Lets consider the museum as historical space.
As a public institution the museum has its origin in the 19th century civil society. Like the rise of theaters and concerthalls in the same historical period, it became, next to its function of preserving the great art of the past, the most important platform for contemporary artists to encounter their audience. The museum has its roots in a time when society conquered art to be part of civil life and essential product of individual freedom, independent of arts cause for church or state.
When we come to think of it, throughout the 20th century the public function of the museum remains unaltered, while the art itself has fundamentally changed. After Duchamps, Beuys and Cage, art can be anywhere and anything, depending on the context. Though the museum historically serves an audience with visual art, the artists that are exhibited don’t limit themselves to a visual medium. They design spaces, create electronic systems, execute performances or compose music. They are simply artists.
At the same time it is becoming clear that staged arts, like music, dance and theatre, are growing out of their traditional 19th century homes, which are the theaters and the concerthalls. No wonder politics, press, artists and audiences question the public function and social relevance of these institutes. In the present digital era, our unlimited access to information and endless means of communication have brought about a fundamental change in the function of public space and public encounter, and therefore public artplatforms are part of the discussion.
Just as the 19th century brought about a revolution in the way artists could connect to large public audiences, the 21st century demands a new engagement of the artist with his content and how it relates to a certain interest or need in society. In accordance to this changing relationality, the spatial conditions become an integral consideration inside the artwork .
The spatial design of museums that serve a contemporary art purpose, has as well developed according to these new artistic needs, and the expanding borders of the artwork as such. The structure of the museum still consists of a collection of spaces of different sizes, that are brought together in one building. But the interior architecture has developed up to the point that the spaces themself contain as little information as possible, to serve as a completely neutral frame for artworks that one by one demand their own spatial dimensions.
If we consider the museum in its present state, what remains is a collection of volumes with white plastered walls, that can serve as a free space wherein any type of artistic activity can be presented to an audience. With my thought about the museum in this text I don’t refer to the institute, but what the architecture of this institute has become in the present to serve the purpose of its contemporary artists. I consider the space, its function and its application. In that sense it can apply to any site with similar conditions.
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