it is far more difficult to find funding to produce art. And not just for the artist’s fee. Of course we have to keep on insisting, but always with a clear awareness of what we have and trying not to complain too much, because we are not so badly off.
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| Albert Martínez López-Amor y Montse Badia duiring the interview at the CASM, February 2007 |
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How does this support make itself felt in the quality of the art that is made here?
You only have to look at the archive of dossiers that is being put together at the Santa Mònica, full of interesting projects.
Do you think the public perceives this?
Yes, more and more. It can be seen in activities like the recently launched CASM Nights, which are attracting a new public. The educational and communications ventures are also having more impact. It’s important to bear in mind that all of these lines of action configure a long-term process. The increase in public perception requires time.
Personally, what do you find interesting right now, as a spectator and as a curator?
I identify very closely with the line that the MACBA has been taking lately, and at the other end of the scale I would single out the programmes of civic centres such as Can Felipa or Sant Andreu: they perform a very necessary function in making known the base-level creative work being done by the youngest artists. In general I focus on the solidity of the art work, irrespective of the formal means employed.
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