Expo on collecting

This might be an inspiring expo:

http://www.vanabbemuseum.nl/browse-all/?tx_vabdisplay_pi1%5Bptype%5D=18&tx_vabdisplay_pi1%5Bproject%5D=683&cHash=89192ddff4

exhibition

THE POLITICS OF COLLECTING - THE COLLECTING OF POLITICS

Play Van Abbe, Part 3

25/09/2010 - 30/01/2011

Opening: Saturday, 25 September 2010 16:00

In the third part of Play Van Abbe, the act of collecting falls under the spotlight. What does it mean to collect and keep works of art? What kind of world is perceived when viewing a collection? Who decides and why?

Part 3 of Play Van Abbe is about collecting as an archive of visual cultural memories. The museum maps out what a collection policy tells us about the time in which it is established. We also wonder what it means to collect ”political moments”; moments that give meaning to developments in our contemporary culture.
The exhibition gives you the chance to look again at a selection of works of the Van Abbemuseum and compare them with collections and archives created by artists. For them, collecting is a strategy for creating an image of the social situation in which they live.

 

Personal view on historical moments

The exhibition features artists who have tried to wrest the possibility to be political from the mechanisms of collecting. In many artworks, historical moments will be seen through a personal eye and well known (media) images are combined with personal diaries, documents, and photos. An example is the work by Sean Snyder that focuses on image production and the representation of war by the media. He attempts to reveal some fundamental questions of representation.

Artists’ collections

Given the lack of suitable institutes in some parts of the world that present a collective history, artists themselves are sometimes forced to create their own, partial, art narratives, archives and collections. They search for their own historical trajectories, piece together interrupted narratives and create their identities with these collections. The work of Zofia Kulik for example, of the KwieKulik duo, comprises the alternative story of (art in) Poland between the years 1971 and 1987. The Romanian artist Lia Perjovschi has been developing a subjective art historical index which grew into theContemporary Art Archive/Centre for Analysis (CAA/CfA).  

Institutional collections

Next to works by individual artists, some collections by institutions are scrutinized. Visitors can see the Van Abbemuseum collection in a new light, as the representative policies behind this collection are analysed. A part of the collection of the Contemporary Art Museum Palestine (CAMP) will be shown for the first time together with documentation on the motivations and possibilities for the future of a Palestinian museum. Another collection that falls under the spotlight is the Eindhoven BKR collection from the ICN (Instituut Collectie Nederland).