Cristina Bechtler

What is the function of the museum in culture today? Leading culture makers offer perspectives for the new era ahead Gathering together fresh perspectives from more than 25 leading art and museum figures--including artists, architects, curators and museum directors--from all over the world, this collection of interviews and contributions shares idiosyncratic views, feedback and visions of what is and what should or should not be a museum in the 21st century, both inherently and in our fast-changing cultural ecosystem. Do we need a new art historical canon? How can museums become welcoming places for everybody? How should a museum deal with artworks that are considered problematic today? Is the blockbuster a thing of the past? How can museums be sustainable? These are some of the pressing questions answered very differently by the contributors, together with others dealing with the relationships between the local and the global, the museums' governance and financial organization, technological possibilities, and audience-related challenges. Showing the diversity of today's thinking about the museum, this tome constitutes a valuable handbook for navigating an ever-evolving landscape. Edited by Cristina Bechtler and Dora Imhof, the book is introduced by Chris Dercon and concludes with a postface by Hans Ulrich Obrist. Interviewees and contributors include: David Adjaye, Richard Armstrong, Manuel Borja-Villel, Lionel Bovier, Raphael Chikukwa, David Chipperfield, Bice Curiger, Clementine Deliss, Madeleine Grynsztejn, Sabine Haag, Camille Henrot, Jacques Herzog, Josef Helfenstein, Junya Ishigami, Sam Keller, Ramiro Martínez, Sarah Morris, Dimitri Ozerkov, Adriano Pedrosa, Susanne Pfeffer, Manuel Rabaté, Rebecca Rabinow, Pipilotti Rist, Adam Szymczyk and Eugene Tan.

Museum of the Future: Now What?

Jeff Wall

Princeton Architectural Press

Philip Ursprung

Jacques Herzog

Transcript of a Nov. 4, 2003 conversation between Jacques Herzog, Jeff Wall, Philip Ursprung and Cristina Bechtler.

A Conversation Between Jacques Herzog and Jeff Wall, Moderated by Philip Ursprung

Pictures of Architecture – Architecture of Pictures

Dora Imhof

Given the current panorama of growing private initiatives, The Private Museum of the Future tackles this central issue in museology and contemporary society.It asks the questions: What inspires private collectors to build a museum? How do they view their relationship with other institutions? What plans they have for the future of their museums? In what forms private museums can contribute to innovative ways of dealing with contemporary art? What can they do that other institutions cannot? And how can they establish an ongoing relation with the public and society?Private museums have existed for a long time, but over the past decade many major collectors have founded new museums all over the world, from Cape Town to Dhaka, Athens to Los Angeles. These projects are often greeted as generous initiatives combining innovative architecture with the visibility of contemporary art. They could also be seen as competitors to public institutions.This book features interviews with 24 renowned private museum founders including: Ziba Ardalan (Parasol unit, London), Eli Broad (The Broad Museum, Los Angeles), Jochen Zeitz (Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town), Eugenio López Alonso (Museo Jumex, Mexico City), and Dakis Joannou (Deste Foundation, Athens), among various others.Essays by the editors, Cristina Bechtler and Dora Imhof, and also an afterword by Chris Dercon (General Director of the Volksbühne Theater, Berlin and former Director of Tate Modern, London) explore the topic and the relationship between public and private institutions and museums worldwide.The book is part of the Documents series, co-published with Les presses du réel and dedicated to critical writing.

The Private Museum of the Future

Bice Curiger

Museums of contemporary art are expanding and in crisis. They attract ever-larger audiences, architects constantly redesign them, and the growing number of artists is producing more massively than ever; at the same time museum funds are dwindling in the economic crisis and an overheated art market.The question of which art is to be collected is also becoming a more openly discussed topic in a globalized art world. How do curators meet these challenges? What opinion do the artists have of their relationship to the museum? How do practitioners navigate between ideas, ideals, and realities?This publication gathers together interviews with international artists, architects, and curators of the contemporary art world, such as John Baldessari, Ute Meta Bauer, Suzanne Cotter, Ulrich Obrist, Rem Koolhaas, among others.Their different answers bring visibility to the complexity of the topic, but also to the deep pleasure and intellectual stimulation museums provide, as well as to their relevance to culture today.The book is part of the Documents series, co-published with Les presses du réel and dedicated to critical writing.

Cristina Bechtler

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