To point out, show, indicate, inform, point out, underline, guide… This seems to be the key in a society saturated with information, where the problem is not so much access but decoding. Lists, summaries and classifications seem to give us a bit of order and stability, even though we know that formulas such as “the top 40” respond to purely commercial motivations. Perhaps that is why some artists have taken it upon themselves to show the absurdity of any type of classification or list. This is the case of Claude Closky’s taxonomies (inventories of the first thousand issues ordered alphabetically) or Ignasi Aballí’s lists (of artists, cinema or money in which he simply cuts out the word in question from the newspaper to compose said lists).
We know it’s absurd, but we also need quick guides that we can read diagonally and that draw a map of the “here and now”: the international art scene, video artists, emerging artists, global artists, and endless possibilities. Some publishers know this. Taschen updates its “100 Contemporary Artists” volumes almost annually, in which on one page we find the basic information we need to be able to speak with authority about an artist: a photograph of the artist, an image of a work and a brief text that summarises his work in a clear and precise manner. Phaidon has continued to reinvent itself since it began in 1998 with “Cream”, “an authoritative view on the art world of today and tomorrow”, followed by “Fresh Cream” (2000), “an indispensable guide to 100 cutting-edge artists worldwide; “Cream3” (2003), “Ice:Cream” (2007), “a global survey of some of the most significant emerging artists working today” and recently “Creamier”, in which they also position those who make the selection: “10 Curators, 100 Contemporary Artists, 10 Sources”. Exit Express also tries to become a reference with “100 Spanish Artists” and “100 Video Artists”.
The biennials (and their catalogues) also end up becoming reference guides to discover, observe or follow the career of artists. Venice, Documenta, Manifesta, Liverpool, Sao Paulo often seem like a board game of the goose in which artists go “from goose to goose”. This insistence on the part of the curators can be due to very diverse reasons, ranging from a genuine interest in the artist, to the need to play it safe, to a lack of research, a lack of imagination, insecurity or simply laziness.
Whether an exhibition or edition of a biennial can or cannot be a reference in the future is something impossible to predict and which only time will confirm. This was the case with “When attitudes become Form” curated in 1969 by Harald Szeemann or with “Anys 90. Distància zero” curated in 1994 by José Luis Brea.
[Article published in Bonart, 2010]
