Original Copy

information coming soon

On Oriol Vilanova’s “Original Copy” 

Vilanova has presented works that respond to exhibition spaces, employing texts, numbers, and the postcards he gathers as he combs flea markets, secondhand bookshops, and antique shops around the world.*1 For example, Economical Poem （From 20 to 10 in 16 movements） （2022）, shown in ’Economy and Love’ （May 20 – July 8, 2023, KOTARO NUKAGA）, a two-person exhibition with Stefan Brüggemann （b. 1975）, looks at first like nothing more than a sequence of numbers following some unknown rule. The moment we realize that what is set out before us is the progression of a price negotiation between the artist and a shopkeeper, however, we find ourselves picturing the heated back-and-forth and the bustle of the flea market, even as we are captivated by the serene beauty of the precise white numerals standing out against the pale gray ground. The restrained palette, and the ardent emotion latent within it, somehow recall the drawings of Cy Twombly （1928 – 2011）. 

The “Spin off” series presented on this occasion is, like his work at the Venice Biennale, made from postcards he has collected. Whereas the presentation in the Spanish Pavilion （designed by Francisco Javier de Luque （1871 – 1941） and completed in 1922） was an installation that blanketed the space with postcards like a Venetian mosaic, the present exhibition adopts a composition that gives pride of place to empty space, attuned to the shapes of the walls that form the gallery. This calls to mind the traditional aesthetic sensibilities of Japan, the exhibition’s host country （the spirituality of Zen, wabi-sabi, and the like）, as well as the maxim “Less is more,” widely attributed to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe （1886 – 1969）, one of the defining architects of the twentieth century, though in fact misattributed to him.*2 Such intervention in architecture, and such keen insight into and command of space, are strengths distinctive to Vilanova, who studied architecture at university. 

Each of these works is composed of postcards bearing exactly the same image, from a minimum of two to a maximum of thirty-two. In The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction （1936）, the German philosopher Walter Benjamin （Walter Bendix Schoenflies Benjamin, 1892 – 1940） wrote that the here and now of the original constitutes the concept of its authenticity, and that the entire sphere of authenticity excludes not only technological reproduction but the very possibility of reproduction itself; he further argued that what withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura*3 of the work of art.*4 

As for the postcards he uses in his installations: the image side is a reproduction, printed in identical form in great numbers, while the address side, inscribed with a destination, an addressee, and a message that differ on every single card, makes each one a singular, unrepeatable object. Even a card that was never used will have followed its own path, scattering out into the world as a souvenir or memento from the place where it was printed and issued, before arriving, after the passage of time and in a different place, in the artist’s hands. This ambivalence inherent in the postcard finds striking expression not only in the exhibited works but also in the exhibition’s very title, “Original Copy.” 

Benjamin sounded a warning: humankind’s self-alienation, he wrote, has reached such a degree that it can experience its own annihilation as an aesthetic pleasure, and this is how far the aestheticization of politics promoted by fascism has come.*5 His argument can be elaborated as follows: mechanical reproduction dramatically expands the exhibitability of the work of art and opens the way to an art in which the masses can participate, yet it also gives rise to a fascism that leads people into war through the aestheticization of politics.*6 Meanwhile, in The Gutenberg Galaxy （1962）, the Canadian critic Marshall McLuhan （Herbert Marshall McLuhan, 1911 – 1980） incisively observed that nationalism depends on, and derives from, the “fixed point of view” that arose together with printing, perspective, and visual quantification.*7 This may in turn be rephrased: modern technologies of reproduction, by bringing about a uniform and homogeneous conception of time and space, create a new social space in which nationalism is fostered.*8 In light of these arguments, would it be reading too much into the images printed on the postcards, among them a missile, a bird, and the sun sinking into the sea, to see reflected in them the chaos of today’s international situation? （The unmanned interceptor developed by Airbus to destroy suicide drones is, incidentally, named “Bird of Prey,” meaning, quite literally, a raptorial bird.） 

Turning now to the small room at the back, we find Old Masters （Monet） （2026） on display. In this work, postcards of a painting by Claude Monet （1840 – 1926） sit in the pocket of the work jacket Vilanova wears when making his rounds of flea markets, secondhand bookshops, and antique shops. To avoid the muddying and loss of brightness caused by mixing pigments, Monet and his fellow Impressionists juxtaposed short strokes of different colors directly on the canvas, a technique known as “divided brushwork,” to induce optical mixture, the phenomenon whereby colors blend on the retina and appear as a single hue. Such paintings may appear almost abstract at close range, yet viewed from a distance they resolve into a depiction of a water-lily pond glittering in the sunlight or a densely green landscape. 

