Artist: Pablo Helguera
Exhibition title: Beautiful Eccentrics: Central Casting
Venue: KIOSK, Ghent, Belgium
Date: September 16 – November 11, 2023
Photography: All images copyright and courtesy of the artist and KIOSK, Ghent
Dear Visitor,
On January 1, 2021, the artist Pablo Helguera published The Pretenses of Failure, the inaugural column on his blog Beautiful Eccentrics. At the time, he embarked on this literary journey without a clear direction or specific expectations.
The modest subtitle of the project, Letters, Notes, and Marginalia on Contemporary Art, didn’t fully convey the ambition and generosity that would come to define it. Every Thursday, Helguera shares a text exploring various facets of the contemporary art world, delving into topics such as success, education, humor, fame, commodification, and more.
Beautiful Eccentrics pays homage not only to the individuals who have directly influenced Helguera but also to those he has collaborated with, grown alongside, or found inspiring. It functions as a subtle autobiography (Helguera drew inspiration from Montaigne’s Essais…)
Fast forward three years, more than a hundred-fifty columns and over 4000 weekly readers later, Pablo Helguera answered KIOSK’s invitation to stage a solo exhibition in the old anatomical theater with Beautiful Eccentrics: Central Casting—a visually compelling three-dimensional translation of nine of his columns.
For those unfamiliar with the multitude of projects Helguera has undertaken over the last three decades, the exhibition presents a unique opportunity to gain insight into the diversity of his artistic practice. This tour ranges from the paintings he created as a Mexican teenager to the artoons that brought him worldwide fame, or even the chance to potentially become the owner of one of the 26 collages from his Arlington Height series…
As a self-declared enthusiast of the past, Helguera embraces the richness of nostalgia and its power to help one understand their identity and shape their perspective on the future. For him, the creative process almost always starts with writing – jotting down notes to grapple with a problem or question. This writing then becomes the score for an art work – the content that defines the form.
Beautiful Eccentrics’ exhibition extends an invitation to defy conformity and question unspoken conventions. We have prepared the stage for you: now, it is your turn to take the spotlight! And if you ever doubt the significance of this endeavor, recall the words of philosopher John Stuart Mill: “That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of our time.”
Thank you for your engagement!
Simon Delobel
PS: Initially, Helguera intended for Beautiful Eccentrics to be a podcast, but due to practical reasons (and his preference for writing), it never materialized. However, on the occasion of the exhibition at KIOSK, Helguera recorded the nine texts featured in the show. To listen to Pablo Helguera, please scan the QR codes on the nine black Plexiglas labels on display.
