Uwaga 2001. Vinyl, rope, and aluminum. 10 x 10 x 2 m, 7 m high.
For some time now I have distinguished between citizen, consumer and user to
understand the paths that new artistic forms open to their
enjoyers; citizen employment when I see the recipient of the work
integrated into its development in a vague way, imperceptible to it
but substantial for her, discovered by recognizing something outside her
site, or position on the same sidewalk that the pedestrian passes through to
gain his attention, who, after noticing the unevenness that had occurred,
re-emerges in the citizen, the former pedestrian; consumer points to the one who
He devours the works with the bulimia of a reader of technical sheets,
always down and always to the right so that the reverence before the
work is larger and where appropriate; user refers to that new
recipient of works of art who believes he has completed them because he interacts with
They draw attention to the interface between the work and him,
something that takes him to the heights of concretion (an evil of the times that
should disappear at the same speed as anything else becomes obsolete
computer), tired of hearing about interactivity, the blow of
mouse, keyboard or screen seems to me a simple turning of the page, which
I see it as equally interactive; it is important not to forget that the term user
It is unthinkable when applied to arts other than media
digital (interactive or not), since all use, whether physical, reports a
wear, although with the new interactivity, from the transfinite
world of bits, such use never supposes it and allows touching without damaging
what is touched, or in other words, to end the cult value of the
works by the most direct means: contact: if I touch it, it is as real as
I and it is not in the heights: from the paradox of being in this world
(material) without being his.
The network (the usual one), as an instrument for capturing attention,
and the float, the buoy that you offer to hold on to, are the last
elements that came to the work of Monique Bastiaans to consummate her
Citizenship, hunting and mooring project of interest to the people
outside the world of art, also to the world of institutions that
populate art and even the art institution itself, as they give in
say many, to talk about art as the institution of which we do not
want to go out; I don't want to discuss the impossibility of living without art,
and not because it is necessary but because it is ritualized according to each social statute
that people belong, to the point of making it essential in all
spheres of action, thus each of the worlds populated by people
It has among its conditions artistic forms attached to the skin
(I will not detail which ones because I would not know how to do so) throughout the
social conglomerate that will make the house, and the public square, another
skin that you wear and that you are not free from; thus, many times, the
Public Art is just waiting to tear your skin off in strips to put your
sensitivity afloat and let you see what, until that moment,
you ignore: bringing you afloat, after being caught, or entangled, gives reason for
all this.
Nilo Casares 2001