London: Day 2

So today the focus was on The Museum, thinking about what, as an institution they represent or project about the cultures they are situated. What purpose does the museum serve within our community's?

Taking a look back in time, within the era of the French Revolution, museums were regarded as a testimony to the political state of a nation 'art museums could demonstrate the goodness of a state or municipality or show the civic-mindedness of it's leading citizens.' (Carol Duncan, 1991: Pg88) It was understood that museums are accessories of a well rounded culture, signalling to other cultures that the state was stable or civilized. But this could also lead to political propaganda and the creation of a facade in order to be strategic; favoring achievements within the countries history and suppressing other elements that would diminish the public image.

So therefore the art museum cannot be an accurate depiction of a communities history or values, but a vision of how the institution wants to portray to the world and how it wants us to be, and this aspect is still very true today.

Immediately after this lecture we visited the Tate Britain and it's recent opening of it's British art walk through. Bearing in mind what we had just discussed it really changed the way in which I approached the exhibition. Thinking about what stories the Tate curators are trying to tell with it's 2% of art that is on show and becoming more aware of how methods of display has changed over time and that this is related to developments within art and history.

We also trundled over to Tate Modern to view it's permanent collection and below is a small clip of a piece that really intrigued me by Cory Archangel Colors (2005) within the Structure and Clarity gallery. The piece breaks down the cinematic film Colors by Dennis Hopper into stripes of shifting dynamic abstraction. The original soundtrack, and narrative can still be heard alluding to chaos going on behind the hallucinatory bands of color.

Tomorrow I will be discussing the roles of the artist and the curator and visiting a few smaller galleries in the East End!

Artist: Julio Le Parc

"Generally speaking, I have tried, through my experiments, to elicit a different type of behavior from the viewer […] to seek, together with the public, various means of fighting off passivity, dependency or ideological conditioning, by developing reflective, comparative, analytical, creative or active capacities."

                                                                                                                 JULIO LE PARC

Continuel-lumière avec 49 cylindres-vitesse rapide, 1967

Julio Le Parc has worked for more than 50 years. Experimenting with light and movement, encouraging public participation and interaction within contemporary art. A recent retrospective of his monumental sculptures and installations was held at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris spanning all aspects of his commitment to the constant reconstruction of our environments.

Using light as a medium means a separation from static, motionless work. It is not forever. Through a series of interventions and experimentation Le Parc manipulates this quality, combining it with various reflective materials (Plexiglas, prisms of various shapes, magnifying glass, projections etc) to surrounded the viewer by moments of change and transience, also allowing for their presence to impact upon the work, displacing the usual conventions of the public - art relationship.

Continuel-lumière avec formes en contorsion, 1966

I involuntarily relate light with the process of sight, memory and psychology and it is inextricably linked with time, reflections and fragmentation emulate the recovery and loss found in memory. But Le Parc separates his work from this psychologism, in order to confront his political and social ideas. He is a campaigner for human rights and therefore public disturbance and intervention is an important role in constructing new and utopic environments that inspire a haptic and sensory experience.   
  

Cloison à lames réfléchissantes, 1966