Seven models for the definition of the ‘art resort’. Field work, 2009
Art is a necessary product; it is a response to the human need for the existential, the emotional and the metaphysical. Faced with a need, an image is generated that eventually materializes in a work of art. At this stage there is always a disparity produced and the object falls short of the image. The main problem in art comes from the attempt to hide this disparity. In this way, museums glorify art and crafts, removing the abstract element in order to mask the percentage of failure or the fallibility of the artist (the reality of art is never true to the original concept). But this failing is inherent in all processes of translation.
The following is a conceptual map with the models that I have formulated from the places that I know and visit often. Below is a written outline
- Outlet model / feria de arte: Frieze Art Fair en Londres, ARCO y Just Madrid en Madrid
- Cruise model / centro cultural: La Casa Encendida en Madrid, CCCB en Barcelona
- Station model / centro de arte: Matadero Madrid
- Mall model MoMA en Nueva York
Adaptaciones del mismo
*Elephant model, MACBA en Barcelona
*Airport model, MNCARS en MAdrid
Please note: this text was written in 2009 and many transformations have taken place in the Spanish institutions that appear here, such as La Casa Encendida, the CCCB and the Matadero, since the change of government in 2011.
- Outlet model/feria de arte
[Frieze Art Fair en Londres, ARCO y Just Madrid en Madrid]
The 2009 edition of the Frieze Art Fair in London was presented in the following manner: “The Frieze Art Fair features more than 150 of the most interesting contemporary art galleries in the world.”
<http://www.friezeartfair.com/visitors>.
The emotional-observation experience
The fair takes place in Regent’s Park, in a fairly central area of the city. The Frieze Art Fair is heralded as an exciting event. What is special about this show is that the artists are alive and young. It’s like being on a safari in Africa among lions, just that here the tourists are getting up close with artists. This is not a permanent installation, rather a marquee set up for the occasion. The space is hostile, despite being next to a park; there is only natural light in one wing, the floor is temporary stage that amplifies every footstep; it is a poorly heated, cold place; the bathrooms stink. The floor plan of the fair is labyrinthine and the aisles are overcrowded. There are very few places to rest. The galleries are small; there is a pavilion that serves as a conference room. The majority of collectors, gallery owners and guest speakers are staying at the same hotel, Langhan Place, ten minutes from the fair.
The conceptual model
The Frieze Art Fair functions as a flea market of brands, an outlet. An outlet gives priority to what is sold over the place where it is sold. Brand names but without the glamor; the object is validated by the name. The outlet, unlike the boutique, doesn’t have spatial identity; it can be set up in empty stores for rent, where there is no sign of previous business. This is the fundamental difference between a fair and museum: at a fair, the importance lies in the name of the artist, while at a museum the priority is the venue. There is also variety in the components: in many cases, objects of a high quality are sold alongside those that are practically worthless.
Outlet is also used to refer to an electrical wall socket where various devices can be plugged in; the fair also embodies this sense of ‘plugged-in’: it is a place to make connections.
The crowd is mixed; it mostly consists of young investors who are attracted by the excitement the show offers. At night, the atmosphere is like a decadent party, and it is not immediately clear that they are there because art is on display, and that it is not, as it appears at the hotel bar, a brothel or a luxury swingers club. At the main entrance two girls with sandals and fur coats are smoking:
“Hey, do you want to buy some art?”
“Sure.”
“How much you got? I like your silver shoes.”
“Twenty.”
“Ya, for that price I can give you a hot deal.”
There are two contemporary art fairs in Madrid that resemble the Frieze ‘outlet’ somewhat, ARCO, because it tries to sell brand name goods, and Just Madrid, because it tries to create a space that attracts a young audience.
Just Madrid associates itself with ‘emergent art’, hence the color green: young fruit, freshness. This fair is a perfect example of a place for networking, but in the worst sense – emerging artists trying to climb up towards the light. This so-called ‘fresh art’ is actually non-art trying to pass itself off as art: unripe art, immature and sadly pretentious. Note the name of the fair, with that little word just, already declaring its desire for understanding and globalization.
