Club Humo de Mundo
The first twenty five of a series of boxes measuring approximately 4x12x17 cm, manufactured from teak wood, containing a little cushion of brown velvet whereupon rests a cigar cast in massive bronze reproducing a Havana cigar of the Coronas type, are launched November 1994. This initial production was distributed among the honorary members of the club: Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, Leo Castelli, Rudi Fuchs, Nicholas Serota, Robert Hughes, Peter Ludwig, among others. Later another twenty seven boxes were produced, two for the founding members of the club and twenty five more, which were put up for sale at the Stockholm Art Fair where the project was presented in March 1995.

The Box

A project in colaboration with Anders Tornberg Gallery

A necessary metatext for "Humo de Mundo"

by Ana Giselle Robaina Ancizar

"I have committed an irreparable act, I have established a bond." J.L. Borges If we admit to the supposition that there exists an unwritten history behind traditional history and furthermore that this unwritten history not merely constitutes a hidden reference to the, for reasons of inconvenience, unmentionable, but to the unmentionable because of "intranscendent", we shall know what to do with the latest artistic project of Juan Carlos Peirone. Until now the artist has conducted his creative work along paths referring to the most basic and elementary aspects of human trivialities. This time, however, although maintaining anthropological criteria for his conception, he has utilized other means to reach the same goal. In his most recent work, a project in collaboration with gallery owner Anders Tornberg, he offers us the paradox of maintaining his human focus not through the insignificant points of our existence, but by emphasizing elements within the framework of relations of power, relations as we all know constitute supreme motivators for human activities. The quest of the artist in this case has been experimenting at integrating into the group of those who hold power trying at the same time to keep himself even more distant from the subordinate. Twenty five powerful and mighty persons, or more correctly, a score of world power holders where art is concerned, are the "lucky" receivers of Peirone's objects. He himself is however excluded from the context of the objects. In a sort of disguised joke he disrespectfully projects the distribution of his work among the members of the "Club Humo de Mundo" of his own invention, so that without knowing why, some of the most important art critics, collectors, gallery owners and directors of art museums in Europe and America are obliged to receive an object of art which in appearance is just a beautiful gift but at the same time it constitutes an act of violence. The first twenty five of a series of boxes measuring approximately 4x12x17 cm, manufactured from teak wood, containing a little cushion of brown velvet whereupon rests a cigar cast in massive bronze reproducing a Havana cigar of the Coronas type, are launched November 1994. This initial production was distributed among the honorary members of the club: Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, Leo Castelli, Rudi Fuchs, Nicholas Serota, Robert Hughes, Peter Ludwig, among others. Later another twenty seven boxes were produced, two for the founding members of the club and twenty five more, which were put up for sale at the Stockholm Art Fair where the project was presented in March 1995. The completion of these 52 boxes concludes a project of art which attracts attention among other reasons mainly because the series of objects has become a value in itself whether viewed syntagmatically or paradigmatic ally. In this way the work of Peirone constitutes a linear linking process, where each of the boxes is an active element within the series on the basis of the subtle oppositional relationship between the sender and the receiver, but even if each element gains its own value as an active subject of communication, its pertinency to the overall communication is necessary to understand the important global criteria with which the work has been conceived. Every unit in the series, in spite of upholding a shared thematic and formal typology and even being able to reach the status of paradigm in relation to the preceding item, does in fact also integrate a syntagmatic succession from which it cannot exclude itself. However, as we describe each element of the series as a concept of unity, we have to produce an analysis of the artistical object. In fact, these boxes have been conceived as bearers of information, or rather texts, which occasionally give rise to a great variety of expressions. Lets us try to give a semiotic analyse of these texts. In analysing the exterior of the object we find the following signs: "Hecho totalmente a mano" (Entirely handmade), "?Todo bien." (Everything OK) and "Humo de Mundo" (World Smoke). Each of these inscriptions refers to a signification which is realised within the box. Mecho totalmente a mano" is a complementary message which refers to the bottom of ordinary Havana cigar boxes and does not carry further than a general cognizance of the artisanal character of the work. "?Todo bien." is a complementary message which appears on the right side of the box and is used by the artist as a standard phrase or imprecise response to situations of crisis. It constitutes a recurrent code in his work and has the same character as his signature. "Humo de Mundo" is a essential message and appears burnt engraved on the top of the box. It is not only the name of the club, it defines the entire concept of the work. This message, With its notion of universality in its significance, includes for its decodification the dollar?bill which seals the box and which has to be ripped to open it, and also the fragment of a world map which appears numbered and signed by the artist on the inside of the lid, a map fragment which is one of the 52 pieces into which a paper planisphere of the earth has been cut, so that each box contains a piece of the world and together all these parts constitute the total land and sea surface of our planet. This shows that every exterior inscription on the box has its correspondence in the inside where further means are activated to amplify their initial significance. This is a deliberated act of the artist, placing a card with the names of the honorary members of the club, with the technical specifications of the work, and the following text: "The possession of this cigar makes you a member of the club, a decidedly distinguished person. In it, we are the only ones." Juan Carlos Peirone. These messages, basic or complementary in their significance, become verbal traces left ex profeso by the artist to patentize his original and peculiar mode of conceiving and executing an irreparable act, in establishing a relationship. The subtext of this work, imperishable because of the bronze Havana cigar but garantized in its finality by the concept of performance which upholds it, is in fact the purpose of establishing relationships, some fraternal, some of the type of a "liaison dangereuse", with the receivers. All of them have in fact been violently approached. Making them into interacting co?creators of the work the artist is paying them back in their own coin. Their group continuously exercises violence imposing their own taste on others and dictating the rules that dominate the world art market, valuing the works of their favourites and setting the limits of artistic protagonism. Consequently they have to accept this "gift" and there is no other alternative for them than assuming certain risks and responsabilities, among which is responding courteously to Juan Carlos Peirone and Anders Tornberg for the noble gesture of the gift and maybe understanding the joke and return it, declaring them? selves happy with their pertinence to the club and excusing themselves for being incapable of smoking this eternal cigar. 
Malmö, April 1995

