calendario eventi  :: 

X

29/10/2013

Trapped in the closet

Carnegie Library, Reims

A project of Luca Lo Pinto, curator in residence at FRAC Champagne-Ardenne.

The FRAC Champagne-Ardenne was founded in 1984. It boasts of a collection of 788 works of art. Trapped in the closet uses the collection as conceptual starting point. The project stems from a desire to deal with the FRAC Champagne-Ardenne collection itself, which will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary in 2014.

Over the last decade there has been renewed attention, within the international curatorial debate, of exactly what it means to curate a collection, interpret it and what is the significance of a collection of contemporary art for an institution in the Twenty-First Century.

To imagine, devise and build a collection is one of the most complex challenges a curator can face. Many are the aspects that need to be taken into consideration, all of which influence the curator’s choices, as one is dealing with the collective. A curator working with a public collection has a great responsibility towards the community, because his actions have the power to affect the history of art, of an artist or of the social geographical context in which he operates.

In an era in which the technical reproducibility has reached levels never before imagined, it is useful to reflect on the value and significance of ‘originality’ in relation to the idea of a collection and the ways in which it is received. Today, a great deal of what we interpret and evaluate is not the result of direct experience; rather it is filtered by images or video. From this point of view, public collections are an interesting example of filtered experiences, as a large part of the works are trapped in warehouses, inaccessible to the public. On the average, an important museum exhibits between 2 and 4 per cent of its collection. Of the two million objects that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York possesses, only ten thousands are on display.
Our cultural background is based more on second hand information than first hand experience. In the end one could even think of collections as ‘rumors’ rather than real objects.Consequently, the fruition of a work of art happens almost exclusively via texts, images or words. Most of the time we look at jpgs, instead of objects. Each work in the collection has been reproduced on a separate page made in collaboration with a graphic designer.

Trapped in the closet was conceived on the basis of these thoughts and considerations. In fact, the project treats FRAC Champagne Ardenne not for what it is but for what the collection appears to be, conversing with the works not as objects but as images.

This meta-collection is presented inside the Carnegie Library in Reims not only for the historical heritage of the Library, but also for his particular Art Deco style that led the city’s post war reconstruction. Founded in 1928 by Andrew Carnegie, American business man and philanthropist, the Carnegie Library represents a special type of collection, as a library is. 788 pages, corresponding to the number of works included in the FRAC collection up to today, will be placed within 788 different books preserved in the Carnegie Library, according to a free association between the book and the work itself.

The books of the Carnegie Library will function as ideal display spaces in which to insert the reproductions of the single pieces. From this point of view, the choice of presenting the works not ‘live’ but filtered through the photographic image, sets them on the same plane of the context which hosts them. In fact, if the library is a collection of examples which exists in a large number of copies, the museum was conceived as a collection of unique originals. Significantly, the books that have been chosen will not be highlighted, therefore the fruition will be entirely random with the works camouflaged inside the library.

A meta-exhibition of a meta-collection in a meta-physical context. With no expiration date.

Acknowledgements: Sabine Maffre, bibliothèque Carnegie

FRAC Champagne-Ardenne / Fonds régional d'art contemporain
1, place Museux F-51100 Reims T: +33 (0)3 26057832 F: +33 (0)3 26051380 contact@frac-champagneardenne.org - www.frac-champagneardenne.org

Talk by Luca Lo Pinto, october 30, 6.30pm, bibliothèque Carnegie, Reims.

Carnegie Library
2 place Carnegie 51100 Reims France

stampa

permanent link