Commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, ACCA
Ramírez’s practice examines the conditions of contemporary artistic life, looking beyond specific mediums to the systems that shape how art is produced, supported and experienced. At the centre of his NEW26 project is Bureausis (2026), a Kafkaesque novel that began as a ‘failed handbook’ for contemporary art under total bureaucracy.With dry humour and compassion, the novel charts the absurdities of a cultural system increasingly ensnarled in administration, with endless grant applications, governance protocols, risk assessments, HR language and institutional frameworks designed to support artists, which can instead become systems of regulation.
Ramírez extends the novel into a gallery installation: a miscellaneous waiting room furnished with designer office chairs and piles of the publication. A section of ACCA’s wall has been removed to expose its internal structure, while emanating light and sound suggest the world beyond the gallery. The waiting room becomes a space of perpetual anticipation, evoking the experience of artists and arts workers waiting for funding, recognition and opportunity.
Ramírez’s installation also reflects on NEW’s own history of absence and return, referencing works presented in previous iterations of the series. References include Emily Floyd in NEW03, and Stuart Ringholt in NEW05 who each engaged with text and novels, as well as Natasha Johns-Messenger in NEW09, Fiona Connor in NEW10, and Ash Kilmartin in NEW15 who staged on site-specific interventions. Alongside these institutional histories, tarot cards introduce another form of guidance, placing systems of divination against bureaucracies that govern contemporary art.
