MAGAZINE 08 - Positive critical imagination

The Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop presents its annual show this August, ‘Magazine 08’, curated for the first time by two of Spain’s most prominent curators, Javier Marroquí and David Arlandis.

I managed to pick their brains for a while… Marroquí explained that whilst curation deposits merit in terms of connection between the works on the whole, this was a wonderful opportunity to work with international artists, which allowed for more openness and flexibility. A pioneering step forward for the ESW. This is a three-year long and still ongoing curational investigation which goes beyond art, added Arlandis, so this year will turn out quite differently to previous annual shows, with fewer works but a much stronger coherence.

The ESW was a little behind schedule due to some flooding, but the primary focus of making things better through creative imagination, was taking shape nicely.

Featured artists like Marta de Gonzalo, Andreja Kuluncic and WochenKlausur aim to provide an education for everyone with a positive, critical voice regarding socio-politics and through a democratic system; works like de Gonzalo’s The Intention (2008) (a school desk-like contraption, a television screen installed providing audiovisual literacy) and Kuluncic’s Distributive Justice (2001-ongoing) which sees to an equal distribution of common good, exemplify the idea of making something new out of something old, like housing or factories that have failed in the past, by taking control. Fundamentally people are enabled to make their reality better for themselves, by themselves. A kind of DIY life improvement guide.

Upcoming talks and events held by the artists and curators, will give the public a chance to get involved and have their say on the proposed effective and realistic social actions.