ART-PRESENTATION:Barbara Kruger

The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has commissioned internationally renowned artist Barbara Kruger to create a site-specific installation for one of the museum’s most-visited public spaces. “Belief+Doubt” speaks to the social relations and networks of power that define daily life. At a time when the value of certitude is taken for granted, Kruger says she is “Interested in introducing doubt”. Large swaths of the floor are covered in open-ended questions “WHO IS BEYOND THE LAW? WHO IS FREE TO CHOOSE? WHO SPEAKS? WHO IS SILENT?”, while the area facing the bookstore explores desire and consumption “YOU WANT IT. YOU BUY IT. YOU FORGET IT”. “Belief+Doubt” was to remain on view through 2014, the year the Hirshhorn celebrated its 40th anniversary, but continue… Barbara Kruger’s work interrogates the way power and money flow in contemporary society. Having her intervene in a part of the building that is at once a social site and a place of commerce amplifies both her concerns and those of the Hirshhorn.

Info: Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum, 700 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC, www.hirshhorn.si.edu