Museum positions
Description:... The museum as a cultural machine, always trying to move with, between and beyond the times, caught between the esotericism of scholarship and mega-exhibitions for a mass public; no institution has aroused quite so much excitement, confusion and surprise in recent years as the cultural machine of the MUSEUM. The aim of the exhibition MUSEUM POSITIONS is to mediate, demonstrate and stimulate: to mediate the Austrian achievements in this field, to demonstrate to a foreign audience new concepts which are being developed in Austria; and to stimulate people to take part in an international discussion about the arts. 10 museums and 10 positions will be presented, with the aid of models, photographs and drawings. Museum directors, museum specialists, architects and architectural critics have been invited to express their views. The exhibition has been conceived as a forum for those museums which are at present undergoing radical change and restructuring, and will document various aspects of the work in progress. Over the next few years, the Austrian museum scene will experience its most significant upswing since the Gründerzeit of the last century, with new museum buildings, alterations to existing buildings and even extensions to museums. A clear indication of this radical change in the museum seen both in the international museums-boom and in publications-is provided by the "retrospectives" and "special shows" about great subjects in art history, whether devoted to individual artists or to more general themes. By contrast, the museum itself is seldom regarded as an object of study in its own right- and is usually neglected completely. In the fine arts, the place where cultural events are held has to a large extent disappeared an element of art appreciation. Yet as "art packaging", as a metaphor for the art business, the museum ought to be regarded as least as relevant as the contents themselves. This exhibition about Austrian museums aims to be more than just a survey of ten current projects of particular interest: it aims to investigate the ability of public institutions to act on behalf of the arts and support the public cause-the res publica- as a political, cultural and architectural phenomenon. -- from dust jacket.
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