History of Art, the David Roberts Art Foundation Fitzrovia, 07.05.2010 10.07.

.2010 The ambitious concept behind History of Art, the, devised by Romanian curator Mihnea Mircan for the David Roberts Art Foundation, is that of investigating how artworks can attempt a formulation of their own near future, be it as memories, art historical specimens, documents, physical remains, narratives or ghosts. Rather than illustrating a straightforward attempt at historiographical critique, the exhibition functions as a draft formulation for possible future histories of art, confounding the plan of the viewer's present experience of the artwork with those of its potential reconstruction, interpretation, archiving and taxonomising. A clear link with the Foundation's past projects is the inclusion in the show of Etienne Chambaud's Counter-History of Separation (The Naked Document), 2010. This small framed photograph depicts a moment from a performance taking place in that same room during Chambaud's exhibition The Sirens' Stage, the project directly preceding History of Art, the. The opaque glazing on the frame references another work from the previous exhibition, consisting in the partial whitening of the street-front windows of the gallery. The document thus becomes a fading, unreliable memory, while the exhibition creates a sort of smokey mythology for itself, continuing its life as production of meaning long after its official closure. Nina Beier and Marie Lund's The Remains (The Making of) is a chalk maquette of the exhibition space, carved within it and for the entire duration of the show. It is a paradoxically mutable portrait of the exhibition, generating its own memories as they slowly become set in stone. Other works in the exhibition focus on the ambiguous narratives generated by past artworks. Beier and Lund's (Calling The Sunbathers) Loss and Cause is an unfired clay replica of Peter Peri's lost sculpture The Sunbathers, to be destroyed if and when the original work will ever be rediscovered: a temporary replacement for a lapsed art object, transmitting its history as tangible matter. Downstairs, Agency's Thing 001254 (For Pok) presents the story of a Victor Vasarely painting at the centre of a case of contested autenticity, while Jill Magid's Auto Portrait Pending promises the body of the artist herself to a future buyer through a simple contract, stipulating that her ashes be turned into a diamond. A ring ready to bear the portrait-to-be completes the work, also destined to change its nature once the artist finally passes away. Even more intangible and fluid is the work by Navid Nuur, disseminated through one of the media through which exhibitions and artworks traditionally leave traces of their past existence: the art review. Nuur reminds us that every writer and every reader participates in the creation of a work's myth and critical fortune. Where you end and I begin, Navid Nuur, ink on paper, 2010

Valentina Ravaglia 8.7.2010