The Anti-MuseumPublished by Koenig Books, London

“There are prisons for thieves, museums for artists”Jean Tinguely

“Museums should be invisible. With an imaginary museum you can do whatever you want…”Maurizio Cattelan

“We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind...”F.T. Marinetti, The Manifesto of Futurism

“...Museums are just a lot of lies, and the people who make art their business aremostly impostors.”Pablo Picasso

Order:

books@fri-art.ch

Artists Meeting forCultural Change (AMCC),An Anti-Catalog, 1977.

Marcel Broodthaers,Musée d’Art Moderne,Département des Aigles,Section Financière[Museum of Modern Art,Department of Eagles,Financial Section], 1970-71Courtesy MariaGilissen-Broodthaers

Mathieu Copeland and Balthazar Lovay, together with a stellar list of contributors, present the first extensive exploration of the radical and paradoxical concept that is ‘the anti-museum’ – a term so present in art history and yet that has never been the object of a detailed investigation and definition.Along with a number of interviews, statements and manifestos, over sixty texts and essays written by prominent art historians and international critics, mainly commissioned for the present publication, form this anthology dedicated to all forms of the “anti.” This book, richly illustrated, is completed with historical reprints and a dense iconography. This unprecedented publication encompasses all cultural disciplines as so many waves of protest.

Technical informations

• Graphic Design: Schaffter Sahli, Geneva• Published by: Fri Art & Koenig Books, London• In partnership with KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin• Distribution in Germany & Europe: Buchhandlung Walther Koenig, Köln• UK & Ireland: Cornerhouse Publications, Manchester• Outside Europe: D.A.P. Distributed Art Publishers, INC, New York• Language: English• 225 color images• Sewn binding / Hardbound• 215 x 280 mm• 794 pages

Hi Red Center’s Closing Event: “Closed” Signs, 1964. Documentary photographs of performance art.Photo: Hanaga Mitsutoshi

Authors:

Guillaume ApollinaireAndrea BelliniZach BlasAndrea BranziErik BullotBilly Childish Johannes CladdersIris ClertBeatriz ColominaMathieu CopelandBranislav DimitrijevicJim DrobnickStanley FisherVéronique FolletYona FriedmanMichel GauthierAkasegawa GenpeiMichel Giroud Kenneth GoldsmithRichard GoldsteinKrist GruijthuijsenKatie GuggenheimStorm van HelsingJon HendricksHans HolleinRyan HolmbergStewart HomeArnaud Labelle-RojouxRoberto JacobyJakob JakobsenGareth JamesDéborah LaksBalthazar LovayBoris LurieGeorge MaciunasRobert MorrisAchille MbembeBob NickasNicolas de OliveiraNicola Oxley

Mai-Thu PerretLil PicardYvonne RainerGeorges Ribemont-DessaignesMatthieu SaladinFanny SchulmannSören SchmelingOlivier SuterCharles ThomsonJean TocheReiko TomiiPaulo Pires do ValeDora VallierAlan WallachThibault WalterPeter Weibel

Artists surveyed include:

John ArmlederRobert BarryAndrea BranziMarcel BroodthaersDaniel Buren Graciela CarnevaleMaurizio CattelanMaria EichhornHanatarash & Yamatsuka EyeHenry FlyntYona FriedmanPiero GilardiSwetlana Heger & Plamen DejanovHi Red CenterIshiko Junzo GX Jupitter Larsen

Lefevre Jean ClaudeLydia Lunch Sasaki MakiAlessandro MendiniCady NolandLorraine O’GradyRobin PageSteven ParrinoSantiago SierraRobert SmithonEttore Sottsass TakisJean TinguelyRirkrit TiravanijaBen VautierMatsuzawa Yutaka(...)

