A NON-U-MENTAL HISTORY OF M HKA – Part 1: Foundation Gordon Matta-Clark
The Flemish museum world continues to evolve, but the media coverage of these innovations focuses almost exclusively on architectural concerns, while a museum is made up of much more. To get to the bottom of this, we look back at the history of M HKA.
In 1977, the International Cultural Centre (ICC) invited Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978) to realise a project in an empty office building opposite the Steen in Antwerp. The work, Office Baroque, is linked to the Rubens Year 1977. It refers to the bankruptcy of a shipping company, followed by the vacancy of the building in which it was located. Office Baroque is part of Matta-Clark's series of so-called 'cuttings'.
When Gordon Matta-Clark dies in 1978, at the age of 35, the Foundation Gordon Matta-Clark (1979-1985) is created to save Office Baroque, the artist's only remaining 'cutting' work. Many artists donate work to the Foundation, but unfortunately, the rescue attempt fails and several works are reclaimed. Some artists, however, maintain their donation and hope to support the establishment of a museum of contemporary art in Antwerp. As such, the Foundation Gordon Matta-Clark is an important link between the ICC and the eventual establishment of M HKA. The 182 works of the Foundation form the basis of the M HKA collection and emphasise the politically inspired international solidarity among artists.
In this presentation, 34 well-known and lesser-known works are shown that helped to determine the origins and identity of M HKA. They are supplemented with relevant documents that take us back to the late 1970s and the 1980s.
My hopes for a project in Antwerp would be to complete a ‘non-u-mental’ work that the city could go on enjoying for a certain period after its realization.
(Gordon Matta-Clark in a letter to Flor Bex, 1976)
This presentation is part of a larger programme that aims to highlight the oeuvre of the artists associated with the ICC, in relation to their work in the M HKA collection. In addition, it examines the ICC programming from the perspective of the ICC archive, which is also managed by M HKA. In this series, the 'non-u-mental' approach is continued as a method for thinking about the museum: it is less concerned with monumentality and more with the development of our understanding of the small things, always oriented towards discoveries.
3D Scan:
Please enjoy the 3D scan of the presentation here.
Second presentation: A NON-U-MENTAL HISTORY OF M HKA – Part 2: What must be heard
Third presentation: A NON-U-MENTAL HISTORY OF M HKA – Part 3: Classical Rewind
Items
1/2 dozen Berliner Gladness Postcards, 1979
1/2 Boxes Berliner Gladness Postcards (1973-1978) consists of six postcards (offset prints) in a cover. Three postcards show a black-and-white photograph of the artist and text. The other three postcards show black-and-white photographs of the Berlin Wall with text at the bottom.
A Jacob's Ladder. Remembering Gordon Matta Clark., 1977
Aquisition on behalf of the Flemish Community. This original so far unused footage colour images and sound is digitised and digitally edited and post produced in 2012 and 2013. It concerns movie images and sound testimony’s and interviews who where captured by Cherica Convents around the art project “Jacob’s Ladder” performed by Gordon Matta-Clark in June 1977 during Documenta 6 in Kassel.
Interrogations sur l’art, 1977
Art is a desire?, Art is sublimation?, Art is a neurosis?, …. Lea Lublin activates contemporary questions on the historical meaning and power of art from a clearly feminine perspective and she is questioning the representational power of the past. This questioning characterizes more the performance of an dialogue and is subversive, non-offensive; a weak position in which she leaves an opening for depreciation of the audience.
Tonight We Escape from New York, 1977
Tonight We Escape From New York was part of another audio-installation, originally shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The large-scale, white-on-black chalk drawing shows a rope ladder to be installed in the museum with four speakers alongside it; through these speakers fragments of a racist dialogue were broadcast, sounding as if they rose and fell along the ladder.
Twentysix Gasoline Stations, 1962
The books of Ed Ruscha mark a seizure in history of artist publications. Ed Rusha is using the possibilities of serialization as a way to be attentive and to distill meaning form reality. These publications are (close to his paintings) an attentive eye to enrich with understanding & going beyond the banal but still being related to it.