8/3/2019 "History of Art, the", exhibition review

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History of Art, the

David Roberts Art Foundation Fitzrovia, 07.05.2010 10.07.2010

The ambitious concept behindHistory of Art, the, devised by Romanian curator Mihnea Mircan for

the David Roberts Art Foundation, is that of investigating how artworks can attempt a formulation

of their own near future, be it as memories, art historical specimens, documents, physical remains,narratives or ghosts. Rather than illustrating a straightforward attempt at historiographical critique,

the exhibition functions as a draft formulation for possible future histories of art, confounding the

plan of the viewer's present experience of the artwork with those of its potential reconstruction,

interpretation, archiving and taxonomising.

A clear link with the Foundation's past projects is the inclusion in the show of Etienne Chambaud's

Counter-History of Separation (The Naked Document), 2010. This small framed photograph depictsa moment from a performance taking place in that same room during Chambaud's exhibition The

Sirens' Stage, the project directly precedingHistory of Art, the. The opaque glazing on the frame

references another work from the previous exhibition, consisting in the partial whitening of the

street-front windows of the gallery. The document thus becomes a fading, unreliable memory, whilethe exhibition creates a sort of smokey mythology for itself, continuing its life as production of

meaning long after its official closure.

Nina Beier and Marie Lund's The Remains (The Making of) is a chalk maquette of the exhibitionspace, carved within itand for the entire duration of the show. It is a paradoxically mutable portrait

of the exhibition, generating its own memories as they slowly become set in stone.

Other works in the exhibition focus on the ambiguous narratives generated by past artworks. Beier

and Lund's (Calling The Sunbathers) Loss and Cause is an unfired clay replica of Peter Peri's lostsculpture The Sunbathers, to be destroyed if and when the original work will ever be rediscovered:

a temporary replacement for a lapsed art object, transmitting its history as tangible matter.

Downstairs, Agency's Thing 001254 (For Pok)presents the story of a Victor Vasarely painting at the

centre of a case of contested autenticity, while Jill Magid'sAuto Portrait Pendingpromises the body

of the artist herself to a future buyer through a simple contract, stipulating that her ashes be turned

into a diamond. A ring ready to bear the portrait-to-be completes the work, also destined to change

its nature once the artist finally passes away.

Even more intangible and fluid is the work by Navid Nuur, disseminated through one of the media

through which exhibitions and artworks traditionally leave traces of their past existence: the art

review. Nuur reminds us that every writer and every reader participates in the creation of a work's

myth and critical fortune.Where you end and I begin, Navid Nuur, ink onpaper, 2010

Valentina Ravaglia

8.7.2010