"I have committed an irreparable act, I have established a bond." J.L. Borges

"The possession of this cigar makes you a member of the club, a decidedly distinguished person. In it, we are the only ones." Juan Carlos Peirone

CLUB HUMO DE MUNDO
FOUNDER MEMBERS 
Peirone, Juan Carlos
Tornberg, Anders

HONORARY MEMBERS

Agnelli, Gianni - Torino
Ammann, Jean Christophe - Frankfurt
Bischofberger, Bruno - Zürich
Bonito Oliva, Achille - Roma
Castelli, Leo New - York
Castro, Fidel - La Habana
Celant, Germano - Genova
d'Offay, Anthony - London
Fuchs, Rudi - Amsterdam
Gagosian, Larry - New York
Glusberg, Jorge - Buenos Aires
Hughes, Robert - New York
Hulten, Pontus - Paris
Joannou, Dakis - Athina
Krens, Thomas - New York
König, Kaspar - Frankfur
Ludwig, Peter - Aachen
McEvilley, Thomas - New York
Mosquera, Gerardo - La Habana
Panza di Biumo, Giuseppe - Milano
Serota, Nicholas - London
Speck, Reiner - Köln
Szeemann, Harald - Tegna
Varnedoe, Kirk - New York
Werner, Michael - Köln 