Since the early 1960s, artists have seized the radical gesture of closing a space as a work of art. In these uncompromising pieces, we are confronted with a closed space, and invited to experience its physical, sensory and conceptual realities. Over the course of three months at Kunsthalle Fribourg in Switzerland, in repetition of a seemingly recurrent pattern, “A Retrospective of Closed Exhibitions” experiments with the retrospective genre, and explores the extreme limits of art, while defying visitors’ expectations and bringing into play questions of aesthetics and politics, among many other things. To envisage “closure” is to confront spaces being sealed. A retrospective offers us the opportunity to experience a work in the present, as an echo of what it once was. Re-enacted today, these historic works highlight changes in context, different effects and different meanings, with regard to their initial iterations.The temporary closure of an art institution, in a climate of inflicted austerity, offers many levels of resonance. To close a gallery in 2016 exemplifies the realities of our time. The current context is both one of opulence and one of self-imposed—or imposed—austerity. In the face of a major humanitarian drama on the shores of Europe, in Italy and Greece in particular, the act of closure bears a terrible parallel to the European Union closing its own boundaries.A retrospective of closures tackles a contemporary moment when politics are disengaging themselves from culture. In early 2016, the ministry of culture in Brazil was temporarily closed and merged with that of education. Many art centres across Europe and the USA are closing, or being threatened of closure. Art schools all over are being closed or threatened of being closed, such as the ones in Sydney, Avignon, Perpignan…. To embrace the act of closure as a work of art embodies a decided gesture that encompasses all of these.The gesture of closing reminds us that a simple act encompasses an infinity of meanings. An action re-envisaged signifies a new action in a different context. These closures may only be temporary, but they problematize and ultimately transform the institution.

Excerpt from A Retrospective of Closed Exhibitions (1964-2016), Mathieu Copeland, 2016

The anti-museum appears, first of all, as an image that is brutally perfect: it’s the ultimate position, radical and without comprise. And yet, it is the product of ideals and fantasies that are nothing but romantic projection. We would like to run in this direction, but the ground gives way, crashing in multiple echoes below our feet. The more we approach it, the more the pre-existing image disintegrates into countless fragments—without any coherent or precise expression. Intangible, the anti-museum represents an ideal that exists only in the imagination of the person who is dreaming it. As such, it is the perfect antagonism of the uncompromising conception that one can make of the museum.Taking its imaginary form, the anti-museum in its multiple incarnations and expressions offers a galaxy of positions, counter-positions and counter-counter positions; histories and counter histories; historical precedents and future utopias, of good feelings and brutal gestures. As many visions of anti-museums exist as do those of museums, and as many anti-institutions as do reasons for opposing the institution of art. A series of disparate battles have pushed artists, critics and the public alike to raise the flag of the anti-museum—the protean hero who, it is hoped, will resolve their numerous frustrations.Barely formalised, the concept is constantly taken up and generously cut into a multitude of forms. This text proposes an immersion in the contradictions and paradoxes that exist at the heart of the anti-museum, which is at the point of convergence with those that are not, with those that could be, and those that have been. It will show that the sole actors to show interest in the anti-museum are those who are the most committed to the art system and that the ideal of the anti-museum is attainable only to those who turn away from it completely.

Excerpt from Anti-Museums that Aren’t:Notes on a few Contradictions, Balthazar Lovay,2016

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Table of contents

34 A Retrospective of Closed Exhibitions (1964-2016) Mathieu Copeland

Hi Red CenterGreat Panorama Exhibition (aka Closing Event), Naiqua Gallery, Tokyo, 196447 Hi Red Center, Great Panorama Exhibition Reiko Tomii51 A Can of the Universe Akasegawa Genpei

Matsuzawa YutakaAh, Nil, Ah, A Ceremony of Psi’s Secret Embodiment Drowning in the Wilderness: Prototype Exhibition, Naiqua Gallery, Tokyo, 196463 Matsuzawa Yutaka, Ah, Nil, Ah, A Ceremony of Psi’s Secret Embodiment Drowning in the Wilderness: Prototype Exhibition Reiko Tomii

Graciela CarnevaleUntitled, Ciclo de Arte Experimental, Rosario, 196867 Graciela Carnevale, 7 to 19 October Graciela Carnevale75 Graciela Carnevale in conversation with Mathieu Copeland

Daniel BurenPapiers collés blanc et vert, Apollinaire Gallery, Milan, 196883 Daniel Buren in conversation with Mathieu Copeland

