Yes, we are well away that the Net has changed everything. The volume of information that we are supposed to control can’t be assimilated. The quantity of emails that we receive about exhibitions, talks, courses and all sorts of artistic proposals well exceeds the time that we dedicated not so long ago to email. And with social networks it is the same, but many times more so. The time taken simply to deal with information is becoming considerably longer than the supposed working day. But who cares, as we are delighted to be connected wherever we are, at whatever time of day, right?
Information, tons of digital information, what is not so clear is that we have the time to digest it, and perhaps more importantly, critically analyse it. Everything indicates that increasingly we renounce more information, that we will delete more emails without reading the content, and that very rapidly we are coming close, once again, to a system where the legitimacy of the senders is as, or more, important than the message itself. The Net was a possibility for active users to break with the traditional dynamics of sender and receiver, but it is evident that something didn’t work. Or perhaps it did, as having the capacity to define what is information is the door that leads to criticism to being found within specific coordinates.
At A*DESK we still believe not so much in information as in opinion and content, we continue to think that critical production is a sort of obligation that we need to cultivate. The forms might change but we will continue with the desire to comment, to express opinions, to work with critical thought and with the capacity to redefine whatever text, image or form that is required at any moment. It is also a question of rhythms.
In this edition of A*Magazine we inundate the Net with new texts. Montse Badia takes a look at the exhibition of Xavier Le Roy at the Fundació Tàpies, Juan Canela analyses the first exhibition of the Constelaciones Familiares (Family Constellations) season at the Espai2 in Terrassa and Verónica Escobar compares "Pantalla Global"(Global Screen) at the CCCB, with "Mòbil-U" at Arts Santa Mònica.
Many artists propose exploring the limits of the museum, questioning the institution or redefining artistic practices. However, often it is not through grand visions, so much as through simplicity, that one can call into question all the categories that a priori seem immovable. Xavier Le Roy at the Fundació Tàpies considers various key questions about the artistic experience.
Lúa Coderch takes a look at the past and some family memories that, without any parallel information, are slowly losing their capacity as references. Ideologies, places, secrets and emotions are left covered by a patina of uncertainty.
Two exhibitions about screens and technology, in the same city but in different institutions, mean an opportunity to reflect upon how to embody the imprint of technology within an art centre. The comparison is tempting, and even more so if we analyse the value of the discourse and its dangerous approximation to a propagandistic apology.