The jacket he wears, moreover, has its origins in the work garment （an atelier coat or jacket） seen in portrait photographs of Monet at work in his studio, and belongs to the lineage of the “bleu de travail,” the blue work jacket, made of moleskin （a thick, satin-weave fabric） or of twill dyed with indigo-blue synthetic dye, that became widely adopted following the Industrial Revolution.*9 The work thus embraces not only art history but the history of labor and of menswear as well. 

Oriol Vilanova’s works move between a series of tensions: the front and back of the postcard, which is to say uniqueness and reproduction, and, in the works composed of postcards, the individual and the mass, part and whole, abstraction and figuration. In this they resonate with the “philosophy of organism” of Alfred North Whitehead （1861 – 1947）, who grasped the world, or universe, as a nexus of actual entities （≒momentary events） in ceaseless becoming and change, perceiving it as at once one and many, at once many and one.*10 This exhibition makes us recognize anew this principle of the world, a truth that manifests itself only through the organic interconnection of all things. 

Daisuke Miyatsu （Art collector and Professor at Yokohama University of Art and Design） 

Notes 

*1: During the residency program of the Delfina Foundation （London, UK）, in which the author took part in the same period as Vilanova, the two co-created a work in which love letters were written to a personified collection （2017）. 

*2: Although widely circulated as the words of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the phrase can be traced back to ancient Greece. In the modern era, the English poet Robert Browning （1812 – 1889） used it in his own poetry （1855）, placing it in the mouth of the Renaissance painter Andrea del Sarto （1486 – 1530）.

Reference: Robert Browning, Men and Women （Japanese edition: Otoko to onna: Robert Browning shishū, trans. Chihiro Ōba, Kokubunsha, 1988）. 

*3: Benjamin stated that the authority of the thing and the weight of what has been handed down within it may be summed up in the concept of the aura, and that what withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art.

Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” trans. Osamu Nomura, in Kōji Taki, Benjamin “Fukusei gijutsu jidai no geijutsu sakuhin” seidoku （A Close Reading of Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”）, Iwanami Shoten, 2000, p. 141. 

*4: Ibid., pp. 139 – 140. 

*5: Ibid., pp. 187 – 188. 

*6: Sōta Takahashi, “‘Fukusei gijutsu jidai no geijutsu sakuhin’ Walter Benjamin,” artscape, https://artscape.jp/artword/6673/ （accessed June 16, 2026）. 

*7: Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man （Japanese edition: Gūtenberuku no ginga-kei: katsuji ningen no keisei, trans. Jōji Mori, Misuzu Shobō, 1986）, p. 337.

The following is the author’s gloss on the quoted passage: nationalism depends on, and derives from, the “fixed point of view” （observing an object from a constant, objective distance） that arose together with printing （the linear, sequential arrangement of the letters of the phonetic alphabet, capable of mass reproduction）, perspective （one-point perspective originating in the camera obscura）, and visual quantification （homogeneous and measurable）. 

*8: Zhao Hanyun, “A Study of the Interaction between ‘Technology’ and ‘Body’ in McLuhan: Rethinking McLuhan’s Media Theory through Anderson’s Theory of Nationalism,” The Journal of International Media, Communication, and Tourism Studies, no. 29, Graduate School of International Media, Communication, and Tourism Studies, Hokkaido University, 2019, p. 74. 

*9: Reference: Cally Blackman, One Hundred Years of Menswear （Japanese edition: Menzuwea 100-nenshi, trans. Masami Sakurai, Space Shower Network, 2010）. 

*10: Reference: Seisaku Yamamoto, Howaitoheddo “Katei to jitsuzai”: seimei no yakudōteki zenshin o egaku “yūkitai no tetsugaku”（Whitehead’s “Process and Reality”: The Philosophy of Organism Depicting the Dynamic Advance of Life）, Kōyō Shobō, 2011, pp. 81–82.

The original reads: “The many become one, and are increased by one” （the author’s gloss: the many are unified into one, and that new one is in turn added to the many）. Quoted from Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology （1929）, Corrected Edition, Free Press, 1979, p. 21.