Museum as Subjects

To deal with Museum as a theme of an exhibition may sound strange to those, who live in Japan. In Japan, artists do not choose something social or public, such as Museum, for a subject very often. In the West, however, since the early twentieth century at the latest, Museum has been taken up as the subject of criticism, and it is one of the main interests of the contemporary artists.

The National Museum of Art, Osaka presented the exhibition "Space Experience" in 2000, which exhibited works making use of our museum's space. It provided an opportunity to think about the characteristics of Museum's space. In contrast, this coming show will exhibit works created with the concern toward museums in general: works that make us think about how to exhibit, ones that were inspired from the architecture or history of Museum, creations about the people related to Museum, and so on. About 60 works are to be on display, mainly photographs and installations. They are all contemporary artworks made after 1980, so we can focus on Museum as a present issue. New works, which are expected to be produced according to this show's purpose will also be presented.

As is well-known, the National Museums have become Independent Administrative Institutions since this April. Generally speaking, the museums in Japan are in a state of reform. This exhibit will be a chance to broadly consider Museum in a time of change.

Pressetext

Museum as Subjects
Organisation: The National Museum of Art, Osaka; Daikin Foundation for Contemporary Art

mit Fred Wilson, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Yuji Takeoka, Heimo Zobernig, Alex Hartley, Candida Höfer, Christian Philipp Müller, Vik Muniz, Ute Lindner, Jac Leirner, Ines Lombardi, Mark Dion, Jason Simon, Kate Ericson, Mel Ziegler