Put museums in a museum

Just read this interesting piece of blogging about the new art museum maxxxi in rome.

It connects nicely with my continuous fascination for the conflict between populism and modernism. Zaha Hadid, like Frank gehry whom i have previously discussed, is frequently accused of populism in the most negative sense, or perhaps rather of sensationalism.

The very word sensationalism is telling in the cases of the maxxi museum in rome and most of Gehrys buildings since they are all cultural institutions. The word sensationalism is obviously derived fron the verb sense, a sensation is something you feel strongly and the architecture has in theese cases been accused of just that, beeing felt to strongly so that the cultural events and artefacts housed in it will by comparison be felt less. Of course, you might add that the sensation the architecture provides comes at a certain cost financially speaking, that could of corse in theory have been directed at the art it self. When the financial argument is taken in to account together with another argument i will soon mention, one of particular interest to me, the case actually becomes interesting. Sadly, the case often made against this kind of cultural buildings is not very compelling but rather extremly superficial not to say plain unintelligent. A lot of the time, what you hear from certain artists, critics and museum directors is basically “art museums are for art not for museums” case closed, strangely superficial and orthodox. The word art museums, of course, is not really interesting, what is however interesting is the role theese institutions are meant to play and actually play in society.

I would say that their primary function is delivering sensations (or concepts) to an audience, this of course could be done by an architect as well as an artist, and in that light artists and curators worries about theese buildings seem merely rationalizations of jeaously guarding their territory in the matket and spotlight. Yet i do believe there is something to be said for their case.

The factors i believe are most interesting in this case are plurality and time, the plurality part is quite obvious, in the case of both Hadid and Gehry it’s quite obvious that the buildings come to represent one person above all others and a few singled out ideas and in to these ideas and repsesentations financial recourses are poured that could easily have funded hundreds of artists for a long long time. And when that factor is added, the time factor, another dimension is added to the equation, no matter what the construction costs, the costs of removing the building are allso quite substantial so the “Artworks” purchased are going to be around for a while. One of the essential qualities of contemporary art is often said to be it’s sensitivity to society and ability to change and comment on different things, the architecture of Hadig and Gehry does not posses that wuality. It is how ever eternal in a sense that most contemporary art is not, and i allso believe the sensation per monetary unit is higher…i mean i think you get out more commersial and sensory value per dollar when you make an investment like that, just like i believe you get out more per dollar if you buy a house you’re going to live in for a very long time than if you buy a painting you’re allso going to keep for a long time. If however the current banking and credit crises force you to move when you vaven’t lived in your house for too long and sell at a very low price, you would probabely have been bettwer of buying the paintings you could partially sell and partially take with you.

The essential question when investing in a museum and deciding weather it’s going to be a Gehry or a white box is weather you’re interested in quantity and quality or flexibility, a not all too easy choice really, the rest is just skill and opportunity and in thoose cases architects and artists are allike in that they differ – individually.

A related story

My bacheloor project, in fact every ones bacheloor project the year i took my degree concerned exhibition spaces. Meetings with the to-be-boss really clarified the problem in choosing between the alternatives above. At are first meeting the very driven lady in question explained how she didn’t want us to just design white boxes, she wanted us to put our marks on the architecture, to make it personal. At the second meeting the same driven lady explained why she didn’t like Gehry’s Bilbao museum, and guess why…? It was to marked by his personality.

I took the libertyu of asking if th elady in question wanted us to design a collection of grey boxes.