El Cuor No Se Vende
1.07.2016 – 31.08.2016
Sprayed in big bold white letters onto a red banner in Venice, and somehow impossible for any Venice-dwelling lovers floatpassing the Grand Canal aboard a vaporetto to miss out on, lies this tremendous sentence « EL CUOR NO SE VENDE », a genuine manifesto against speculation and rampant mercantilism.
We used these few Venetian words and turned them into the title of our second exhibition at the Historical Archives Museum of Hydra. By way of a stigmatizing elite-oriented (such as Art Basel) spectacular art events, Charles Saatchi humourously hinted at La Fiac back in 2011 in a Guardian column, saying: « Do any of these people actually enjoy looking at art? Or do they simply enjoy having easily recognised, big-brand name pictures, bought ostentatiously in auction rooms at eye-catching prices? » The art works to be displayed down at the Historical Archives Museum of Hydra from July, 1st to August, 31st, were not subjected to the selection of this last quarter of the century’s artistic production, a process that is so usually cherished it’s become mundane.
Among the big names, you won’t find any Murakami, Fisher, Hirst or Koons, artists whom any contemporary art lover would expect to find at any trend fare, down at Starbucks, Zara, Nespresso, or H&M in the case of most big-city dwellers walking down the high street.
In this museum of Hydra, which inherent story and magical location are emotionally charged, we invite visitors to come and discover new talents such as Isao Llorens, Quentin Garel, Lee Jung Woong and Yves Bélorgey. These artists’ works all conquered the heart of our exhibition’s curator, as they bear no speculation and seem to all be all united by a common thread. A thread made out of creative ethics, a true conspicuous comeback to craftmanship in the artistic work, and a certain sense of contempt for any need of a creative justification.
Didier Guillon, 2016
