The most read Spike articles of 2015

 Marina Abramović, Crystal Cinema

1. Marina Abramović: “I will never do it again”
2. Nik Kosmas about leaving the art world
3. An interview with Yanis Varoufakis by Leon Kahane 
4. Isabelle Graw on Kids in the Art World 
5. The Nausea of Uploading by Jaakko Pallasvuo
6. The creepy and grotesque of Kanye, Kim and Juergen by Dean Kissick 
7. The Soul of Simon Denny   
8. Nicolas Bourriaud tells us why he was dismissed 
9. Going out in Basel by SALTS
10. Dis on Kids in the Art World

 

On 16 March 2015 Spike Art Daily went online. Three months later the artist Daniel Keller wrote on Facebook, “Spike has become THE premiere destination for excellent artist exit screeds” after reading a text by Jaakko Pallasvuo, whose years as a practicing artist overlapped with the peak years of sharing culture and who, by the time of writing, just wanted to shut the fuck up. 

Later Nicolas Bourriaud set the record straight on why he was dismissed from his post as director of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Marina Abramović told us why she felt cheated by Jay Z, and the hero of the new Left Yanis Varoufakis explained to a Berlin-based artist what’s wrong with having documenta 14 in Athens. But to this day the article which gets the most daily traffic features Nik Kosmas – Daniel Keller’s former collaborator in AIDS-3D – describing why he decided to end his career as a successful visual artist.

There were many strategies of disappearance, but above all it was the personal stories told from inside the art world that seemed to engage our readers most. That probably explains the success of the “Kids in the Art World” series, which also claimed spot 11 (Harm van den Dorpel) and 12 (Chus Martínez). From the beginning Spike Art Daily has followed what the print magazine has been doing for ten years: letting artists speak for themselves in order to try and understand what this system is that we find ourselves in the middle of. 

And now? Well, Jaakko Pallasvuo has overcome his apparent disgust and is posting again, Marina Abramović has apologized to Jay Z and we heard rumours that Nik Kosmas might start making art again. This year we’ll be doing some things differently but you can be sure to expect more confessions. Thanks for reading!