We are in an emergency situation. Social, political and economic values and models are changing, and we fear that they will change for the worse. Taking stock of what 2013 has been is no longer an innocent exercise consisting of pointing out what we liked and what we didn’t, but cannot be isolated from the direction things are taking. 2013 started badly, with a progressive loss of individual freedoms and a desire to generate fear and insecurity. Culture, “the most revolutionary political option in the long term” as Montserrat Roig said, is now in the spotlight.
In the context of art, the worst thing has been the cuts that have made the sector precarious. Institutions have seen their sources of funding reduced, but those who have come out worst off are artists, critics, curators, designers and assemblers who have seen their job prospects dramatically diminish. Instead of looking for solutions, institutions are disoriented and paralyzed. The crisis and the cuts have been used politically to make initiatives disappear that were not believed in, such as the Espai Zer01 in Olot, the Centre d’Art in Tarragona or the Office of Artistic Diffusion of the Barcelona Provincial Council, among others. Can Felipa was saved, but just barely.
But as by nature we tend to see the glass half full, we must mention the positive things of 2013. The main one is that there are people capable of saying NO and doing things. It has been a year in which presentations, exhibitions, events, projects, interventions, festivals and meetings have taken place in unusual places (artists’ studios, the streets of the city, domestic spaces or the beach). All these initiatives led by independent agents have shown that there is life (and a lot of it) outside the institution. We will mention some of them, such as the exhibition “A Place no cars go”, organised by Quim Packard and presented in his studio, the Lycra and Plaga festivals, the proposals of collectives such as Morir de Frío or Azotea, among others. Also noteworthy are the independent spaces that continue to stand firm, defending their programmes, such as halfhouse or homesession, and others such as BAR, focused on exchange.
The celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Espai 13 of the Miró Foundation is very positive. The galleries that are rethinking themselves, such as ADN, which has inaugurated ADN Platform, a space for curators and artists, with exhibitions, debates and presentations. Or the Tàpies Foundation, a pioneer in making its archive accessible, has faced a task that it had pending, the figure of Tàpies. The result was “Contra Tàpies”, curated by Valentín Roma.
And we finish with the “auguri” for 2014, which we hope will be dominated by a more critical attitude, with more action and less cowardice, more risk, more commitment and more honesty.
[Article published in Bonart, 2013]
