Museums of the Future March 22, 2009
Kolkata, West Bengal
Although part of the seminar will be dedicated to discussing the logistics of the process by looking at how museums across the world have evolved with time, there will also be a strong focus on best practices in the preservation, dissemination and marketing of modern art.
Added by santanupal on March 22, 2009
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santanupal
A cultural dialogue of this kind must coexist with adventurous thinking. Jyotindra Jain, professor at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, began his address by quoting the photographer, Dayanita Singh, who had once mentioned her search for alternative spaces to display her work. When she showed some portraits in people’s houses, neighbours came to watch, and engaged with the exhibits at a level of rare intimacy. So the modern museum must be a fluid space, straddling public and private spheres, making the one inseparable from the other.
santanupal
Earlier, Kwok Kian Chow, the director of Singapore Art Museum, had sketched the problems of integration by invoking the Philippine example of bringing together Western and Vietnamese elements. While tensions in postcolonial traditions of representation may be apparent, the difficulties faced by European museums are subtler. Susanne Gaensheimer, director, Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt, talked about how MMK curated its collections, from the 1960s to the present, in exciting ways. Various kinds of art, like the pop art of Roy Lichtenstein and the minimalism of Donald Judd, were often shown to be part of a coherent narrative.
London-based curator David Thorp spoke of his work on the Frank Cohen Collection, while Susanne Titz talked about the Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Germany, which she heads. Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, managing trustee and honorary director of Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai, and artist Jitish Kallat discussed evolving models of organising and restructuring existing museums.
New ventures also formed the core of the presentation by Jay A. Levenson, director of international program at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. Since the program was founded in 1952, MoMA has organised shows with India, and now intends to deepen its collaboration.