At ARCO there are stands giving away free Illy coffee; at Just Madrid there are cocktails, gin tonics or Heineken. It seems that at ARCO you should be wide-awake, and at Just Madrid, tipsy. At Just Madrid, everyone is slightly flushed with contented smiles on their faces, the effects of gin mixed with a green liquid. Under the influence of the cocktail the artwork looks better. The green of the cocktail matches the walls; green is also the color of the catalogs. It must be the sense of freshness that is associated with the green. But there is another meaning associated with this color: green fruit, unripe fruit, which gives a better sense of what is on display at the fair. Associated with this ‘fresh’ art, the cool green art is simply immature art. Green: as in harmless or inoffensive. Paradoxically, as art broadens its spectrum on a formal level (many things can be art), on an operational level it is separated from real life, which makes art more innocuous and insignificant in contemporary culture than it has ever been before. The very name, Just Madrid, sings of harmlessness, where the word just implies that it goes no further, it is a sign of ideological passivity, no promises made. Using English words in Spain adds to the meaning, it is like a slogan. The name of the fair, with the English particle just is part of a trend in which titles are written in English, as a sort of air of globalization to be ‘cool’, and have a ‘happy day’. They are works of art with good marketing strategies; the content is sometimes good, but the priority, in terms of the object, is always the packaging and, in terms of the setting, always a good atmosphere.
The type of clientele at Just Madrid is similar to that at the new ‘coffee bar/bakeries’ in Malasaña, where New York style brunch is served in a cool atmosphere with a kind of vintage décor. But copying only the frivolous elements of US culture is decadent, retro. It cannot be coincidence that the cocktails served at Just Madrid are all colorful: these cocktails are decadent in character and, just like the atmosphere at the Frieze Fair, not at all ‘punk-rock’, but somewhat goofy.
Young Spaniards travel a lot. They often return with something from abroad, but usually something frivolous, without depth, and they rarely take anything of their own culture with them. One could say that this feeling of inferiority about all things Spanish stems from the forty years of dictatorship that produced a post-traumatic disorder, whose consequences are the worship of all things foreign and the lack of confidence in one’s own culture. Spaniards welcome everything foreign with open arms, as a symbol of modernity, when actually they are importing outdated models, precisely those that were ousted by a very young and much more progressive Spanish Republic.
ARCO, at one point, not now, was the place to go to see international experimental art; Just Madrid, on the other hand, offers nothing of the experimental, and in fact presents itself as an ‘emergent art’ fair, very different from the experimental. Consider the difference: experimental art has the ability to contribute to progress, since experimentation is necessary to bring about change. In contrast, emergent art is art that has not yet established itself due to its youth, but that wants to come to light (emerge) or, in other words, climb up towards the light, it is ‘climbing art’. This emergent art does not search for expression and is not concerned with esthetics, it is simply unknown, either because it is young or for another reason. But neither youth nor novelty is synonymous with progress, neither can they be equated. Value can be given to young art but it should always come with a warning against its biggest danger: stupidity, a lack of knowledge that mistakes the unknown for the new.
- Cruise model / cultural center
[La Casa Encendida in Madrid and the CCCB in Barcelona]
The Casa Encendida in Madrid follows the cruise model, but it is a cruise that doesn’t move; it offers multiple activities and services, and its value comes from the range of options on offer, not from the quality of those options. Nobody would be more concerned about the quality of wood to be burned than of that to build furniture.
This is how the Casa Encendida defines itself: La Casa Encendida is an open, dynamic, social and cultural center funded by the Obra Social Caja Madrid; it is a space for the most innovative artistic expression, as well as courses and workshops on areas such as the environment and solidarity. The cultural program offers performing arts, theater, film, exhibitions and other expressions of contemporary creation. From the beginning, La Casa Encendida has supported young creators in developing their initiatives with programs like ‘Emergencias’, ‘En Casa’, and the Artists in Residence program. In addition, La Casa Encendida boasts a comprehensive resource center (library, media library, new archive and radio, photographic and multimedia laboratories), which is open to the public. < http://www.lacasaencendida.es/es/que-es >.
