The MUN opens the group exhibition "A joke is a serious thing", an exploration of humor as an artistic resource to appeal to reflection.

What role does humor play in contemporary art and how do artists use it? These are some of the questions that Eva del Llano, María Gallegos and Jaime Guillén asked themselves when they studied the pieces in the Bergé Collection and found humorous and playful elements in many of them. The result of this research is A joke is a serious thing. Humor in art through the Bergé Collectionthe group exhibition that opened this Wednesday at Museo Universidad de Navarra in the Torre hall.

The exhibition brings together the work of 15 national and international artists who use humor as an artistic procedure that appeals to critical reflection: Liz Arnold, Anna Barriball, Andrea Bowers, Martin Creed, Dora García, Pablo Helguera, Chris Johanson, Jaime Pitarch, Werner Reiterer, Nina Saunders, David Shrigley, Bob and Roberta Smith, Nedko Solakov, Marijke Van Warmerdam and Erwim Wurm. The proposal has been chosen among the Master's Thesis of the IV promotion of the Master in Museum Curatorial Studies and has the support of Fundación Palazuelo and the Government of Navarra.

"Humor is a resource that allows artists a much more immediate approach to the public, while enabling them to address issues that otherwise could not be dealt with," explained the curators, who were accompanied at the presentation by Pedro Enciso, vice president of Bergé y Cía; Nieves Acedo, director of the master's program; Gabriel Pérez Barreiro, professor of the postgraduate program and co-director of the TFM with Acedo; and María Aguilera, curator of the Bergé Foundation.

ARTISTIC DIALOGUE

Despite resorting to very varied techniques and themes, the chosen pieces share the way in which the young curators approached them and the sensations they provoked in them: "First it was of estrangement and then of recognition, everything that humor generates. Regardless of the different ways in which it can be present in an artist's vision, the way it is received constitutes a common space. Humor first puzzles us and, thanks to that, we try to understand it. All the works closely invite the viewer to interact with them, as a result of their playful and carefree aspect".

The title itself is already a declaration of intentions: "A joke is a serious thing was the phrase that allowed us to reflect the contradiction we noticed in humor, which at the same time that produces a pleasant effect can be very sharp and incisive, precisely because it intrinsically carries critical distancing". In this sense, they emphasize that, "throughout the project, we realized that humor can be a destabilizing tool, which sometimes even runs the risk of offending. It is very delicate and contexts must be taken into account, but, without a doubt, its function is always to break boundaries".

Regarding the work with the Bergé Collection, they value that "it has been a luck and a privilege. You can tell that behind the team there is a great interest in contemporary art and emerging artists, many of them already very renowned artists today. They have given us all kinds of facilities for the project to go ahead".

WORK IN THE MASTER'S PROGRAM

This project is part of the training received by the students of the Master's Degree in Curatorial Studies at the Museum. After each graduating class, the postgraduate students present their proposals to a panel that chooses the one that, due to its technical quality, will be the subject of an exhibition within the Museum's program. The vision of the young curators, enriched by their time in the academic program, is a good reflection of current trends in the profession.  

In the words of the curators, the postgraduate course has been of great help to them in undertaking this first curatorial project: "Especially in the second semester, when we started to develop it, essential subjects such as Communication, with Lola Iglesias; Conservation Protocols, with Asunción Domeño; or Art and Space, with Javier Antón, to mention a few, were articulated, which gave us a direct application to our Master's Thesis. Undoubtedly, this project has materialized many of the teachings of the master's degree, moving from the theoretical to the practical level. This exhibition has given us the possibility of getting to know more directly, with its lights and shadows, the exciting world of curatorship".