Exhibitions
Ghislaine Leung brings 'Maintenance' to Espai 13
The British artist questions the mechanisms that sustain cultural institutions with a conceptual intervention that is part of the cycle from 6:12 p.m. to 5:48 p.m., curated by Alejandro Alonso Díaz.
Espai 13 of the Fundació Joan Miró presents Maintenance , the first solo exhibition by the artist Ghislaine Leung in this space, a proposal that transforms the exhibition hall into a laboratory for thinking about the structures that sustain the institution and, by extension, everyday life. The exhibition can be visited from July 17 to October 18, 2026 and is part of the cycle from 6:12 p.m. to 5:48 p.m. , curated by Alejandro Alonso Díaz with the collaboration of the Fundació Banco Sabadell.
Known for an artistic practice based on the formulation of scores or written instructions, Leung conceives her works as open devices that only take shape according to the material, social and political conditions of the place where they are activated. Rather than producing objects, the artist highlights the mechanisms that regulate institutions and the working relationships that make them possible.
In Maintenance , this methodology is embodied in an intervention that is as simple as it is forceful: from a certain date, Espai 13 ceases to receive the usual cleaning and conservation tasks. The space remains open to the public without the maintenance routines that usually guarantee the neutrality of the white exhibition cube being carried out. Wear, dust and the passage of time cease to be invisible elements to become the true protagonists of the exhibition.
With this gesture, Leung shifts attention to the work—industrial, reproductive and emotional—that sustains any productive structure, questioning the institutional protocols that tend to hide the frictions, limitations and people who make the functioning of cultural spaces possible.
The exhibition also includes the pieces Budgets and FJM Edition , two works that analyze the economic and logistical circuits of the Fundació Joan Miró. Through these works, the artist makes visible the conditions of value production within the institution and proposes models that aspire to not reproduce forms of structural violence.
Leung's proposal transcends institutional criticism to become a reflection on the sustainability of artistic practice. His way of working incorporates personal decisions that are also part of the work: not attending installations, avoiding travel for openings or regulating energy consumption as a conscious strategy of resistance to the demands of the art system. These premises become an invitation to reconsider the way we manage resources, time and personal limits.
Maintenance is the first of five exhibitions that make up the cycle from 6:12 PM to 5:48 PM, a program that explores the immaterial dimensions of energy and its impact on the structures we inhabit. Huaqian Zhang, Michael Kleine, Victor Ruiz Colomer —who will exhibit from October 30, 2026 to January 17, 2027— and Camilla Wills will also participate throughout the season, expanding a collective investigation into the invisible forms that shape contemporary institutions, spaces, and relationships.
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