<http://www.lacasaencendida.es/LCE/lceCruce/0,0,73526_0_0%24P1%3D16,00.html>.
In fact, this text corresponds to the courses, not to the exhibitions, whose approach follows that of standard, accepted culture, although it is presented as subculture. The approach should be called ‘cultural tendencies’: something that doesn’t involve investigation or risk, something that is trendy because of its groundbreaking appearance.
A holiday cruise, even if it does not move, can be a paradise. But one can also feel trapped on a cruise. La Casa Encendida, a metaphor for movement and action, could also feel like a house on fire from which one cannot find the way out. Its value comes from the variety and also in the number of people visiting. The model is similar to that of an open buffet, a lot of food is on offer and a lot is eaten, but there are no means by which to produce or cook one’s own food. The food served, much like the wood burned, is extinguished by necessity. This is acceptable only when it is clear that the aim is to provide, not to build.
The CCCB, Center of Contemporary Culture in Barcelona, was once a charity or community center, La Casa de la Caritat. This center has established its reputation by offering a program that builds (low-key activities that are meaningful in the long term) and moving away from the charity model (offering activities or products for consumption in the short term). Inaugurated in 1994, it has become a place of reference, primarily to other art centers in Spain, such as La Casa Encendida or CENDEAC.
The CCCB is a social center, a meeting place and a documentation center. As well as fulfilling its role of documenting, it provides a space for research and the schooling of new artists. In common with La Casa Encendida it is a place that attracts young people. But in contrast, the CCCB has become a meeting place, attracting people with its cafeteria, which is strategically located at the rear of the MACBA, and with the very architecture of the building, which opens onto an interior courtyard. The openness and independence of each individual part of the building seems to reflect the role of each department. In other words, in contrast to the example of La Casa Encendida, the internal structure is neither hierarchical nor linear. Exhibitions do not have a theme, but rather they often refer to a situation, and the overall quality is very high. Exhibitions and events are treated with the same importance as permanent features such as the archive, research, thought and study. In addition great value is given to words, poetry and literature, not so much in its printed form (books) as in its relational form (organizing regular literary encounters, for example).
- Station model / art center
[Matadero Madrid]
Matadero Madrid aspires to give precedence to (though not always successfully) the construction processes rather than the objects themselves.
Matadero Madrid is a living and ever-changing space dedicated to the creative processes, participatory artistic education and the dialogue in the Arts. Conceived with a desire to contribute to discussion of the contemporary socio-cultural environment and with the aim of supporting the process of constructing the culture of today and of tomorrow […] At the same time, Matadero seeks to promote a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to creation, in all its forms, focusing on research, production, training and dissemination. A unique laboratory for experimentation and construction of new trans-disciplinary formulae.
<http://www.mataderomadrid.org/>.
The emotional-observation experience
The place is impressive, especially for those (older residents of Madrid or those who have an interest in photography and death) who saw the walls covered in blood and the cold stores hung with dead animals. Matadero Madrid is very conscious of this relationship between life and death; the first sentence on their website explaining what Matadero is says: “Matadero Madrid is a living […] space.” The renovation preserves the original industrial building without covering it up. In a cultural sense too, life and death inhabit the building, that is to say, works that are lifeless, such as imported exhibitions, space given over to design and fashion are together, for instance, with a one day fair of local organic goods.
The conceptual station model
There are two features of stations that make me think that some art centers, such as Matadero Madrid, are based on them: first, the station is the destination, but not the objective (no one visiting a city would stay for days in the station); second, the station implies a stop, in the sense of cessation of movement, the station is stationary, and it is the people who get on and off. There are some cases where the station itself becomes the objective of the trip, such as a ski resort in the middle of nowhere.
Matadero Madrid follows the model of the station: first, in the way it puts process before objective; second, because it is a place where one can ‘get off’ and step away from the movement of the city to reflect on it; third, because it allows connection with another place: Matadero Madrid aims to be a place of convergence; fourth, because it is isolated, there is nothing else in the area around the station; and fifth, because it is very ambitious in its role as an artistic complex: theatre, cinema, design, analysis, family-friendly activities, the environment, workshops for the disabled, etc. It presents itself as a center for creation, while in reality it is more like a center for culture, in the sense of a resort or a cultural resources center in the city. The quality of the programmed activities is similar to the quality of the food or products that are sold at a train station or airport.
