E-BOOK_TH

Foreword - Sandra Guimarães
Foreword - Sandra Guimarães
The dialogue with Thomas Hirschhorn
goes back to the first time we worked
together to present his solo exhibition
“Anschool II” at Museu Serralves, Porto,
in 2005-2006. Almost twelve years later,
between 2016-2018, we have worked
together on another occasion, when I
invited Thomas Hirschhorn to conceive
a new work under the title “What Can I
Learn from You. What Can You Learn
from me.” (Critical Workshop) –an
ambitious and complex proposal; his
first ‘Presence and Production’ project in
Canada which involved the residents of
the city of Saskatoon, mainly First
Nations’ participants– for its inaugural
exhibition at Remai Modern.
Arriving at Bombas Gens Centre d’Art
in 2020, it was clear to me to continue
rethinking the role of the museum as a
critical institution that transforms itself
while building a community of
relations. A museum open to the world
and without partitioning, a real critical
instrument endowed with meaning. A
foundation allowing direct contact
between the artist, the public and
society.
This understanding of the museum role
recognizes the need for an art institution
to be fully accountable for its mission,
only achieving it when the institution is
deeply inclusive, able to create
exchanges and generate encounters, and
able to build a platform for art’s
transformative power.
We then decided to implement a new
program direction-setting called
‘community engagement’ at Bombas
Gens. The aim of this program is to
implicate individuals and local
communities through specific art
projects. In 2021, I invited Thomas
Hirschhorn to develop the first ‘Presence
and Production’ project in Spain, at the
museum. ‘Presence and Production’ is a
term that the artist uses for specific
artworks that require his presence onsite
during a given time, allowing
production at all levels. Thomas
Hirschhorn proposed to realize “Energy
= Yes! Quality = No!” (Critical
Workshop).
After visiting more than 50 local
organizations with social, cultural,
educational and neighbourhood
purposes throughout three Fieldworks,
and inviting them to participate,
Thomas Hirschhorn managed to
develop his critical workshop with the
residents of Valencia. It took place from
October 27 to November 21, 2021, from
Wednesday to Sunday with two daily
three-hour sessions. During the project,
considered a universal and inclusive
work of art, each participant was able to
individually share their own work and
contribution, together with the artist,
and their own judgment regarding their
contribution and that of the others,
according to the criteria of “Energy =
Yes! Quality = No!”. In this way, the
participants had to commit to actively
participate, be encouraged to create
something (a poem, a song, a drawing,
etc.), be ready to be judged, and trust
their own criteria. The encouraging
result for four weeks comprised 1991
‘judgments’ (including mine), 37
sessions with a total of 217 participants.
With this artwork Thomas Hirschhorn
was able to implicate the ‘non-exclusive
audience’ - a concept invented by the
artist referring to the creation of a space
of social diversity and integration–
which means that no one is excluded
from his work. This public consists often
of people with spare time, often at the
margins of society and willing to
participate by giving their presence and
their production. The fact that this ‘nonexclusive
audience’ came to attend the
workshop at the museum, some of them
several times, created a displacement of
public space into the institution.
This strong involvement was one of the
defining characteristics of the workshop
together with the untiring presence of
Thomas Hirschhorn himself creating
implication, exchange and dialogue.
Another great aspect of this project was
that it immediately challenged the
potential of the museum. It raised
questions about the role of the
institution and its proximity with the
local community, but also its ability to
create a space in which production can
occur. With this work we were looking
for at this utopian community that all
museums may ideally strive for: a
community of all human beings.
During the time of the second
Fieldwork, Thomas Hirschhorn was
invited to organize the celebration of the
4th anniversary of Bombas Gens. The
result was an unprecedented and
successful party “¡Y A!”, open to all the
people of Valencia –with more than
1000 visitors in a few hours–, where the
artist shared some thoughts and
guidelines on art such as inclusion,
generosity and spontaneity. As
Hirschhorn says, it was “a moment to
share and celebrate the love of art, the
mystery of art and the power of art”.
Many people and organisations
contributed to this beautiful and
complex art project. We want to express
our appreciation to all the participants
who made the critical workshop come
alive.
We are grateful to Jose Luis Soler,
President, and Susana Lloret Vice-
President of Fundació Per Amor a l’Art,
for their constant support to the art
program.
I acknowledge the team of Bombas
Gens, especially Sara Losada and
Florencia Fergnani for organising the
three Fieldworks; Carmen Pereira for
coordinating the workshop installation,
as well as Noelia Medina Fernández for
her daily presence assisting the artist in
every single technical aspect, as for
acting as an interpreter from English to
Spanish and vice-versa, during all the
sessions; and Alba Raja for her
attention to detail coordinating this e-
book in liaison with Romain Lopez,
from the artist’s studio, who has
assisted Thomas Hirschhorn designing
this beautiful e-book.
Finally, I want to express my deep
gratitude to Thomas Hirschhorn for his
vision, his presence and energy given to
our museum and its audience, as well
as his generosity to conceive and design
himself this E-book that documents all
the phases of the workshop, edited by
Bombas Gens, hosted on our website
and shared for free with universal
access to all.
“Energy = Yes! Quality = No!” (Critical
Workshop) is still powerfully alive for
all the participants it touched, and has
transformed our understanding of the
potential of the contemporary art
museum.
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