Book Review: Radical Museology: Or What's ‘Contemporary' in Museums of Contemporary Art? by Claire Bishop

Radical Museology: Or What's ‘Contemporary' in Museums of Contemporary Art? by Claire Bishop

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


What does contemporary mean?
How one theorizes on contemporary art?
How a contemporary art museum, often depending on a few philanthropists, exhibits uncomfortable (e.g. political) art beyond tastes, views, or even private collections of its multimillionaire trustees?
How does a contemporary art museum survives and accounts to the public in a place outside few biggest world metropolises with no thriving art market surrounding it?
Should art institutions be built on values? Whose values then?
All of these topics are explored through particular case studies. From MoMA to Tate, the book presents public contemporary art museums in a context of fifty shades of white privilege; from Eindhoven to Ljubljana the author explores contemporary as a method of critical reflection, rather than a point in the chronology.
And though this book is highly informative and makes one think beyond the architecture of the newest contemporary art museum, it should not be taken as an objective research, but rather as a highly political manifesto, full of [leftist] ideology and personal views of the author.



View all my reviews

Review: Seven Days in the Art World

Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An ethnographic and sociologic research of the art world, mostly in a sense of the art market. The art itself is not a subject of this wonderfully written memoir, but rather what surrounds it - collectors, dealers, critics, curators, and the infrastructure of the art fairs and exhibitions.
As much as I enjoyed reading this book, I couldn't shake a feeling of the art world being influenced and run by just a few charismatic A-level gatekeepers, who meet and have their cappuccinos in just a few well-known airports, cities, and events.
A perfect airplane read: funny; well-researched; not too snobbish or cynical; detailed and eye-opening.


View all my reviews

Weekending in Moscow.

Its been a while since I've last time written a post on my personal life here with no self-promo message behind it :) And its been a really great and active weekend here in Moscow, exactly what i needed just few days before leaving back to Vilnius for Christmas. So I decided to share some of it with you.

So it all started with a lecture in the GARAGE - a contemporary culture center here in Moscow. Sorry, I didn't make any photos there, and its pretty hard to find some online, so this is all i could get:

Before culture came to the GARAGE

Really nice cafe inside the GARAGE - cozy cozy cozy, well designed details, friendly costs and no complaints on food or service from me.

I've attended a public lecture/discussion on art and design relation in the lecture-hall, then bought a book that I couldn't leave in a book store - Hieronymus Bosch / Garden of earthly delights/ by Hans Belting, published by Prestel - can't wait till I get a spare hour for it at least in an airport in a week, and then had a cup of coffee with people from the lecture at the Garage cafe, and moved to the Don Jonne pub to celebrate friends birthday and have a drink, some food, and one more drink between silly drunk talks about art, design and life in Russia in general.

Best food I've ate at John Donne - chicken/ham sandwiches with potatoes. Photos re-blogged from http://joffreyp.livejournal.com/tag/moscow%20pub

And finally, after getting up late after that long Saturday night on Sunday morning, having a slow breakfast, then going for food-shopping, doing some house-work and etc.,  the TIME FOR THEATER-TRIP IN MOSCOW HAS COME! ta-daaaa!! Finally: saw Chekhov's play 'The Cherry Garden' in the Sovremenik theater (Московский театр "Современник") - classical Russian theater in Moscow - one of my dreams came true finally. Loved the atmosphere, actors, and public - it seems most of the people in the audience knew where they came and what did they come for - saw more than few fans of classical theater - a house full of snobs hating contemporary theater and expressing 'finally no blood and meat on the stage' sort of ideas - could it get any better? :D

Sovremenik theater (Московский театр "Современник")

So to conclude: Design-talks, Pub, friends, Bosch, Chekhov,  and a cup of cacao before Monday. Too good to be true. It reminded me all reasons why I love Moscow so much. Nice way to end a really intense week: glass of bear in one hand and a theater-binocular in other one. Going back to Vilnius in a week.