 |
 |
|
                     

27 June 2010, Cervera de los Montes
Finally, I've started to paint my Guernica, a mega size master piece painting that will be not made to decorate rooms but an offensive weapon in the defense against the enemy, as Picasso put it. To paint, which can be very mechanical and mind-numbing work, I need a routine. I think that the great monochrome painter Ad Reinhard said something like that it's possible to work only when the house is empty, the kids are gone to the playground and the wife is gone shopping. I've contracted a nanny to take the kids every day to the swimming pool and I send my wife to El Corte Inglés or Brazilian waxing. In all likelihood, it's insane to paint the master piece by myself, I'm not too skilled and I'm too slow. I should go to the strange artist village in Shenzen, where I visited some years ago. It's a place where thousands of artists make bad copies fo Van Gogh's sunflowers. I suppose that they could paint also Snap, Crackel and Pop. What I'm doing in the first phase, is just coping packaging and advertisement on 120x120cm canvases. The fun part comes afterwards when I'll paint an enormous figure on the surface composed of the modules. That couldn't be done by the cheap Chinese labor.
            

11 June 2010, Cervera de los Montes
A rider is an amendment or addition to an entertainer's performance contract, often covering a performer's equipment, food, drinks, and general comfort requirements. The bigger the pop star is, the more detailed and more extravagant is the list. I don’t know if the famous visual artists have riders. Does Bruce Nauman demand a bottle of Cristal champagne every day? And Gerhard Richter sushi platters for his assistant crew? I think they should. I think also those of us that are less famous, should be more demanding. I don’t mean pretentious but just making clear to the exhibition organizer what we need and what we deserve. This is a sketch for my first rider: - Nail-to-nail shipping including the production of crates or other necessary packaging accessories. - Return shipping should be completed no more than one month after the exhibition closes. -If works were sold or bought by the exhibition organizer, the artist mut be pain also in one month. - Full insurance during the shipping and exhibition. - Installing the works according to the instructions given by the artist. - Professional high-resolution photos of the installation, e-mailed to the artist no later than one week after the opening. Full media coverage report including original newspaper and magazine clippings after the closure of the exhibition - If a catalog published, at least five copies should be given or sent to the artist. - Mailing of the invitation card to 25 addresses provided by the artist. This must be one no later than 15 days before the opening. - If the artist travels to the installation and opening of the show, he must be provided door-to-door traveling from the artist's home to hotel. Tourist class is acceptable for flying, business class for train. Urban transport by car or taxi. The daily transport between the hotel and the exhibition venue by taxi or equivalent. - Pick-up at the airport or train station by the staff of the exhibition organizer, not by a driver alone. - A welcome pack including the schedule of the exhibition week and contact information, a map and a tourist and art guides of the city. - A double room in a four star hotel or superior. Preferably a design or boutique. No inner courtyard views. Courtesy mini bar. Six small bottles of still mineral water (local low sodium or Evian) in hotel room. Courtesy internet access. - The director of the exhibition institution should greet the artist during the first working day. - The breakfast must include freshly squeezed orange juice and espresso style milk coffee. - Lunch and dinner with the curator in a decent restaurant, including quality wine. Drinks after the dinner in a hip bar. - Fine dine meal after the opening reception. The director of the exhibition structure and the curator must participate. - If the artist travels, the minimum honorarium is €800 or equivalent in local currency. This amount is sufficient up to four working days, each extra day is 200 euros more. This should be paid in cash upon arrival. This is excluded if the show is at a commercial gallery that actively sells the works. - During the installation there should be a computer in the use of the artist at the exhibition venue. - The organizer provides the equipment, tools and material necessary for the installation, like a projector and painting materials. Artist buys the painting materials accompanied by a person from the exhibition structure. - In the opening reception, the artist should be introduced to the museum directors, curators, gallerists and journalists present. - The organizer frames the works according to the instructions of the artist. The frames are property of the exhibition organizer and the works can be shipped back to the artist unframed. - During the installation there must be available all the time Coke, coffee, tea, local lager beer, Heineken, local or international still mineral water - Short shopping tour for local souveniers for the artist’s family and an organized tour to the main tourist and art sights of the city. - Life time free entry / membership of the institution. Inclusion in the mailing list of the printed invitations. After all, I know that if I seriously demand this I'm never going to exhibit again.
         

07 June 2010, Cervera de los Montes
I'd like to be a chef. Cooking is much more influential, political and social than producing objects in the art context. My daughter said me than then I should work much more. Obviously, I'm not dreaming of being a line cook but a conceptual director of the Riiko Sakkinen Restaurant. This week's menu would consist exclusively of food products that are allowed into Gaza Strip under the blockade of Israel: wheat, flour, cooking oil, cooking fat, sugar, salt, pasta, dates, garlic, chick peas, rice, lentils, kidney beans,margarine, dairy products, powdered milk. frozen meat, frozen fish, frozen vegetables, eggs, fruit, yeast, semolina, tea, instant coffee, canned tuna, salami (interesting pork product for Muslims), canned meat, zaatar, sesame seeds, chicken stock powder, olives, aniseed, cinnamon, camomile, potatoes and mineral water.
|
 |
|
| |