PRESENTATION: Museum in Motion

A new building dedicated to contemporary art will be realised for M HKA, the museum is already beginning the important work in anticipation of its new museum building, which includeS substantial permanent collection displays. With this in mind, M HKA is complementing the grand reopening of its sister institution with a preview of what is to come.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: M HKA Archive

Focusing on an expanded image of the museum’s collection, the exhibition “Museum in Motion” seeks to reflect its longer-term aspirations by presenting the work of several artists that are considered strongholds within the collection alongside artists the museum is seeking to include in the years to come, or strengthen their presence. This major presentation thus offers 24 key international artistic figures ,  that may be presented later in the new Flemish contemporary art museum. Focusing on an expanded image of the museum’s collection, the exhibition seeks to reflect its longer-term aspirations. In this way, the exhibition signals the beginning of a new trajectory. It is named Museum in Motion after a key book on the particular praxis of contemporary art museums, as this is the specific reflection that will have to be undertaken. The museum will develop its historiography alongside this building process. Presented across both main floors of the museum, this first indicative prefiguration opens up a reflection that will continue as the new building takes shape. At first glance, “My Grandfather’s Shed” (1998) by Ilya & Emilia Kabakov looks decrepit and not necessarily very inviting. But when we go inside we enter another world. In one corner there is a stool without backrest but with an unexpected light source under it. The light is cast on a miniature landscape that brings back memories of innocent, peaceful times. The winged, angelic figure hovering over it contributes to the mysterious, miraculous atmosphere. Besides the play of light and darkness this installation also employs scale and perspective: first the museum space, then the inside of the shed, then the extended landscape with the little angel. The series of photographs “Shenjia Alley. Fairy” exudes a sensual summer atmosphere. It shows naked women lounging in an apartment with cactuses. Yang Fudong carefully stages the scenes as would a traditional painter create the mood of his painting. Allan Sekula is strongly influenced by the specifically American tradition of socially engaged photography. The film “The Forgotten Space” (2010) incorporates a strong local colour: as part of its ongoing investigation of the representation of labor in and outside the social-realist tradition Sekula takes the sculptural work of Belgian artist Constantin Meunier as a starting point while the film begins and ends in Doel (a small port town near Antwerp). In co-direction with Noël Burch.

“VIP’s Union” (2001-14) is one of Haegue Yang’s formative works. Its premise lies in bringing together chairs and tables borrowed from numerous people who are considered ‘important’ within their own professional fields as well as being connected to the exhibition’s city, in this case, Antwerp. These items, which have traveled from the various domestic or work spaces of their respective owners, form a temporary community in the gallery space, portraying the different stylistic expressions and social conditions of these individuals’ lives, activities and their aspirations. Yang creates a space of collectives and engagements where the traditional distinction between functional design and the art object become obsolete, performed through the generosity of the lenders in agreeing to share their items. “The Chronicle” (2016) is a series of drawings by Nikita Kadan. The material used while working on the series included photographs of victims of the Lviv pogrom of the Jewish community, Polish and Ukrainian victims of the Volhynia massacre, victims of NKVD, and civilians and prisoners of war murdered under Nazi occupation. The series is a reference to a multiannual phenomenon of photographic manipulation: photographs are distributed with captions altering the order of executioners and their victims. The history of manipulation is nothing but continuity in the history of crime, on a variety of levels and differently motivated. Later, manipulation is detected and all sides proceed with revealing mutual truths. The struggle for memory morphs into competition to generate an ideologised imitation of memory. “Bad Brains at CBGB: My Picture in your Movie Baby” is a documentary about the Washington DC punk band Bad Brains. Nicola L. recorded her own street actions from the beginning on super 8 film, on which we see mostly the Pénétrables (canvases in which you can stick your head, arms and legs) walking down the street, going through a museum or enjoying a meal in the Brussels metro. “Le manteau pour our personnes or The Red Coat For 11 People or Same Skin For Everybody” was performed and recorded at various locations throughout the 1970s. In 1980, Nicola makes her first documentary film about the punk band Bad Brains. Later, she makes a document on the anarchist anti-war activist Abbie Hoffman, recording his first interview after seven years in hiding.

Participating Artists: Etel Adnan, Marcel Broodthaers, Lili Dujourie, Marlene Dumas, Jimmie Durham, Andrea Fraser, Yang Fudong, Shilpa Gupta, Dorothy Iannone, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Nikita Kadan, Yayoi Kusama, Taus Makhacheva, Gordon Matta-Clark, Hana Miletić, Laure Prouvost, Walter Swennen, Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, Otobong Nkanga, Nicola L, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Allan Sekula, Nicolás Uriburu, Haegue Yang

Photo: Allan Sekula, The Forgotten Space (Video still), 2010, DCP, Digibeta, DV CAM, colour / black & white, Duration: 113 min, Collection: The Estate of Allan Sekula, Los Angeles

Info: Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA), Leuvenstraat 32, Antwerp, Belgium, Duration: 16/9/2022-8/1/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 11:00-18:00, Thu 11:00-21:00, www.muhka.be/