The stairs go the other way in the Southern hemisphere! Photo from Flickr user CDevers.
It’s tough staying in the avant-garde nowadays. Ideas appear, they get tweeted, they go viral, and by the time we write about them nobody cares. So how do we stay fresh? By staying ahead. Each year, we harness our psychic abilities to foresee the next twelve months of art news; this year, we’re sharing. Our sneak preview of 2011 in the art world:
Disclaimer: Our crystal balls are all broken here in the AFC offices, so we’re down to tea leaves. Apologies in advance if these predictions are a little off.
- The Versailles series continues with an installation by Andres Serrano, who urinates in the stairwells of the palace in a site-specific gesture evocative of its history. A dozen protesters picket outside the exhibition, and a letter is written to the local newspaper complaining that a French artist should have been chosen instead.
- The Smithsonian has another controversy as right-wing pressure groups insist on the removal of a Warhol Mao for its homosexual, communist message. A newly Republican Congress slashes the institution’s budget, relocating it to newly freed land in Guantanamo.
- Allora and Calzadilla are robbed of their pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. Their replacement, a Roberta’s franchise, is wildly successful.
- Following in the footsteps of Damien Hirst’s Sotheby’s auction, Kalup Linzy and Phillips de Pury team up to sell artifacts from Linzy’s performances at auction. James Franco goes to an unnamed Russian collector for seven figures.
- MoMA, looking to save money in the wake of incredibly expensive shows like “Abstract Expressionist New York” and “Contemporary Art from the Collection”, announces an introspective, self-critical rehang of its permanent collection, looking at changes in display practices over the past year. All permanent galleries are hung exactly as they were in the pivotal year 2010, with the exception of the Futurism room being turned over to a gift shop.
- A major twitter spat erupts over Work of Art season 2 casting. Bravo gets the last word when they deny having ever invited Tobias Meyer to participate as an artist.
- The VIP Art Fair creates a social space for collectors to mingle without leaving home, but typical internet problems arise: one work sold turns out, upon delivery, to actually be a pedophile.
- In an incredible statistical anomaly, on September 23rd, 2011, no one dies. Terence Koh, having only worn white suits after the Chinese funerary custom, is sighted the next day wearing jeans and a t-shirt that reads “Yogurt has Culture”.
We understand we’re not the only people with these sorts of powers, so we’re opening the comments up to readers’ prognostications. What’s going to be huge? What’s going to tank? Who’s going to die or, more importantly, get rich? Bonus points if you can explain which lines on your hand mean land art is coming back.
