Fundación Telefónica presents Revolving Doors, a collective exhibit made up of eighteen artists representing diversity in both generations and geography. Their work explores the aspects of ambiguity and confusion between public and private spheres.
This exhibit, organized by Montse Badia, brings together a selection of eighteen international artists, representing various generations and various points around the globe. Among them are renowned figures in art such as Vito Acconci, Antonio Muntadas, Krzysztof Wodiczko and Zbig Rybczynski, alongside artists of younger generations, such as Begoña Muñoz, Colin Cook and Vanessa Beecroft; Also present are artists whose discourse is well-established, such as Andreas M. Kaufmann, Otto Berchem, Mark Formanek, Roland Boden, Alicia Framis and Bjørn Melhus; Not to forget important names in the current art scene such as Francis Alÿs, Gillian Wearing, Douglas Gordon, Christian Jankowski, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset.
The exhibit contains diverse formats, including video, photography, installation and a list of projects developed outside of the exhibit itself.
Revolving Doors takes its title from the well-known image of Porte, 11 rue Larrey, showing the door to Marcel Duchamp’s Parisian apartment, where he lived from 1927 to 1942. The door was such that the studio was connected to the bedroom while also being connected to the bathroom. Therefore, when opening one space, another automatically closed, and visa-versa. Upon opening the door to the room, the bathroom would close up, and when entering the bathroom, the door to the studio closed. Marcel Duchamp hired a carpenter to build this door, according to his instructions.
In Revolving Doors the concept of this door, so closely tied to both Duchamp’s daily life as well as his artistic discourse, serves as an evocative image of the fluidity and ambiguity between public and private spheres which this exhibit wishes to explore.
In the opinion of its organizer, these are some of the points of reflection that make up the theoretical starting point of Revolving Doors: Public space has always been and continues to be a reflection of the public will, social fabric, cultural dynamics and economic context, as well as the reorganization and expansion of our cities. At a time defined by the end of ideologies, together with the inability of political or religious powers to define the notion of “public”, public space has become a sphere of consumption. As a place of specific democratic experience, public space has become a space for connection between different uses and functions. The concept of public sphere, a broader notion than that of public space, goes beyond the physical distinctions between the public and private areas where humans undergo experiences and carry out their activities.
Thus, the disappearing line between public and private is much more pronounced when communication and information technologies are included in the definition of the notion of space. In this context, the idea of “place” becomes a precarious concept and the public sphere becomes a point of connection made up of images and representations, fixed in time and space by screens, increasingly related to what is “real” and everyday life.
Management and organization of the exhibit is by Montse Badia, an art critic and independent exhibit organizer, who has presented projects at international centers such as Fundación De Appel in Amsterdam, Apexart in Nueva York, Espacio 13 at the Fundación Miró in Barcelona and Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin.
THE PUBLIC/PRIVATE CONNECTION ON A HUMAN SCALE
With their work, the artists participating in Revolving Doors present a wide array of approximations on the ambiguity and confusion between public and private, for example: the fluidity between different scenes as a paraphrasing of social relationships (Zbig Rybczynski); or the invasion of individuals’ public space (Vito Acconci); the definition of personal space and individual presentation in public (Francis Alÿs, Andreas M. Kaufmann, Gillian Wearing, Colin Cook, Mark Formanek); the subversive and secret use of public space (Begoña Muñoz); the projection of a created privacy into the public sphere (Vanessa Beecroft, Christian Jankowski, Douglas Gordon); the creation of relational spaces (Otto Berchem); the subjective perception of the media and the inverse (Antonio Muntadas); the creation of the boundaries of privacy through public confessions in the media (Bjørn Melhus); and the redefinition of architectural and urban design through the needs and uses of individuals, or as metaphors thereof (Krzystof Wodiczko, Roland Boden, Alicia Framis, Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset).
Through their critical, ironic, poetic and subversive content, the artists involved in Revolving Doors create commentaries that alter the way in which we perceive or consider reality. Although the projects diverge greatly from each other, all of them have risen as individual gestures which define the public/private relationship on a human scale.