Robert BarryDuring the exhibition the gallery will be closed, Art & Project, Amsterdam, 1969For the exhibition the gallery will be closed, Sperone Gallery, Torino, 1969March 10 through March 21 the gallery will be closed, Eugenia Butler Gallery, Los Angeles, 197093 Robert Barry in conversation with Mathieu Copeland

Lefevre Jean ClaudeUne exposition de Lefevre Jean Claude à la galerie Yvon Lambert entre le 11 juillet et le 31 août 1981, Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris, 198199 Lefevre Jean Claude in conversation with Mathieu Copeland103 An exhibition by Lefevre Jean Claude at the Yvon Lambert Gallery from 11 July to 31 August 1981 Michel Gauthier

Maurizio CattelanTorno Subito, Neon Gallery, Bologna, 1989108

787Swetlana Heger & Plamen DejanovGalerie wegen Urlaub geschlossen [Gallery Closed for Holidays],Mehdi Chouakri Gallery, Berlin, 1999110 Plamen Dejanov in conversation with Mathieu Copeland117 Swetlana Heger in conversation with Mathieu Copeland

Santiago SierraSpace Closed by Corrugated Metal, Lisson Gallery, London, 2002120

Rirkrit TiravanijaNomadic Residents: Rirkrit Tiravanija, OCAD Professional Gallery, Ontario College of Art and Design, 2007123 Nomadic Residents: Rirkrit Tiravanija, OCAD Professional Gallery Jim Drobnick

Maria Eichhorn5 weeks, 25 days, 175 hours, Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2016134 Maria Eichhorn in conversation with Katie Guggenheim

143 Geijustsu on their Minds: Memorable Words on Anti-Art Reiko Tomii

165 The Mighty Grimoire of Mystic Spells, Rituals and Incantations That Deploy Dialectical Immaterialism

To Transform The Bad Energy Of White Male Guilt Into A Magical Tool To Make Anti-Art Disappear And The World A More Sisterly Place! Translated from the French by Paschal Beverly Randolph and retrieved from the future by Stewart Home. Originally published by Beringos Fratres of Lyon at The Sign of Agrippa in 2262

Stewart Home

173 Henry Flynt in conversation with Mathieu Copeland (part 1)

187 Henry Flynt in conversation with Mathieu Copeland (part 2)

196 1962-63: Razing the Institutions? Henry Flynt

210 M.D. - Rx Robert Morris

213 Jacques Villeglé in conversation with Mathieu Copeland

217 Claude Rutault in conversation with Mathieu Copeland

223 Fluxus Manifesto George Maciunas

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225 A Manifesto Reconsidered Yvonne Rainer

227 Goran Trbuljak in conversation with Andrea Bellini

233 Anti-Art Non-Art Art Dora Vallier

241 Anti-Anti-Art Billy Childish and Charles Thomson

243 “Vulgar Show Introductions” Stanley Fisher

246 “Involvement” (Press Release) Stanley Fisher, Sam Goodman, Boris Lurie et al.

251 March gallery artists statement on Anti-Art Stanley Fisher, Sam Goodman, Boris Lurie et al.

252 YES & NO THOUGHTS, Process of a Contribution to the Issues of the Past Lil Picard

257 NO-ART Boris Lurie

270 On Non Art Iris Clert

272 Ben Vautier in conversation with Mathieu Copeland

280 Against Art by Other Means: Goran Đorđević, 1972-1985 Branislav Dimitrijević

292 With Love from the Kitchen: On the Paradox of Responsibilities and Representation Krist Gruijthuijsen

297 Arman’s “Le Plein” (Full Up): The Key is on the Inside Déborah Laks

313 “Ladies and gentlemen, the museum will close in 15 minutes” – Ha Ha Ha Ha! Véronique Follet

325 Generally Discredited Words Storm van Helsing and Gareth James

332 Closed for business, Storm van Helsing suggests that galleries shouldn’t have exhibitions just because they can Tim Griffin in conversation with Storm van Helsing

789335 Opening: A Work In Situ Nicolas de Oliveira and Nicola Oxley

343 Anti-Museums that Aren’t: Notes on a few Contradictions Balthazar Lovay

363 Museum of the Void (Castles in the Sand) Bob Nickas

380 Museums in the Post-Industrial Mass Society: An Argument Against the Metaphysics of Presence and for the Physics of the Masses Peter Weibel

