MACBA COLLECTION

From the mid-sixties to the end of the seventies, the profound transformations that took place in our society brought with them a change in paradigm. While the basic element that had constituted our system of perception and understanding until that time had been vision, from the eighties this was gradually replaced by recognition of the linguistic structure of artistic production. Vision, or optical perception, had guaranteed modernity the autonomy of artistic species, the search for their specific nature and the cancellation of any kind of “otherness”; but the change of paradigm re-introduced narrative, figuration and theatricality, transforming the spectator into an “agent” and treating the subject as a structural element of the piece. In other words, room was made for the “other” that would no longer be hijacked by that “universal vision” required until then by modernity.

This change also led to art no longer being considered a mere object but rather something to be appreciated as an institution, with the consequent recognition of its discursive nature and of the possibility that elements not necessarily artistic (such as gender and social issues) could be considered an area for intervention. In short, the diversity of time replaced the uniformity of space.

Some of the works and artists included in this new presentation already formed part of MACBA collections, but there have also been a huge number of new acquisitions in 2006 through purchases made by the MACBA Foundation, deposits and donations. The novelties presented this year in the MACBA Collection are intended to demonstrate this change in paradigm through works by Chantal Akerman, Eugènia Balcells, John Baldessari, Stanley Brouwn, James Coleman, Öyvind Fahlström, Dan Graham, Joaquim Jordà, Antoni Llena, Anish Kapoor, Mike Kelley, Cildo Meireles, Mario Merz, Herminio Molero, Juan Muñoz, Raimundo Patiño, Cierna Pavlina Fichta, Manolo Quejido, Jo Spence o Krzystof Wodiczko. The exhibition also presents artists who, from a position in current artistic production, continue to expand upon those ideas that led to the change in paradigm, namely Maja Bajevic, Danica Dakic, Tacita Dean and Gabriel Orozco, among others.

Pressetext

MACBA COLLECTION
Kurator: Manuel J. Borja-Villel

Künstler: Chantal Akerman, Eugenia Balcells, John Baldessari, Stanley Brouwn, James Coleman, Öyvind Fahlström, Dan Graham, Joaquim Jorda, Antoni Llena, Anish Kapoor, Mike Kelley, Cildo Meireles, Mario Merz, Herminio Molero, Juan Muñoz, Raimundo Patino, Cierna Pavlina Fichta, Manolo Quejido, Jo Spence, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Maja Bajevic, Danica Dakic, Tacita Dean, Gabriel Orozco