[Music]
ladies and gentlemen this is a museum as
we all know it as you probably know at
classical museum this is as well white
cube but I personally wish that museums
would look slightly different that they
might look a little bit like this or
maybe even like this and why is that
let’s recap a museum was erected in the
nineteenth century as a principle and it
was supposed to be didactic supposed to
be educational which means that the
underlying principle was a sort of
artistic apartheid we all know apartheid
right
fortunately abolished in South Africa
but still the rigor in museums if you
look at this then you see it you feel it
it’s not about the whiteness is about
the separation you put art objects and
splendid isolation art objects from
different periods are not mixed they’re
kept apart they’re kept pure
unadulterated and that’s clear it’s
obvious it’s very understandable but
it’s not very exciting as you know we
all liked some of you’d like to drink
beer some of you like to drink wine but
cocktails are a lot more exciting
cocktails are more fizz and this is a
cocktail mixing old and contemporary art
creates bubble it creates fists it
creates an additional meaning creates
polyphony an infinity of possible
meanings and I wish that museums would
do that more often not be afraid to mix
to use what the French called MIT Asajj
carambola
or what Salman Rushdie’s simply called
bastardization bastards are usually
negative or it’s a negative connotation
but bastardization is fun
it means mixing things that don’t belong
together and make it into something
entirely different
Fusion is a more simple term we all know
fusion kitchen this is a fusion museum
and why would we want to do that I just
said it’s creates additional meaning but
it does a lot more it’s very you could
do this as well if you really
won’t Jeff Koons why would we do that
it’s because a museum usually thinks
like an art historian an art historian
classifies makes clear linear lines but
museums should also think like artists
like this artist Marc Leckie artists are
not inhibited by boundaries in time in
cultures and geography they cross
everything they mix Buddhist sculpture
with blobs with shoes with miserable
Tampax sculpture it doesn’t matter
artists are not afraid to go across time
to be transhistorical
a second reason for the fusion museum is
the cabinet of curiosities before we
have museums in the nineteenth century
you had cabinets of curiosity private
collectors who didn’t just collect
painting as you see but also shells
stuffed animals coral anything you name
it ostrich eggs and they mix that freely
everything that was exotic and an object
of wonder belong together didn’t need to
be separate it could be joined it could
be mixed a third reason to fuse stuff in
the museum is that it’s how we live this
might not be your living room it’s not
mine either but it’s a beautiful example
of total eclecticism an extreme one but
maybe if you think of your own living
room you might have ekr furniture mixed
with design you might have a little
antique cabinet from Grandma mixed with
new carpets you might have some catch on
the wall combined with high art we live
in environments that are not pure that
are not clean
most of our environments although some
of you might be modernist purists are
fun celebratory frivolous like this
living room although it might make it
slightly uneasy to read a book there
another reason to fuse in museums that
simply is that art is not logical art is
not a sort of Cartesian logic system
it’s not mathematics it’s not algebra it
very often creates meaning through
confusion so if we put a museum that
fuses it actually mimics the logic of
art and how do we do that how can you do
that this is a very simple example from
my own Museum you see it in a kadai 21st
century photographer with Solomon debry
17th century painter and what happens if
you put these two together there’s one
thing that happened is mean that artists
talk to each other across the divide of
centuries there was actually a
conversation going on here between
somebody has been dead for more than 300
years and somebody who lives today
somebody who uses a new medium like
photography and somebody who uses a very
old medium like oil painting and for you
as a viewer maybe not in this
reproduction but in real life it makes
you look instead of seeing it makes you
focus you look at similarities you look
at differences you look at the pose you
look at how these ladies represent
themselves and you might also be
encouraged to think that there’s
continuity in art like in life alright
from the 17th century looks very
different from art today but there’s the
same kind of light motifs in it there’s
a similar idea a similar feeling similar
motivations to make art are still at
hand and if you put those two literally
together that might kind of resonate
with you as an audience and the third
reason and I find very important is if
you put those two together it creates
another kind of emotional value if you
look at these two ladies might suddenly
sense that they belong together that it
might be family that they resemble each
other it might be sisters mother and
daughter mother and grandmother there’s
a very illogical thing happening these
people cannot be family they’re
centuries apart but if you put them in a
room you certainly have this sentiment a
sense of belonging and this combination
provokes you not to just think about art
but to feel it and maybe that’s one of
the main reasons to combine old masters
with contemporary art it’s about feeling
we all know that museums show art they
preserve art they conserve or they study
it they produce meaning
show art but in my opinion and I’m not
alone they should also provoke curiosity
and Wonder and amazement and sometimes
bewilderment and there’s this funny
thing about us human beings most of the
time we become curious where we don’t
understand something become become
curious when we don’t know something’s
it’s a kind of positive negative if you
know everything you’re not curious if
you’re puzzled and bewildered you’re
curious to know more and I believe that
an unusual cocktail of old masters and
contemporary art is not always easy or
self-evident but it will hopefully
tickle your imagination and it will make
you understand that art should not just
be felt but understood as well that it
should not be observed by your heart
only but also by your head and
vice-versa that you need to experience
are with every possible sense you have
in your body and in your brain and I
just want to ask you to keep that in
mind
when you next walk into a museum maybe
the front halls Museum museum any other
museum in the world that loves to mix
tradition and tomorrow that loves to
make to mix art from now with art from
yesterday just keep in mind that you’re
not supposed to get it you’re not
supposed to understand you’re supposed
to think like an artist you’re supposed
to blur cross boundaries think diversity
just violate every border and that you
know and just follow one lead and
realize that my final quote might be
most people in the room might be too
young or too old to know this song evoke
but they simply say free your mind and
the rest will follow
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
ladies and gentlemen this is a museum as
