Descarga el catálogo de Inéditos 2012. - Obra Social Caja Madrid

D A N I E L C E R R E J Ó N • H A C E R E L F R A C A S O
CONVERSATION BETWEEN ALESSIO
ANTONIOLLI & DANIEL CERREJÓN
Tuesday 1 May 2012
Daniel: I see this project as a bit of a collaboration between me and
the jury who selected it, as we are all involved in making it happen.
As a result, I am very curious about your point of view and wanted to
know why you chose it and what is interesting for you about the idea of
Making Failure.
Alessio: For me there is something very current in the idea of developing
an exhibition that addresses failure in the way you proposed. The
suggestion here is that the concept of ‘making failure’ doesn’t identify
things that are not work but it seems to be about something that could
get lost, be discarded or simply disregarded because it falls outside the
mainstream. As such Making Failure points at things that may appear
marginal or unresolved but that could introduce a new set of possibilities.
At a time when the mainstream (the social and political status quo) is
in crisis it becomes even more relevant, even urgent, to find alternative
ways or routes for moving forward. There may be different levels of crisis
around the world but certainly it seems timely to see that success, as
we know it, may not continue in the same way, and its failure could be
seen more and more as a welcome alternative. At the level of cultural
institutions, cuts in funding and a redistribution of public money forces
us to rethink the way we keep functioning and working with artists.
Although I am not suggesting that your proposal or the artists in the
exhibition should be dealing with these issues directly, they seem useful
in considering the works in your show for their greater concern with
process, often sitting uncomfortably within commercial frameworks.
D: It’s funny that you say this. Since receiving the news of the award I
have heard of several projects in Spain that deal with the question of
failure. This is clearly symptomatic of the current situation. However,
when I was thinking about Making Failure I was not thinking about the
political, financial or social context of Spain. In fact, my proposal was
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