SPAIN / BARCELONA: MUNTADAS. BETWEEN THE FRAMES: THE FORUM (BARCELONA), 1983–1993 (2011)

until Monday April 30 2012
MACBA
Plaça dels Àngels, 1
08001 Barcelona
Spain

According to the author, Between the Frames: The Forum (Barcelona), 1983–1993 (2011) presents 'a vision of the art system in the eighties', although the configuration of the work continued until the beginning of the year 2000, through the artist's constant re-elaborations and modifications of the presentation device of the installation.

The work includes eight 'chapters' of different durations (between 15 and 45 minutes), amounting to a total of 260 minutes of screening, edited by Muntadas from two hundred hours of interviews conducted by him with dealers, gallery owners, collectors, museum directors, guides, critics and media specialists. The last chapter serves as an 'epilogue' in which Muntadas gathers together the opinions of several artists regarding the art system. The interviewees – professionals representing the various levels of mediation between the work of art and the public – talk about their values, functions, responsibilities and points of view. Even though every interviewee was asked the same questions, the flow of responses expresses a significant variety of often-conflicting opinions.

Muntadas presents these videos with a radial exhibiting device: a circular modular structure with a central space (a physical space for discussions, hence the term Forum in the title), marking the convergence of seven cellular spaces with a monitor each, where the various chapters are projected simultaneously.