Things Things Say
Opening: October 17, 2020 at 12h
Final date: January 17, 2021
Where: Ground floor
Curated by Latitudes (Mariana Cánepa and Max Andrews).
Notice: Due to the current health situation for COVID-19, the room kit will be only available online. You can download it here: 
Things Things say.pdf
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Things Things Say includes works by Adrià Julià (1974, lives in Barcelona and Bergen), Annette Kelm (1975, lives in Berlin), James N. Kienitz Wilkins (1983, lives in New York), Sarah Ortmeyer (1980, lives in Frankfurt am Main), Eulàlia Rovira (1985, lives in Barcelona), Francesc Serra i Dimas (1877 - 1967, Barcelona), Stuart Whipps (1979, lives in Birmingham), Haegue Yang (1971, lives in Berlin and Seoul), as well as meaningful things from the Friends of Fabra i Coats archive.
Do you trust things to write human history? To speak on behalf of natural history? Did you ever own a pair of dungarees? When do trivial details become vital? Can a pebble destroy an empire if the emperor chokes at dinner? Would the pebble stand accused?
Do you ever feel that the thing we call theory and the thing we call art are moving in different directions? Shouldn’t exhibitions be the place to think about the relationships between human subjects and inanimate objects? Has the inexplicable gone missing? Is the exhibition ritual still effective? Did museums really miss you in the spring? Is the key key?
Do things’ lives matter? Can you fabricate creation? Is your appreciation of a well-made thing—let us say that chair over there, for example—influenced by having worked hard to get it, or are you as likely to value a good thing having come by it easily? When do unremarkable things become vintage things? If the meaning of a thing is not stable, does that undermine its role as evidence? Does popcorn hold firm opinions?
Are you familiar with the Luddites? Have you ever expressed violence against machinery? Would you associate dematerialisation with deindustrialisation? Are you comfortable with the assertion that you suffer from bad metaphysics—an inability to connect the particular and the general? Does the act of buying bread not encompass a far wider system of the whole world’s grain markets? Have you ever wondered why there is a hole in a donut? What does an art centre claim to be at the centre of? Have you heard the expressions “how long is a piece of string?”, or “exceptional typical”? Do you value a coherent argument? Do you seek out provenance, explication, analysis, or description?
Do you really think that if you stare at something long enough, it will reveal its secrets? Does a desire to write about a small car indicate some fear of its inadequacy? What is an idea stripped down to its simplest form? Can art become obsolete like it can be restored? How are things with you?
Free tours of the exhibitions every saturday at 18.00 and sunday at 12:30h. Free pre-registration at centredart@bcn.cat until 14.30 on the Friday before the weekend. Maximum capacity: 10 people (COVID-19 measure).
Free entrance.
Guide of the exhibition and audioguide read by the artist Eulàlia Rovira.
Photo Credits: Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona
