Thursday 29 March 2007

Art - it's a collaboration

An oil tanker, a smashed police car, a used mobile home, deactivated bomb shells, nine shipping containers, a two-story house, and a completely rebuilt local movie theatre ... but the installation isn't complete yet.

An article in The Boston Globe by Geoff Edgers chronicles the falling out between the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and Swiss artist Christoph Büchel over his exhibition 'Training Ground for Democracy.' Intended to open in December, the artist has walked off the job after being told that the US$250,000 project budget had been spent.

Geoff Edgers article - The Boston Globe

The situation poses interesting questions in terms of who gets the final word on a project's size and scope, and also the wider context: is the artist a vendor contracted by an institution to produce a product on time and in budget, as mutually agreed, or is the institution a patron, dedicated to realising the artist's vision, come what may?

Büchel has sent Mass MoCA a list of requirements for the completion of the project, some of which Edgers reproduces on his blog.

List of demands - Geoff Edgers' blog

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