Streaming
Monday, 11 January 2021 at 5 pm (CET)
aksioma.org/streaming

The Proposal is a thriller, a lopsided romance and a documentary that investigates copyright law and in particular the fate of cultural works that fall into private ownership and become commodities. 

In her film, artist Jill Magid interrogates the oversight of creators’ legacies through the case of Mexican architect Luis Barragán, whose professional archive was purchased by a Swiss furniture company after his death. The foundation established to oversee his papers controls the rights to the architect’s work, including the rights to any photographs of his buildings. After long epistolary exchanges with the owner of the archives, Magid will propose a deal to her: free the archives in exchange for a diamond ring grown from the ashes of Barragán.  

Though unconventional, the offer raises a number of important questions: What is capitalism’s relationship to art and legacy? Who or what is the law protecting when it allows for the privatisation of culture? How can art be a methodology through which challenging issues are dissected? 

Jill Magid participated in a streaming conversation with blogger Régine Debatty. The event featured exclusive clips from the documentary.

Special guests: Alenka Pirman, Maja Bogataj Jančič, Matevž Čelik