#JWIITMTESDSA? (Just what is it that makes today´s exhibitions so different, so appealing?)

by Cristina Garrido

Today, what criteria must a work of art fulfil in order to experience success on the international art scene?

I combed through well-known art magazine blogs as well as galleries and social media websites and gathered more than 2500 photos of art exhibitions from all over the world, dating from the past four years. I evaluated the picture archive looking for formal trends, and identified 21 categories, which constitute a kind of canon of the contemporary international exhibition business. This includes motifs, objects, materials and forms of presentation.

I confronted 36 creatives from diverse countries with this canon and asked them questions about its possible causes and consequences: Is there a real democratization in the use of digital technologies? Who controls devices and how far their influence can reach? What role do the various actors of the art system play in making these decisions?

This research took two independent forms: of a video and an installation consisting of a spatial collage of objects and materials loosely representing the various categories. They are set in relation to a soundtrack with representative reactions from the creatives I questioned.