THE MUSEUM OF MUSEUMS
© GIOVANNI BAI/MUSEO
TEO 2012
4’22”
SYNOPSIS. The video THE
MUSEUM OF MUSEUMS tries to explain the operating guidelines of the work of Museo Teo. Museo Teo
is a noprofit organisation for the diffusion of contemporary art, a museum with no permanent establishment and no
works: not an imaginary museum, but a museum that materializes itself by organizing events - usually one-day long – in unusual
and always different locations or on the edge of the traditional circuits, in
order to bring art back to a really democratic and daily dimension.
The
video is also a a creative portrait of museums (as Tate Modern,
London; MACBA Barcelona; Hamburger
Bahnhof, Berlin; Biennale, Venice and many other ), artists (as Joseph Kosuth),
critics (as Federico Zeri or Gillo Dorfles) and artworks (of Lucio Fontana or
Pipilotti Rist), and an ironic selfportrait of the author.
MUSEO TEO THE MUSEUM OF MUSEUMS
“Museo Teo
gathers the collective work of many artists as a huge permanently evolving
artwork, which includes in itself a thought about the state of art and in the
meanwhile is a playful place for fun and
irony. A museum with no permanent establishment and no works, which stages events - usually one-day long – in
unusual and always different locations or on the edge of the traditional
circuits, in order to bring art back to a really democratic and daily
dimension”.
Several
themes are recurring because they are the nodes from which our courses of
action unravel, which have been redefined in the latest years: reclaiming the
territory, education to image, art and the respect for the artistic heritage as shared values,
and mostly the need to create a network of creative relations in order to
develop sociality and the production of sense and beauty as well.
Twenty
years ago we moved from Perec’s concept in La
vie mode d’emploi, by which even
nothingness can have its identity, if it holds traces of its own history
(“Maintenant, dans le petit salon, il reste ce qui reste quand il ne reste
rien”); we went across places and non-places, we explored both traditional and
hyper-modern Japan and we hoisted the flag of peace on the Atomic Bomb Dome in
Hiroshima; we tried to dig into the world’s totality with a different look onto the threshold
between the daily and the unknown, beyond which everything is possible, using
Stephen Hawking’s statement as a metaphoric flag: “There is a universe where
the moon is made of cheese and where Elvis is alive. Ours is only one of the
possible kinds of universe”.
In the
editorial of issue four we stated: “We are nomads, vagabonds and travellers of
the imaginary; we always bring with us something to amuse ourselves and
something to think about” and on issue five: “Artificial intelligence?
Intelligence would be enough for us. The normal, average one.” And many times
we had to appeal to that simple proposition, in the process of our work with
the Hip-Hop shaman’s spirit which Lea Vergine ascribes to us, “roaming
allegory, innocent and sulphur conscience of the art world, embarrassing
presence for old and new mandarins”.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: AGNESE VENERONI, ALFREDO JAAR, ALICE
CHAMPOLLION*, ANDY FLUON*, ANDY WARHOL, ANTHONY HOPKINS, BIANCA TOSATTI, BJÖRK, CAROLINA
GOZZINI, CHRISTIAN
BOLTANSKI, DOUGLAS GORDON, E IL TOPO REBIRTH, ELVIS PRESLEY, FABIO MAURI, FEDERICO ZERI, GAETANO
LIGUORI*, GAK SATO*, GELITIN*, GILLO DORFLES, GIORGIO MORANDI, JAMES TURRELL, JEPPE HEIN, JONATHAN
DEMME, JOSEPH BEUYS, JOESPH KOSUTH,
LAMONTE YOUNG, LO ZOCCOLO DURO*, LUCIO FONTANA, MANUEL
D’ONOFRIO/2CM*, MARINA ABRAMOVIC, MARIO DAJELLI, MARIO GORNI/CAREOF, MARIO
TEDESCHI, NICOLETTA MERONI, OLIVER STONE, ORSON WELLES, PATTI SMITH,
PIPILOTTI RIST, PAE WHITE, REBECCA HORN, ROY LICHTENSTEIN, STEPHEN
HAWKING, STEVE PICCOLO*, SUN YUAN + PENG YU, THE TEN YEARS AFTER, TONY OURSLER,
WOODY ALLEN, YAYOI KUSAMA; *[soundtrack/live
music performance] BIENNALE VENEZIA, BMW GUGGENHEIM LAB BERLIN, CAIXA FORUM
BARCELONA, CENTRE GEORGES POMPIDOU PARIS, ΕΘΝΙΚΟ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΛΟΓΙΚΟ ΜΟΥΣΕΙΟ ΑΘΗΝΑΣ, FONDAZIONE BEVILACQUA LA MASA VENEZIA, HAMBURGER
BAHNHOF BERLIN, HAYWARD GALLERY LONDON, LAMBRETTO ART PROJECT MILANO, LIA RUMMA
MILANO, MACBA BARCELONA, MAGA GALLARATE, MDAM MUSEO D’ARTE LUGANO, MUSEO DEL
NOVECENTO MILANO, MUSEO TEO MILANO, MUSEUM FÜR KOMMUNIKATION BERLIN, NBGK BERLIN, NEUES MUSEUM
BERLIN, PALAZZO DELLA RAGIONE BERGAMO, PALAZZO REALE MILANO, PAC MILANO, PIANO
CITY MILANO, SAATCHI GALLERY LONDON, SUPPORTICO LOPEZ BERLIN, TATE MODERN
LONDON, TRIENNALE MILANO.
*[soundtrack/live
music performance]: ALICE CHAMPOLLION, Milano, 23.12.2011; ANDY FLUON, Milano,
Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, 25.11.2011;
GAETANO LIGUORI, Milano, Piano City, Caserma Magenta, 16.12.2011;
GAK SATO e STEVE PICCOLO, Berlin, Supportico Lopez, 27.06.2012;
GELITIN, Biennale di Venezia, Arsenale - Giardino delle Vergini,
31.05.2011; LO ZOCCOLO DURO, Milano, inContemporanea – La Triennale,
12.05.2007; MANUEL D’ONOFRIO/2CM, Milano, Il museo dei musei, Lambretto
Art Project , 17.09.2010.
