In as much as the function of a title is to condense the subject matter of an exhibition or to summarize its essence, The title as the curator's art piece may appear rather puzzling.
This title - which sounds like a pure conceptual statement - is a work of Stefan Bru?ggemann, London based, Mexican artist, who has, for some years, been developing a list of exhibition titles (Show Titles) that are freely available.
On closer examination, this contradictory title could serve as a starting-point for many syllogisms, yet it seems more appropriate to consider its "functional" aspect, not as a statement but as an artwork. In fact, Show Titles are latent works, in the sense that they only exist as titles if they are used, they need to be “activated” by a third party, at which point they no longer entirely belong to the artist, thus becoming a type of collaboration.
The works in this exhibition have been selected precisely for their complex nature or their fluctuating status, somehow their “existential” nature: the manner in which they are defined with regards to their use or environment, their positioning / movement towards a context of art history or painting tradition, or how they may elude the artist...
In this way the definitions / methods of Claude Rutault -canvases painted in the same colour as the walls on which they are hung- essentially have the ability to exist in an infinite number of possibilities, regardless of the will of the artist, providing they correspond to the artist's original statement.
Similarly, Karin Sander’s Mailed Paintings -blank canvases sent to galleries- result from a process that is totally independent of the artist herself, where their final result is totally unpredictable and often full of pleasant surprises. Who would have suspected that the shipping companies would able to produce ready-mades that look like Mondrian or Fontana works?
The canvas as a support plays a central role in the works of Rutault and Sander, however it has no relevance in the work of Miguel Angel Molina. On the contrary, the latter tackles painting for what it is, namely a material with specific qualities, and creates works that are puddles of paint, whose features, both primitive and sophisticated, paradoxically make the painting tend towards sculpture.
The more distanced approach of Isabelle Le Minh is of “meta-artistic” nature. By inventorying and classifying thousands of art works, defined in a few words, she points out that any attempt to verbalize inevitably leads to approximations. Orchestrated in a playful installation (Listing / detail), her work highlights the absurdity of any project that seeks to reduce a piece of art to a simple definition.
Yann Sérandour (Titled (Art as Idea as Idea) [Kosuth]) and Jill Miller (I am Making Art Too) both update the proposals of two fathers of conceptual art, respectively Joseph Kosuth and John Baldessari. Although seemingly tautological, these pieces work on a feedback mechanism, a "return to sender" which, by modifying and moving the original work into another context, serves to develop their meaning. In fact, by "remixing" and slipping into John Baldessari’s video (I am Making Art Too), Jill Miller makes art too... just like the other artists in the exhibition. As does even the curator, if we are to believe Stefan Bru?ggemann’s Show Title # 347: The title as the curator's art piece.
