During my recent trip to the Netherlands I had the chance to see the famous work by Maurizio Cattelan realized for that Museum as a site specific work. I always thought that piece was great because it worked very well as a picture also: the inner meaning of it remained equally strong even if not seen in the "real" version.
But what I found in reality was both funny and tragic at the same time: a plexiglas cube has been placed onto Maurizio's head.
I feel this changes the whole meaning of the work and I don't understand if it was really necessary as a solution to avoid people touching the piece. So there was a little bit of a strange bitter taste in my mouth as I left the museum (even though it was a great place to visit) and the curatorial corner of my brain kept thinking about that all the day...
2 commenti:
at first sight, i could say it's a little rough.
however, Cattelan is an artist maniacally aware in his works. i cannot exclude that this kind of operation could have been suggested by the artist himself in order to continue in his strategy of revealing the inner structures of the art (and museum) system. For example, I saw in Turin "bidibibodibiboo" in a plexicube as well and it worked.
But i think too the main question could be: "how to conserve contemporary art? which is the 'respect' the museum curator has to adopt in front of (not so) contemporary artworks?"
cheers
I agree with you. I guess the main problem is that the old man who did the security for that piece didn't speak english and could not reply to my questions. he just tried to explain that it was a way to avoid people touching Maurizio's head.
however, "bidibibodibiboo" is a sculpture, while the work at the Boijmans would be intended as an environmental installation and this is what makes the plexicube so rough
I guess, as you suggested, is also a matter of respect from the curator
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