| Richard Flood: When we were discussing our opening exhibition, we very much wanted to allow the building’s architecture to be visible. It quickly led us to a discussion of contemporary sculpture. We talked about those artists whose contributions were most visible in current practice, and we kicked around the notion of a contemporary zeitgeist; for example, how younger artists are taking permission from key innovators like Isa Genzken, Cady Noland, and David Hammons. In the end, we decided that there was an intensely active 21st-century interest in the handmade—particularly regarding collage and assemblage. We felt that the provisional nature of this type of art truly reflected the world’s anxious, anti-heroic stumble into the first decade of this troubling new century. |
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On December 1, the New Museum will reopen in a new building on the Bowery with its inaugural exhibition Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century. The show, curated by Richard Flood, Laura Hoptman, and Massimiliano Gioni, will be on view until April 6, 2008.
NY Arts: How did Unmonumental come about?
Richard Flood: When we were discussing our opening exhibition, we very much wanted to allow the building’s architecture to be visible. It quickly led us to a discussion of contemporary sculpture. We talked about those artists whose contributions were most visible in current practice, and we kicked around the notion of a contemporary zeitgeist; for example, how younger artists are taking permission from key innovators like Isa Genzken, Cady Noland, and David Hammons. In the end, we decided that there was an intensely active 21st-century interest in the handmade—particularly regarding collage and assemblage. We felt that the provisional nature of this type of art truly reflected the world’s anxious, anti-heroic stumble into the first decade of this troubling new century.
NYA: How have the artists included in the show re-imagined or reinvented the act of assemblage?
Laura Hoptman: The artists in Unmonumental are working in a tradition that begins with Picasso’s Still Life with Chair Caning, and proceeds through Max Ernst’s collage novels, Robert Rauschenberg’s “Combines,” and all the way through to David Hammons’ and Cady Noland’s sculptures. Traces of the avant-garde, the neo-avant-garde, and the appropriationists are all reflected in the works in Unmonumental, but what makes them products of the 21st, rather than the 20th century, is in part their deep embroilment in issues that shape our world. By and large, the works of art in Unmonumental are overtly narrative, straightforward, and communicative. Although they are all composites—that is, made up of pieces of things juxtaposed with each other, they are well planned as compositions (some almost symphonic). And although many have playful, insouciant elements, very little, if nothing, is left to chance.
Finally, although there are moments of purely formal dexterity, as well as nods, winks, and nose-thumbing to progenitors, in the main, the topics that these sculptures, collages, and sounds engage aren’t in the museum, but out there in the world. The art-versus-life standoff has been resolved in these works, in favor of the latter.
NYA: Yes, fabrication and permanence have given way to the personal and provisional. What do you think caused this shift?
LH: We feel strongly that the notion of “unmonumentality” and the works in the exhibition are all part of the moment in which we are living. We have constantly had to beat back the temptation to see the art in the show as visual illustrations, or as a result of contemporary political, economic, and social phenomena. The fact is, though, everything develops together—and if it is a truism that the times get the art that it deserves, it is equally true that the art gets the times that it deserves. This said, there is no doubt in our mind that Unmonumental gives visitors a picture of what is happening not merely inside the rarified precincts of the contemporary art world, but also in the outside world we live in.
NYA: One of the touchstone ideas for the exhibition is that the times demand an anti-masterpiece. Why is that so?
Massimiliano Gioni: Two of the founding images of this new century—the fall of the Twin Towers and the statue of Saddam being dragged to the ground—immediately evoke a sense of precariousness. Obviously artists are not merely reflecting these images, but it is certainly more than a coincidence if artists today seem to be more and more attracted by open, fragmentary forms with which they shape fragile anti-monuments. We live in a time of ruins and shaky foundations—a headless century, if you will.
LH: It seems that since the beginning of this century, in both political and social life, as well as in culture, bombast and Manichaeism have held sway, to disastrous ends. Perhaps it’s a reaction to all the fallen idols. Or perhaps it’s the vast multiplication of outlets of information. Either way, ironically, there is clearly a hunger for simple answers to complicated questions. This exhibition runs counter to this by including an enormous variety of sculptures, collages, sound work, and internet art by almost 70 artists from a wide variety of backgrounds. One of the biggest theoretical “monuments” in visual culture might well be the idea of an over-arching style that can define a moment in time. In this exhibition, stylistic if not ideological pluralism might be the most “unmonumental” element in the entire show.
NYA: Unmonumental proposes a new exhibition model: one that evolves over time. It’s an additive process, linked to the idea of assemblage. Can you describe how the show will grow over the four months it’s on view? How will the last few weeks look, feel, and sound in relation to the first?
MG: The idea behind the many changes and transformations of the show is quite simple: Unmonumental is an exhibition that tries to replicate the same logic that drives the artworks on view. In other words the very structure of the exhibition is inspired by the art it showcases. Unmonumental is a show about collage and assemblage, and it will become a collage and an assemblage in itself. The show starts off as an exhibition about sculpture, an exploration of sculpture and assemblage in the 21st century, in which more than 100 works by 30 artists are presented. We have decided not to build any temporary walls or partitions: the skeleton of the new building will be visible and the sculptures will occupy it as it is, entering in to a tight dialogue with one another, while hopefully setting off a few sparks of friction.
After one month, a new show will be installed, this time on the walls of the museum. The sculptures will be surrounded by dozens of collages, photomontages, and decollages. Twelve international artists who have explored the collage technique throughout their career have been invited to present bodies of works or create new, site-specific presentations. Compared to the abstract sculptures presented in the first iteration of the show, the collages in this second phase of the exhibition introduce new tensions, for instance making direct reference to the war in Iraq while also opening up secret passages to the hidden spaces of our unconscious.
In February, Unmonumental will change once again: the audio and sound works of 13 international artists will be piped into the exhibition spaces. Short compositions, noise symphonies, spoken words, and cut-and-paste scores will add another layer to the show. You will visit the exhibition, look at the sculptures or the paintings, and suddenly a collage of otherworldly whispers and moans will start playing in the gallery. By this time we hope that Unmonumental will have become a rather strange experience: a show in which objects, images, and sounds overlap. It will be like a Merzbau, or a pulsating organism—a peculiar creature made of bits and pieces of other life forms.
The last part of the Unmonumental cycle is an online exhibition in which the logic of assemblage and collage is further taken apart and reassembled in a series of artworks that use and abuse the internet. As you see, the show proceeds from bulky objects to digital artworks, which is quite “unmonumental” in itself. The show goes from the physical to the immaterial.
NYA: It’s interesting that an exhibition that begins with works made from found and common materials and ends with physically intangible works was chosen to open the luxe new space that the New Museum built from the ground up.
MG: The contrast between the space and the artworks was a deliberate choice; a way to create new tensions and frictions that will hopefully animate both the museum and the art on view. Possibly this discrepancy between the art and the building will also serve as a reminder to us and to the public that museums are a matter of software, not of hardware. They are about what’s inside the spaces and not just about the packaging and the building. One of the things we love about this new building is that is has an iconic power yet avoids all the over-spectacular tricks that museum architecture from the late 90s has made us familiar with. After all, one could really consider the building itself as the largest sculpture in Unmonumental—in spite of its perfect volume and pristine galleries. In fact the building does transmit a sense of immediacy and urgency: it’s not an ivory tower, but rather something more spontaneous, something similar to a few giant boxes stacked on top of each other to create a whole new space.
