La Bestia y el Soberano / MACBA
New Update / March 20 2015.
The beast and the sovereign as been reopened to the public. Article News paper El Pais (spanish)
The exhibition is an exploration of how contemporary artistic practices question and deconstruct the Western and metaphysical definition of political sovereignty: their new way of understanding freedom and emancipation beyond individual autonomy, as well as the modern form of the nation-state.
Update of the Exhibit after the Censorship of the exhibit in Macba Spain.
Context : Newspaper article about the censorship: English / Español / wkv-stuttgart (German)
Artist statement
As artists in the exhibition La bestia y el soberano we express our solidarity with the curatorial team and we hate and refuse the MACBA director's decision to close the exhibition, as authoritarian, and regressive.
We all were aware that we were participating in an exhibition which was a polemical intervention in political debates on sovereignty taking place these troubled days in Spain, on the verge of the most important shift in political hegemony in its recent history. Cancel the exhibition is thus suppress a project designed to encourage public, productive and progressive debate in such context. This unfortunate fact highlights the contradiction of promoting a project that the institution finally dare not assume.
Polemics and public debates are the essence of democracy and the mission of the museum is to contribute to that. With this decision the museum is betraying its mission, but also its own history, characterize by an outstanding contribution to the radical reinvention of the museum as a public space.
Efrén Álvarez, Angela Bonadies and Juan José Olavarría, Peggy Buth, Ines Doujak and John Barker, Edgar Endress Oier Etxeberria, Banu Cennetoglu and Philippine Hoegen, Jan Peter Hammer, Julia Montilla, Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, Jorge RibaltaWu Tsang, Viktor Vorobyev & Yelena Vorobyeva.
[Castellano]
Ante el cierre de La bestia y el soberano
Las y los artistas participantes en la exposición La bestia y el soberano queremos manifestar nuestra solidaridad con el equipo curatorial, así como nuestra oposición y rechazo a la decisión autoritaria y reaccionaria del Director del MACBA de cerrar la muestra.
Eramos conscientes de participar en una exposición que suponía una polémica intervención en los debates que sobre soberanía están teniendo lugar en el Estado español; discusiones que se enmarcan en un importante cambio en la hegemonía política de su historia reciente. Cancelar la exhibición es, pues, reprimir un proyecto concebido para alentar un debate público, productivo y progresista en tal coyuntura. Este infortunado hecho pone en evidencia la contradicción de promover un proyecto que la institución, finalmente, no se atreve a asumir.
Los debates públicos son la esencia de la democracia, y la función de un museo es contribuir a ellos. Con su decisión la institución está traicionando su misión. Pero también su propia historia, caracterizada por una destacada contribución a la radical reinvención del museo como un espacio público.
Efrén Álvarez, Angela Bonadies and Juan José Olavarría, Peggy Buth, Ines Doujak and John Barker, Edgar Endress Oier Etxeberria, Banu Cennetoglu and Philippine Hoegen, Jan Peter Hammer, Julia Montilla, Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, Jorge RibaltaWu Tsang, Viktor Vorobyev & Yelena Vorobyeva.
The project Acts of Knowledge will be installed as part of the exhibit The beast and the sovereign
19 Mar. - 30 Aug. 2015 Museum of contemporary art (MACBA) Barcelona
16 Oct. 2015 - 17 Jan. 2016 Württembergischer Kunstverein (WKV) Stuttgart
