AVANT-GARDE AT THE MUSEUM. WHAT MUSEUM? WHAT AVANT-GARDE?

The two days of the ms2 inauguration will be dedicated to discussion panels, in which historians and theoreticians of art, curators, critics and artists will take part. Issues significant from the point of view of Muzeum Sztuki will become the starting point for a discussion on matters widely debated in the international arena. The range of topics in question will be determined by the complex relationship between the avant-garde manifesting its anti-institutional character and official spaces in which avant-garde art functions.
Consequences resulting from such dependence that appear crucial for contemporary museums will become a central point of the conference. A wide range of factors contributed to the creation of a false image and petrified schemes when discussing the problems of avant-garde. Efforts made by historians of art to retell the history and avant-garde experience have been gradually reflected in conceptions of presenting art.
Due to the inauguration of the Katarzyna Kobro / Lygia Clark exhibition, guests of the conference will focus on the matter of reinterpreting avant-garde in the area of contemporary museological practices. There will also appear questions about curators’ limits of formulating unusual theses and experimental methods of work with the collection. Another space of discussion will indicate the issue of the Neoplasticism Room, built in 1948 in the present Muzeum’s building, by Wladyslaw Strzeminski. Strzeminski’s aim was to create a modern space to show constructivist art. The transfer of the collection to the ms2 building raises questions about a status of avant-garde art and its context produced by museum. Due to the project Art Always has Its Consequences, the importance of the avant-garde for contemporary artistic practices will be the third issue to discuss. Some ways of continuation, as well as modes of contesting the role of the largest movement of the 20th century are going to be highlighted. The activity of the museum collecting the 20th century art represents a significant element of discussion upon the heritage of the avant-garde. The conference will focus on problems widely discussed in the international area of museology, and is therefore of great importance for Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz.

21.11.2008 (Friday), 2 – 5 p.m.
Avant-garde Confronting Museum. Panelists: Sylvia Kolbowski, Nicolaus Schafhausen. Moderator: Luiza Nader
22.11.2008 (Saturday), 11 a.m. – 1.30 p.m.
The Space of Museum / The Place of Avant-garde. Panelists: Andrzej Turowski, Ulrich Krempel. Moderator: Gabriela Świtek