we all know it as you probably know at
classical museum this is as well white
cube but I personally wish that museums
would look slightly different that they
might look a little bit like this or
maybe even like this and why is that
let’s recap a museum was erected in the
nineteenth century as a principle and it
was supposed to be didactic supposed to
be educational which means that the
underlying principle was a sort of
artistic apartheid we all know apartheid
right
fortunately abolished in South Africa
but still the rigor in museums if you
look at this then you see it you feel it
it’s not about the whiteness is about
the separation you put art objects and
splendid isolation art objects from
different periods are not mixed they’re
kept apart they’re kept pure
unadulterated and that’s clear it’s
obvious it’s very understandable but
it’s not very exciting as you know we
all liked some of you’d like to drink
beer some of you like to drink wine but
cocktails are a lot more exciting
cocktails are more fizz and this is a
cocktail mixing old and contemporary art
creates bubble it creates fists it
creates an additional meaning creates
polyphony an infinity of possible
meanings and I wish that museums would
do that more often not be afraid to mix
to use what the French called MIT Asajj
carambola
or what Salman Rushdie’s simply called
bastardization bastards are usually
negative or it’s a negative connotation
but bastardization is fun
it means mixing things that don’t belong
together and make it into something
entirely different
Fusion is a more simple term we all know
fusion kitchen this is a fusion museum
and why would we want to do that I just
said it’s creates additional meaning but
it does a lot more it’s very you could
do this as well if you really
won’t Jeff Koons why would we do that
it’s because a museum usually thinks
like an art historian an art historian
classifies makes clear linear lines but
museums should also think like artists
like this artist Marc Leckie artists are
not inhibited by boundaries in time in
cultures and geography they cross
everything they mix Buddhist sculpture
with blobs with shoes with miserable
Tampax sculpture it doesn’t matter
artists are not afraid to go across time
to be transhistorical
a second reason for the fusion museum is
the cabinet of curiosities before we
have museums in the nineteenth century
you had cabinets of curiosity private
collectors who didn’t just collect
painting as you see but also shells
stuffed animals coral anything you name
it ostrich eggs and they mix that freely
everything that was exotic and an object
of wonder belong together didn’t need to
be separate it could be joined it could
be mixed a third reason to fuse stuff in
the museum is that it’s how we live this
might not be your living room it’s not
mine either but it’s a beautiful example
of total eclecticism an extreme one but
maybe if you think of your own living
room you might have ekr furniture mixed
with design you might have a little
antique cabinet from Grandma mixed with
new carpets you might have some catch on
the wall combined with high art we live
in environments that are not pure that
are not clean
most of our environments although some
of you might be modernist purists are
fun celebratory frivolous like this
living room although it might make it
slightly uneasy to read a book there
another reason to fuse in museums that
simply is that art is not logical art is
not a sort of Cartesian logic system
it’s not mathematics it’s not algebra it
very often creates meaning through
confusion so if we put a museum that
fuses it actually mimics the logic of
art and how do we do that how can you do
that this is a very simple example from
my own Museum you see it in a kadai 21st
century photographer with Solomon debry
17th century painter and what happens if
you put these two together there’s one
thing that happened is mean that artists
talk to each other across the divide of
centuries there was actually a
conversation going on here between
somebody has been dead for more than 300
years and somebody who lives today
somebody who uses a new medium like
photography and somebody who uses a very
old medium like oil painting and for you
as a viewer maybe not in this
reproduction but in real life it makes
you look instead of seeing it makes you
focus you look at similarities you look
at differences you look at the pose you
look at how these ladies represent
themselves and you might also be
encouraged to think that there’s
continuity in art like in life alright
from the 17th century looks very
different from art today but there’s the
same kind of light motifs in it there’s
a similar idea a similar feeling similar
motivations to make art are still at
hand and if you put those two literally
together that might kind of resonate
with you as an audience and the third
reason and I find very important is if
you put those two together it creates
another kind of emotional value if you
look at these two ladies might suddenly
sense that they belong together that it
might be family that they resemble each
other it might be sisters mother and
daughter mother and grandmother there’s
a very illogical thing happening these
people cannot be family they’re
centuries apart but if you put them in a
room you certainly have this sentiment a
sense of belonging and this combination
provokes you not to just think about art
but to feel it and maybe that’s one of
the main reasons to combine old masters
with contemporary art it’s about feeling
we all know that museums show art they
preserve art they conserve or they study
it they produce meaning
show art but in my opinion and I’m not
alone they should also provoke curiosity
and Wonder and amazement and sometimes
bewilderment and there’s this funny
thing about us human beings most of the
time we become curious where we don’t
understand something become become
curious when we don’t know something’s
it’s a kind of positive negative if you
know everything you’re not curious if
you’re puzzled and bewildered you’re
curious to know more and I believe that
an unusual cocktail of old masters and
contemporary art is not always easy or
self-evident but it will hopefully
tickle your imagination and it will make
you understand that art should not just
be felt but understood as well that it
should not be observed by your heart
only but also by your head and
vice-versa that you need to experience
are with every possible sense you have
in your body and in your brain and I
just want to ask you to keep that in
mind
when you next walk into a museum maybe
the front halls Museum museum any other
museum in the world that loves to mix
tradition and tomorrow that loves to
make to mix art from now with art from
yesterday just keep in mind that you’re
not supposed to get it you’re not
supposed to understand you’re supposed
to think like an artist you’re supposed
to blur cross boundaries think diversity
just violate every border and that you
know and just follow one lead and
realize that my final quote might be
most people in the room might be too
young or too old to know this song evoke
but they simply say free your mind and
the rest will follow
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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