Text/Texto: Alfonsos' Tuesday

I am a really lazy person. I always have been like that. If you are sitting on my chair now, congratulations, you might just be lazy as well. If you are not, be not afraid and sit down. And now, what are you doing in an Art Gallery anyway? Why someone would spend time and money here?

The literal meaning of art is really vague: The use of imagination to express ideas and feelings. Why express feelings? How? Why should you pay someone to express their feelings and their ideas. Don’t be lazy. You should think and feel for yourself.

Artists are not really different from you. They do not have a gift. What they do is an activity like any other. It is about technique and exercise. Like you, they have a pretty boring life. The difference is that they try to mask their reality as something much bigger than it is. Like you they pay the rent, they have dreams, they have pimples and like you they are greedy. Like everyone, they are mediocre. But please, when I am saying mediocre, do not face this as something bad.

Mediocrity is regular, average and not bad. Remember, we do not have paradigms in art anymore. Everyone can be an artist. Everything can be art. There is no “good or bad” and we cannot judge anything because everything is subjective. Thus, we could say that it is all the same. All type of art from now on will be the same. Mediocre.

It is a really big irony. Because, if all pieces of art are the same, who is deciding the “big names” of our days? Who is deciding the person who has the right to exhibit? Why should the government fund some artists and not the others? Why is Mr. Xs value more than Mr. Zs? The problem is that art has become an investment. Like the shares of a company in the future market. It is different than the old commission system. You buy a painting not to have it on your wall, not to enlighten you, neither to convert people nor to represent a point of view. Who wants to be “touched” by a painting, movie or a sculpture? Let’s be honest. We want profit! Art is status. Art dealers invest their money in art, waiting to have a profit from the sale of this artistic object. Artists are not selling their work. They are selling their shares.

Honestly, I cannot see a problem in this kind of investment, if you make money with the kings’ new clothes, good for you. What I cannot understand is why someone would trust in an investment where the rules are blurring and so vague. Looks like the Internet boom. People investing money on ideas and concepts, waiting that one-day, when it will magically bring a really big profit. So, lets stop talking about creativeness and aesthetic qualities. This is not relevant anymore. Instead, lets talk about how much this thing is worth and, please, show me the prospectus for the next ten years.

This massive plurality, in which art relies today, is just the representation of its’ end. In general, “new art “ is just recycling itself in a never-ending history. There is nothing new. You just look back to the past and pick one style, ideal and concept. The “Neo-Something”! It is easy to be plural like that. Art, as we know, cannot follow the advances of this new society. For our society, the physical medium has become ephemeral. Information now is the pillar. +Art history, like any other history, has an end.

This might be the reason why I have chosen art. I can do everything! Do questions not seem to be the forte of the new artists. For example: You randomly pick a theme. Tuesday is fine. It could be anything else. We do not have to question ourselves. Now, what have we done here? Sitting on this chair, and looking at the exhibition, can you see the irony? We have done any work and created any weird relation to this theme. Not questioning our work or ideas. Yeah! Can you feel it? Welcome to the lazy people world!