Both New York University and the Guggenheim Museum are engaged in
repositioning themselves as global institutions and in the process open
themselves up for "new media" interventions. George Soros has aknowledged
the inevitability of these interventions and written them into the program.
NYU and the Gugg seem to either ignore them or take protective measures,
like the global multinational corporations they mimic.
I'm not concerned so much with whether these activities are good or bad (no
one is asking my opinion anyway) but I am interested in the unguarded space
that opens up for intervention.
I keep thinking about how the physical positioning of the Museum of Natural
History and the Metropolitan Museum in New York came about. They were
originally suppose to inhabit the same building since "art" and "natural
history" were not so much in competition at the turn of the century. They
shared a common interest in archeological expeditions.
For various reasons they ended up as separate buildings opposing each other
but mediated by Central Park. These can be seen as three autonomous
institutions (of Science, Nature, Art) or they can be seen as an urban
object of Science and Art networked by Nature.
Central Park, though a guarded space, is made for "sauntering" (as
Throreau liked to imagine for people without land -- "sans terre").
Old media intervention with Central Park -- such as Christo's pathway
project -- aren't allowed yet major commercial spectacles -- the recent
Garth Brooks concert -- are welcomed. The Christo project highlighted the
"between-ness" of the park, the place where medieval pilgrimage rituals are
re-enacted.
The Guggenheim has opened up a new space "between" two Franks -- Frank
Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry, New York City and Bilbao and all their
political and social differences. I see a space between opening for
sauntering.
How to go about it is another question but I suppose the place to start is
by putting one foot in front of the other.
Robbin Murphy
murph@artnetweb.com
<i> i o l a </i> http://artnetweb.com/iola/
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