'Apropos' — 10YR House of Magazines Sculpture

Apropos, 2026
Magazines encased in acrylic
Edition of 3

Dimensions
Sculpture: 28 (w) x 9 (w) x 36 (h)
Base: 30 (w) x 30 (w) x 4 (h)

If you're interested in a larger or smaller version, email [email protected]

———

In 1990, the year I was born, Maurizio Cattelan made 'Strategies,' a precarious house of cards constructed from Flash Art magazines, aluminum and glue. To me, that work represents the art world's fickle ecosystem: artists, galleries, critics, publications and markets leaning against one another, somehow keeping the whole thing upright.

I first encountered 'Strategies' at MAMbo in Bologna in 2021. It stuck with me, and I knew I wanted to reinterpret it using copies of Grøss eventually. It just needed a reason.

Ten years of Grøss feels like reason enough.

Cattelan transformed a publication into an artwork. For a decade, Grøss has done something like the inverse: transforming artworks, artists and the strange ecosystem surrounding them into a publication. Now the publication becomes artwork again. A neat feedback loop of appropriation.

One very important structural difference, though:

Cattelan's aluminum supports attempt to disappear, creating the illusion that his magazines are performing an improbable balancing act. Here, there is nothing to hide. Each Grøss is individually preserved inside a crystal-clear acrylic case—part frame, part exoskeleton, part preservation cryochamber. The support structure is clean, rigid, and proud to be seen.

The magazines don't bend. They're not cut, glued, or sacrificed at the altar of art. They're protected as the artifacts they've become after ten years of making the damn things.

An appropriator appropriating an appropriator and calling it 'Apropos.' :)

Whether this is homage, theft, institutional critique, publishing therapy, or an unnecessarily elaborate way of displaying magazines is up to you.

Maurizio, if this somehow finds its way to you: I owe you one.

Literally. I'll send you an edition. All I need is an address.

- Victor Gonzalez
co-founder, Grøss Magazine