The Stranger's Guide to the Paradoxical Museum

The 20th Century art museum, based on a consolidated paradigm of the 'white cube' is the universal model epitomised by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York. Criticis have deconstructed this museum type revealing the epistemology and ideologies behind its prevailing presence around the world and now alternative museum models are regaining recognition.

This criticism, as a force field (Theodor W Adorno), is constant, active, and produced by different processes, means and forms, through theory, artistic actions, educational programs, new architectures and critical platforms. However there is a remarkable contemporary cultural phenomenon that relates to this scenario that deserves full attention: the paradoxical museum. 

Clearly enterprises such as Paris’ Pompidou Beaubourg, Bilbao’s Guggenheim, London’s Tate Modern and the updating of MoMA have been influenced by Guy Louis Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle. This shift from paradigm to paradox is most evident nowadays in the inevitable polemical proposal influenced by the Humboldt-Forum in Berlin where the next decade will see the emergence in the historical heart of Berlin of a unique centre for art, culture, science, and learning with significant global reach. It will be entirely dedicated to the dialogue between the cultures of the world and will act as a forum for debate and analysis of historical and current issues of global significance, viewed from a multitude of fresh perspectives.

In this presentation Professor Grossmann will share the storyboard of a critical guide for museum goers facing the contemporary cultural phenomenon of ‘The Paradoxical Museum’.

Networking lunch from 12:15; seminar 13:10-13:50.