Visiting the Museum of New and Old Art (MONA) is a museum experience like none other. Descending down the spiral staircase into David Walsh’s creation is like taking a trip into another world: a place where art knows no boundaries, where standard curatorial practice and museum etiquette is disregarded. Instead, viewers are set amongst something of an historical art playground. To navigate, viewers are provided specially programmed iPods, which use GPS technology to identify their location and describes the nearby artworks. The ‘Art Wank’ on the iPods replaces conventional wall plaques thus allowing the viewer to create their own narrative to their experience rather than passively observe.
‘Theatre of the World’, MONA’s current exhibition, is the creation of French curator Jean-Hubert Martin, who was invited by Walsh to trawl through the collection of both MONA and the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery (TMAG). The resulting show sits in the heart of the museum, unfolding throughout the depths of the building like a labyrinth of small dark rooms. Based on Italian philosopher Giulio Camillo’s idea of the ‘Theatre of Memory’ – a theatre of universal knowledge, the exhibition is mystifying, all-encompassing, and conceptually challenging.
The non-conformist curatorial style of the exhibition stages the show in rooms organised by subject, rather than ordering the works according to historic movements or chronological order. It appears more as a personal collection of art, as if arranged in an idiosyncratic order of personal experience or taste, and is more about visual poetry than logical progression. In the first few rooms we become aware of this twist: objects are mis-matched in unexpected ways, scattered and juxtaposed contrary to what is considered your regular museum display.
O (between fans) (2006) by Zilvinas Kempinas, is an installation made of a loop of tape suspended in between two fans, and sits in amongst an
Albert Tucker painting and a video work by William Wegman. The circle hovering in mid air between two opposing forces is suggestive of a tension suspended between the past and future, floating timelessly between two points in space, and to some extent this is how the exhibition makes us feel.
In a small dark nook Jason Shulman’s Candle describing a sphere (2006) burns in the centre of darkness, with a halo that appears to gently move in response to our presence and movement. Perhaps a time out from the rest of the exhibition, this work is meditative and compelling, and evokes a ritualistic, spellbinding effect that is hard to turn away from.
The most prominent feature of the exhibition acts as an end point to the maze: a room with angled walls on which hangs an array of antique bark cloths from the Pacific, and at each end of the room sits an Egyptian sarcophagus and a bronze figure by Giacometti. Bringing together three opposite corners of the world and their most precious historic and cultural artifacts, we are enveloped in a perplexing juxtaposition rich with hidden meanings, secret knowledge, and an overwhelming sense of the depth of the past.
‘Theatre of the World’ is astounding in it’s complexity, scope, and uninhibited presentation of some of the most valuable, historic, and confronting artifacts and art in the world today. It is a lot to take in, and although we might feel relieved when we come up for air from the depths of the museum, it is a show which stays with us, resonating in more subtle ways over time.
MONA
Until 8 April, 2013
Tasmania
Duet Room (Various Artworks), including, Zilvinas Kempinas, O (between fans), 2006, magnetic cassette tape and electric fan installation, dimensions variable
Birds of Singapore, c.1880, Preparator J. Gardner, London, England, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Presented by Sir James Agnew
Zhenmushou, Tomb Guardian, earthenware, clay slip, pigments 618 – 907, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Presented by Dr Shui Hon Wong and Mrs Nancy Wong
Photography: Rémi Chauvin. Images courtesy MONA Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart
