Dora Imhof

Inseln sind Orte der Sehnsucht; sie entwickeln ihre Anziehungskraft durch ihre Abgeschiedenheit. Von bildenden Künstlern wurden sie, anders als von Schriftstellern, vergleichsweise spät entdeckt: Antoine Watteaus Einschiffung nach Kythera und die Künstler, die im wissenschaftlichen Auftrag mit James Cook bis nach Tahiti reisten, markieren zentrale Momente der künstlerischen Inselentdeckung. Inseln in der Kunst sind ein Phänomen der Moderne und eine Konstruktion. Von Anfang an agierten die Künstler dabei zwischen Mythos, Ideal, Kolonialismus und dem beginnenden Tourismus. Im 19. Jahrhundert wurden Inseln dann zum Identifikationsort für den modernen Künstler, für dessen Autonomie oder seine Freiheit von gesellschaftlichen Zwängen wie etwa im Werk von Arnold Böcklin und Paul Gauguin.

Mythos, Moderne und Tourismus von Watteau bis Manrique

Künstliche Inseln

Cristina Bechtler

Given the current panorama of growing private initiatives, The Private Museum of the Future tackles this central issue in museology and contemporary society.It asks the questions: What inspires private collectors to build a museum? How do they view their relationship with other institutions? What plans they have for the future of their museums? In what forms private museums can contribute to innovative ways of dealing with contemporary art? What can they do that other institutions cannot? And how can they establish an ongoing relation with the public and society?Private museums have existed for a long time, but over the past decade many major collectors have founded new museums all over the world, from Cape Town to Dhaka, Athens to Los Angeles. These projects are often greeted as generous initiatives combining innovative architecture with the visibility of contemporary art. They could also be seen as competitors to public institutions.This book features interviews with 24 renowned private museum founders including: Ziba Ardalan (Parasol unit, London), Eli Broad (The Broad Museum, Los Angeles), Jochen Zeitz (Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town), Eugenio López Alonso (Museo Jumex, Mexico City), and Dakis Joannou (Deste Foundation, Athens), among various others.Essays by the editors, Cristina Bechtler and Dora Imhof, and also an afterword by Chris Dercon (General Director of the Volksbühne Theater, Berlin and former Director of Tate Modern, London) explore the topic and the relationship between public and private institutions and museums worldwide.The book is part of the Documents series, co-published with Les presses du réel and dedicated to critical writing.

The Private Museum of the Future

Bice Curiger

Museums of contemporary art are expanding and in crisis. They attract ever-larger audiences, architects constantly redesign them, and the growing number of artists is producing more massively than ever; at the same time museum funds are dwindling in the economic crisis and an overheated art market.The question of which art is to be collected is also becoming a more openly discussed topic in a globalized art world. How do curators meet these challenges? What opinion do the artists have of their relationship to the museum? How do practitioners navigate between ideas, ideals, and realities?This publication gathers together interviews with international artists, architects, and curators of the contemporary art world, such as John Baldessari, Ute Meta Bauer, Suzanne Cotter, Ulrich Obrist, Rem Koolhaas, among others.Their different answers bring visibility to the complexity of the topic, but also to the deep pleasure and intellectual stimulation museums provide, as well as to their relevance to culture today.The book is part of the Documents series, co-published with Les presses du réel and dedicated to critical writing.

Dora Imhof

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