As part of the series of lectures titled “The futures of the museum”, in this talk, visual artist Asier Mendizabal reflects on how it is only by going back to past predictions that we can know whether they were accurate or not, or convincing enough to generate their own future accomplishment. Mendizabal says that “this paradox makes me give up the prospective intention of the invitation to talk about the futures of the museum and to focus more modestly on some of the moments where my work has intersected with museum issues, the collection, the canon, etc.” In this talk, the artist suggests that “any collection is necessarily a contingent accumulation of materials”, and that “the readings that are symptomatically made in the future of our present choices are what will turn that contingency into a signifier and a collection into a narrative.”
Asier Mendizabal (Ordizia, 1973) is a visual artist who is also involved in several educational projects through his current position as professor of sculpture at KKH, Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm or as part of the Study Committee of JAI. Institute for Artistic Practices.
Asier Mendizabal’s talk at the museum was given in Basque language.