Market & Super Market STOCKHOLM
After visiting Market and Supermarket I am surprised to say that I found Market more interesting, and perhaps more relevant for me. Super Market had a youthful vitality mixed with a certain earnestness that was at once familiar, perhaps too familiar. The majority of the show featured project based artist led space and galleries. The energy and commitment of these projects was almost palpable despite the Scandinavian coolness of it all. The whole place was buzzing with excitement.
Market on the other hand exuded the mature confidence of established galleries, and if I am honest it's where I'd rather be. I like the context these galleries provide*, I like the attitude and I like the space. I like the calmness. Here is seems that there are the conditions for engaging with the art on it's own terms. Here is art for arts sake. Art being what art can and needs to be – art. I'm not sure I fully understand what I'm trying to express, nor am I sure that words are the best way for me to make an attempt. It was as I went around Market I realised what I have to do when I go back to London – I have to make art.
Again I am reminded of the aside made by the guide at Salong Hofman (last year in Berlin): No artist makes serious work before they are 40. It is coincidence that I am 40? Is it significant that, if anything, I want to know less about what I making and want to trust what I am making more?
It was at Market that I found things to inspire me. I found the things I want to aim for now.
I found the world I want to live in – a confident, moneyed, world of art.
Much of what appealed to me was beautiful, conceptual, simple, philosophical. Objects and images that alluded to something, referred to something, things that I knew were essential and intangible. It was that combination that gave me that thrill, that sense of being in the presence of art.
Tuesday / Wednesday – visit Stockholm galleries.
* I do not include the media frenzy surrounding the stand mentioned in my previous post.