- Mall model
[MoMA in New York. Variations: Elephant model, MACBA in Barcelona; Airport model, MNCARS in Madrid]
‘The mall’ is the basic model of the museum and a perfect example is the MoMA. “The architecture of the new MoMA, with its atrium and outdoor-like interiors, resembles ‘the architecture of the mall’. The location of art in MoMA follows the same logic that department stores use for the classification of objects: materials, techniques, uses. (Fourth Floor: Painting and sculpture; Sixth Floor: Special exhibitions – often the opportunities section.) […] Ideologically MoMA, like a mall, celebrates exhibitions in a very playful way […] The mall’s principle is to give the buyer something extra, something in addition to the product bought: the lure of the display. The idea of ‘an extra’ is embedded in ‘art malls’, such MoMA, the museumgoer not only gets entertainment, but acquires culture. The ‘culture’ of the mall supersedes culture.” The MoMA represents a model of the phenomenon of suburbanization of cities by ‘malls’ of modern art. So, although the architecture and contents of the MoMA resemble a suburban mall, the MoMA has still become an icon of the city of New York.
*Note: see complete description of the mall model in ‘Appendix 2: As a mall, I really like MoMA, Manifesto.’
Airport Model (a variation on the mall model)
In Madrid, the MNCARS, the Reina Sofia Museum, is like an airport, not just because of the entrance with its heavy security, but because of the constant feeling of being in transit and waiting for something to happen. There is a lot of information, but one has the feeling of being in a place lacking in identity. The airport is an unattended space, a place meant for passing through and waiting. In a way, it is an obligatory space, not a place. Like at the airport, this museum is disorientating. Not a positive feeling of disorientation, like someone having a wander in the park, but the feeling of panic of not being able to find the entrance or the exit (particularly in the extension to the museum, where it is not easy to find the lift or the stairs). The windowless extension contrasts with the many windows in the original building. The windows do not open to allow the city into the museum as in an airport. In airports, the only areas with views to the outside are the waiting areas by the gates where passengers access their planes. In the MNCARS, the only views are available in the hall of the section designed by Nouvel. It is the liveliest area of the museum, and also the most commercial: the bookstore, coffee shop and concert hall. From there, there are views of the sky and the reflections of the movement of cars passing by.
Elephant model (another variation on the mall model)
The emotional-observation experience
An example of this model is the MACBA in Barcelona. Ultimately, a mall is no more than a collection of stores under the same roof, which, due to its size, has become an unwieldy giant. There is something monstrous about it, like an anteater made of ants. The MACBA building wants to be a symbol of its surroundings, but is it? Its presence reminds us of the story of what came before, what disappeared or what was got rid of: many homes were swallowed up by the museum building. It is a clear case of the urban vacuum cleaner, sucking in everything in its path and drastically altering its surroundings. The small tiles of all the small kitchens and bathrooms of the small apartments in the area have been taken apart and replaced by one giant wall of enormous, industrial tiles. The museum appears to be a standard, international bathroom with easy to clean walls. The MACBA has been given the task of cleaning up the neighborhood.
The building almost does not fit; it has been planted in the middle of the Chinese neighborhood in Barcelona, amongst narrow streets and tiny apartments full of stacked-up families. The building, an unwieldy giant, is an elephant; it is a circus elephant that has been made to jump through the impossibly small ‘hoop’ that is this neighborhood. There’s an elephant walking through the streets of the city, laying waste to everything in its path. The elephant has managed to squeeze through the gap and now there is an enormous white circus tent for the circus that is the MACBA. But this big top is empty; the acrobats live in the surrounding neighborhoods and fill the square with their skateboards. But, is the MACBA that dynamic? The elephant doesn’t skate, it hardly moves at all, almost as if it were dead.