MEMBERS OF THE CLUB 

26. Nordenhake, Claes - Stockholm
27. Miettinen, Lars - Stockholm
28. Eveland, Jan - London
29. Berman, Thomas - Bryssel
30. Rehn, Pontus - Falsterho
31. Schibli, Martin - Helsingborg
32. Healy, Tom - New York
33. Vogt, Michael - London
34. Alexander, Brooke - New York
35. Ketter, Clay - Lund
36. Rosander, Bjorn - Lund
37. Hjärtsjö, Mikael - Stockholm
38. Scott, Johan - Stockholm
39. 0lsson, Björn - Stockholm
40. Oleby, Christer - Pamplona
41. J. J. Armas Marcelo - Madrid
42. Victoria Hidalgo - Madrid
43. Jason Young - New York
44. Birgitta Ståhl Christensen (S. Tobaks) - Stockholm
45. Jan Watteus - Stockholm
46. Catharina Kjellberg - Göteborg
47. Eric Mc Dougall - San Francisco
48. Tommy Mårtensson - Bjärred
49. Börje Bengtsson - Landskrona
50. Inger Tornberg - Lund

Tabacos infumables

por Pontus Kyander 

Si hay algo que no pasa de moda, es el inveterado cigarro puro. En Estados Unidos la venta de estos nobles y delicados tabacos se duplicó en el transcurso del año pasado. Los cigarros tienen que ser enrollados a mano, con preferencia en Cuba, y no pueden bajo ninguna circunstancia estar secos. Como pequeños niños en incubadoras, los cigarros deben estar a una temperatura y humedad adecuadas, dentro de los llamados humedecedores, cajas especialmente construidas para esta finalidad. El encender el puro se hace con máximo cuidado, y el fumarlo, incluso los mas pequeños, toma por lo menos media hora. Se dice que Freud se sentía totalmente perdido sin sus puros, y un temido crítico de literatura sueco, Fredrik Böök, usaba los suyos para medir el tiempo: se demoraba tres puros en escribir uno de sus temidos artículos para el Svenska Dagb1adet (un diario sueco). El artista y amante de puros Juan Carlos Peirone, con el apoyo de su hermano en el vicio, el galerista Anders Tornberg, ha hecho arte de los puros. Cincuenta cigarros moldeados en bronce han sido puestos con gran cuidado en camillas de terciopelo en cajitas de caoba junto con cincuenta pedazos de un mapa mundial. Por debajo, las cajas llevan el timbre "Hecho totalmente a mano", con alusión al texto que llevan las cajas de puros cubanas. Para poder abrir las cajitas hay que romper la selladura, un billete verde de un dolar; como es sabido, Estados Unidos mantiene un embargo comercial en contra de Cuba que, entre otras cosas, afecta la exportación de puros, mientras que un dollar es objeto de cualquier sacrificio y humillaciones para un cubano, y que da cabida a un comercio lucrativo con falsificaciones de marcas de puros conocidas. Romper la selladura es en sí mismo un crimen, al igual que lo es para los norteamericanos el llevarse puros de La Habana a casa. HUMO DE MUNDO dice en la tapa de cada caja. También es el nombre del club al cual 25 personajes poderosos dentro del mundo del arte han sido elegidos como miembros junto a Fidel Castro, que en silencio ha dejado de fumar hace bastantes años. Entre los elegidos figuran galeristas como Leo Castelli, Larry "Gogo" Gagosian y Bruno Bischoffberger, curadores y jefes de instituciones com Achille Bonito Olivia (curador de Aperto de la bienal de Venecia 1993 e inventor de la transvanguardia italiana, gloriosamente recordada), Thomas Krens (museo de Guggenheim), Nicholas Serota (Tate Gallery) y Kirk Varnedoe (MoMA), algunos críticos conocidos y magnates del arte como el jefe de Fiat Glanni Agnelli, el alemán Peter Ludwig y el argentino Jorge Glusberg. Los otros miembros del club serán los dueños de las 25 cajas restantes que serán vendidas a un precio módico, algo que tiene una deliberada, aunque pequena ironía. Porque ¿quién quiere ser miembro de un club que deja entrar a gente como tú y yo? 

Traducción del sueco: Lorena Acevedo

Pontus Kyander es crítico de arte. Vive en Lund, Suecia.