#JWIITMTESDSA? (Just what is it that makes today’s exhibitions so different, so appealing?)
2015 – 2018

Mixed-media installation.

Single-channel digital video HD; color; sound; 16:9.
24’23”.

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What criteria did an artwork must fulfil in order to experience success on the international art scene around 2015?

I combed through well-known art magazine blogs as well as galleries and social media websites and gathered more than 2500 photos of international art exhibitions that had taken place between 2011 and 2015, seeking to find the canon of the contemporary international exhibition business.

I evaluated the picture archive looking for similarities, and identified 21 categories. This includes motifs, objects, materials and forms of presentation: Birds; Bottles; Canvases hanging directly on the wall; Cardboard boxes; Circles and spheres; Classical antiquity; Creased things on the floor; Fans; Folded things on the floor; Grids; Monoliths; Plants; Quadrangular shapes on the floor; Rocks; Rugs; Squared TV monitors; Stands with hanging elements; Things leaning on the wall and the floor; Vertical flags; With wheels and Wooden structures.

I confronted 36 agents involved in the art world (artists, curators, art critics and historians, gallery directors, institution staff and collectors) from diverse countries with this archive and asked them about its possible causes and consequences: Is there a real democratization in the use of digital technologies? Who controls these legitimation devices and how far their influence can reach? What role do the various actors of the art system play in making these decisions?

This research took two independent forms: a video and an installation consisting of a spatial collage of objects and materials, representing the categories. Both are set in relation to a soundtrack with representative reactions from the agents I questioned.

As a continuation of this project, I configured a set of guidelines to be entirely interpreted by the curator/s of the exhibition where the installation was presented.

Credits:
General installation views and details of the exhibition Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM) (Tallinn, Estonia, 2017).
Images: Paul Kuimet.
Full video.