In 2000 I invited the artist Lawrence Weiner to carry out a specific project for the Palacio de Cristal, MNCARS, with the curatorial premise that he would establish a link between the Palacio and the Sabatini building. Weiner chose the Library. On the tour, he pointed out an emblematic sculpture: The Fallen Angel, 1878, by Ricardo Bellver, located at elevation 666 in the Retiro Park.

Lawrence Weiner. A conversation by Fax (with A. Chillida)

(...) THE FACT IS THAT ART IN ITS OWN CULTURAL CONTEXT TRIES TO CONFRONT AND CHANGE THE CONFIGURATION OF CULTURE, WHATEVER THE CONTEXT.

IN ORDER TO FUNCTION, ART THAT IS DISPLACED OR PLACED IN A CULTURAL CONTEXT THAT IS NOT ITS OWN MUST FACE AN ATTEMPT TO CHANGE THE CULTURAL CONFIGURATION OF THE NEW ENVIRONMENT; IF THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN, IT WILL NO LONGER FUNCTION AS ART, BUT WILL BE RELEGATED TO ETHNOGRAPHY.

RENOUNCING THE FUNCTION OF ART IN ORDER TO PLACE IT IN THE INHERENT FORM OF ANOTHER CULTURE, ELIMINATES THE REASONS FOR ITS EXISTENCE (WITHOUT INFECTION THERE IS NO NEED FOR ANTIBIOTICS) (...).

THE MEANS TO VISUALIZE THE PRESENTATION OF A PREMISE ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OBJECTS. THE SEARCH FOR A PLINTH DISTINCT FROM THE EARTH ITSELF. PLACING AN INFORMAL OBJECT (ART) WITHIN A FORMAL CONSTRUCTION (CULTURE). (...)

LET US ASSUME THE FOLLOWING: THE CONCEPT OF THE FALLEN ANGEL IN RELATION TO THE WORK PRESENTED IS ONLY THAT OF THE PRESENTATION OF A WORK THAT DOES NOT DEPEND ON A KNOWLEDGE OF THE HISTORY OF THE WESTERN WORLD (OR THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE VALIDITY OF THAT HISTORY; IT IS NOT AHISTORICAL, BUT ADEQUATE) FOR THE MATERIALS AND EACH OF THE CONFIGURATIONS TO HAVE A SENSE AND A MEANING IN OUR CONTEXT (NOW).

THE WORK MUST BE ABLE TO EXIST AND MAINTAIN A FREE FLOW WITH OR WITHOUT THE HELP OF THE STRUCTURE, LIKE MOST VECTORS:

IMMERSION IN THE STREAM OF CULTURE IS SUFFICIENT:

THE PURPOSE OF THE WORK.

WHAT USE IT RECEIVES DEPENDS ON THE INTENT AND NEED OF THE PLINTH.

ALL ART IS MADE OUT OF ANGER.

Lawrence Weiner: Per Se. Bartomeu Marí

Lawrence Weiner alludes to the fact that the value of art is granted by the spectator who perceives it and does with that perception what he or she consciously considers appropriate or what happens unconsciously. We are at the antipodes of phenomena that occurred both in the fifties and in the eighties, where the idea of genius, virtuosity, charisma, glamour and their economic, social or media translations trapped art, its main actors and its products within a mesh of impositions very distant from the cultural value itself. The desire for objectivity in the treatment of the material of art and its location in the world is a primordial fact in Weiner's position.

The French historian Jean François Chevrier has analyzed in The year 1967. From art objects to public things, the series of changes that took place in the conception of art and its role in the relationship to the public in democratic societies around the late sixties, of which, in a certain way, Weiner's work is a participant. And even if it is true that in his famous essay The Dematerialization of the art object. In her book, Rosalyn Krauss points to the phenomenon of dematerialization as one of the topos of the art of the sixties. -My intention is to insist that Weiner's work is centered in the field of Sculpture. That is, a field basically composed of materials and their presentation, their characteristics and qualities, their behavior, their eventual erosion and their changes of state.

Sculpture made with words? Not exactly. Weiner's work uses the facts of language, grammar and punctuation marks as a vehicle for the presentation of the work. The presentation benefits from both the supports chosen by the artist and the characteristics (typography, typeface...) and accidental qualities (color, graphic layout).

In essence, the work presented at the Crystal Palace articulates the relationship between materials of different kinds. Their comparison immediately yields a variety of behaviors, resistances and values. We find precious materials (gold, silver, emeralds, diamonds) whose qualities of perenniality or resistance are combined with their fixed characteristics (brightness, transparency, color); materials that we find in elaborated forms (steel) around us; minerals that manifest themselves in the form of conditioning (salt). PER SE/ BY ITSELF suggests, for example, the absence of manipulation prior to their presentation, their pure presence as materials. What is inherent in something, which we call PER SE/ BY ITSELF, indicates that the sense or meaning of the materials used is not metaphorical but literal. Their presentation on the site, in the form of stencils transposed to the roof of the building, will allow the sun's rays to project them onto the ground and, in their movement, make them roam the interior of the site as the day progresses. Glass - a material also used by the artist - is here the "pedestal" that completes the work as a whole.

An essential key to the disposition is given to us by the figure of the Fallen Angel, whose statue stands in the Retiro Park. Weiner urges us to reflect on how certain facts or events happen by themselves (the fallen angel has fallen by virtue of his inherent nature) and how others are due to actions and would not be possible without intention.