NO SHOW MUSEUM

Musée d'Art Moderne, Département des Aigles, 1968/1972.

2nd | B

Musée d'Art Moderne, Département des Aigles (The Museum of Modern Art, Eagles Department) was a fictional museum founded by Broodthaers in his apartment in Brussels in 1968. It was fictional in the sense that the museum had neither a permanent building nor a collection; however, it was elaborated on by Broodthaers in about a dozen further installations. Initially the museum showed nothing more than itself – a theoretical museological framework in which actual exhibits were irrelevant. The exhibition consisted of closed, labeled boxes. For the museum's opening, Broodthaers made a great ceremonial effort, sending open letters and pamphlets.

The museum existed for one year and was later rebuilt in other places (galleries, private homes, museums, etc.), where new "departments" or "sections" of the museum were presented, e.g. departments of cinema, old or new art, finance, eagles, etc. For each section, Broodthaers specially created objects, films, and art reproductions, as well as ephemera such as wall labels and signage.

During a later exhibition of the museum at the Kunsthalle Dusseldorf in 1972, all of these objects were presented randomly, without any chronological order or organizing principle, but each exhibit was labeled in three languages with the inscription: "This is not art." The accompanying texts in the catalog did not really aid in the understanding of the exhibition, but rather caused confusion. For example, Broodthaers wrote: "The eagle is, like the paper tiger, a sickly monster. It nests in public museums."

Links

Marian Goodman Gallery | Tate | MoMA | Further informations 1 | 2 | 3

Credits

All reproductions © The Estate of Marcel Broodthaers / 2015, ProLitteris, Zurich