- Dates
- —
- Curated by
- Jorge Díez
Javier Arce
The Ornament of the Masses: Red, White and Blue
How many people visit the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Tate Modern, Centre Georges Pompidou or Fundació Joan Miró each day? And how many of them leave the museum shops with a souvenir featuring an image of one of the most famous works exhibited or held – works that are part of the established narrative of art history? Often, these items are copies of the very same objects, emblazoned with the museum’s logo or the signature of a renowned artist. For Miró, his imagery was among the most widely reproduced, leading to an overwhelming surge of Miró-inspired logos in the 1980s – many crude imitations, others mere echoes of his work. It is from questions like these that Javier Arce delves into the boundaries of art, seeking to map out its limits. He stretches the boundaries of what is artistically possible, exploring the territories where high art intersects with popular culture. Arce seeks to question, often with irony, these boundaries and the conventional, constructed nature of the elevated discourse surrounding institutionalised art, which sets it apart from other meaningful mass practices.
In his new proposal for Espai 13 at the Fundació Miró, Arce reflects on the use and misuse of images of artworks, aiming to blur the lines between elite and mass culture and to transgress the established boundaries between art and life. The installation consists of two pieces, both inspired by Andy Warhol’s famous gesture with Brillo Box at the Stable Gallery in 1964 – a gesture that, according to Arthur C. Danto, crossed the dividing line of art history. Warhol’s act showed that it was no longer possible to distinguish between works of art and real objects simply by sight, marking a new phase in contemporary art, where anything seemed possible, and the artist embraced pluralism.
The room is filled with three-dimensional drawings of Brillo Box, created with markers on tearproof paper, each transformed into a container. This reimagines Warhol’s neat, ordered installation into an accumulation of artistic waste. In addition, the space incorporates several projections of photographic records from a series of actions Arce has undertaken in recent months. These actions involved “abandoning” original works from his Crumpled (Brillo Box) series alongside other products and souvenirs sold in these very museum shops. Perhaps Warhol was right when he predicted that every museum would eventually become a supermarket. We see a cashier attempting to scan the barcode of a crumpled Brillo Box that someone wants to buy, a visitor recognising the crumpled box with a satisfied smile, or even a frustrated customer deciding to take it, knowing full well no one will challenge their action.
