Art & Language founded its practice around a community of ideas. The magazine Art-Language was first published in 1969 and became the platform for one of the most intense theoretical productions of the second half of the twentieth century. Based on language, discourse and conversation, Art & Language critically reviews the system of modern art and its premises, challenging the existing vocabulary of art history and refusing to join any definite artistic identity.

Through this practice, conversation – which is often considered a commentary on labour – becomes the workplace itself; in other words, it takes the place of the art object rather than being a vehicle that signifies the work.

The exhibition at MACBA avoids any archaeological vision and offers the possibility of establishing relationships between heterogeneous material, discarding the separation between different artistic practices and establishing connections that link the various episodes throughout a trajectory spanning nearly half a century.

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication produced by MACBA that includes a broad representation of works by Art & Language deposited at the Museum, together with texts by Art & Language, Carles Guerra, Matthew Jesse Jackson and Philippe Méaille.