389 The Anti-Museum: Thoughts on Art Cultivation Johannes Cladders

397 a Model—a Museum for Today and for the Future Sören Schmeling

417 Art is everywhere—at my grandmother's house—in the most improbable kitsch, even under a rotten floorboard. Olivier Suter

430 Manifesto 2 for a Theatre of Human Destruction Jean Toche

432 GUERILLA ART ACTION in front of the METROPOLITAN MUSEUM of NEW YORK Jon Hendricks and Jean Toche

436 Newsweek Jon Hendricks and Jean Toche

437 MANIFESTO FOR THE GUERILLA ART ACTION GROUP Jon Hendricks and Jean Toche

439 PRESS COMMUNIQUE Jon Hendricks, Jean Toche

443 A CALL FOR THE IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION OF ALL THE ROCKEFELLERS FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART Jon Hendricks, Poppy Johnson, Silvianna, Jean Toche

444 COMMUNIQUE Jon Hendricks, Poppy Johnson, Silvianna, Jean Toche

447 GUERRILLA ART ACTION GROUP Jon Hendricks, Poppy Johnson, Jean Toche

448 GUERRILLA ART ACTION AT THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Guerrilla Art Action Group

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451 Rereading An Anti-Catalog: Radical Art History and the Decline of the Left Alan Wallach

462 The Slave—A Figure for the Anti-Museum? Achille Mbembe

467 The Impossibility of Anti: A Theoretical Consideration of Bikyōtō Reiko Tomii

485 Mierle Laderman Ukeles in conversation with Mathieu Copeland

499 The Museum of AMused Muses (MAMM), of the IAM (Imperium Asinum Magnificum) According to the Principles of TTP (Totally Total Poetry) Michel Giroud

505 Enter The Anti-Space Richard Goldstein

510 From Anti-Design and the Anti-Museum to the Parco Arte Vivente Piero Gilardi in conversation with Andrea Bellini

515 Radical Architecture: Refusing the Ordinary Role Andrea Branzi (Archizoom Associati)

518 Controdesign Ettore Sottsass

521 Radical Notes: The Elite and Mass Creativity Andrea Branzi

525 Perfectly Normal Alessandro Mendini

526 The Notion of Un-Design Alessandro Mendini

527 In-Vitro Ideal City Alessandro Mendini

530 A Museum Is not a Building Yona Friedman

541 The Post-Museum Beatriz Colomina

555 Excerpts from Technology Against Technology = Anti-Tech Takis

791560 Against the Happening Roberto Jacoby

566 Contra-Internet Zach Blas

577 Verb List Compilation: Actions to Destroy Instruments Matthieu Saladin

592 Varieties of Anti-Music: From Antoine Delafoy’s Absolute Anti-Chord to Congenital Amusia Thibault Walter

605 Lydia Lunch in conversation with Mathieu Copeland

609 GX Jupitter-Larsen Thibault Walter

613 Correct Malapropisms GX Jupitter-Larsen

617 On Anti-Cinema: Apocope and Prefix Erik Bullot

624 I See NOTHING Fanny Schulmann

633 L’Antitradition Futuriste Guillaume Apollinaire

637 A Brief Overview of Anti-Writing Kenneth Goldsmith

650 Anti-Manga: Sasaki Maki, Ishiko Junzō, and the Image Ryan Holmberg

668 Mai-Thu Perret

670 THE NO TEXTS Steven Parrino

680 ART = RELIGION = CULTURE = HA—HA—HA Jean Toche

682 Genesis Breyer P-Orridge in conversation with Mathieu Copeland

687 The Antiuniversity of London: An Introduction to Deinstitutionalisation Jakob Jakobsen

700 A Short Philosophical Grammar of the Anti-X or Anti-Art in Question Olivier Quintyn

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709 Destroying the Temple: The Religion of the End of Religion— Art of the End of Art Paulo Pires do Vale

725 Buffet Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes

728 Dadaism Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes

733 Manifesto for The Door: a universal exhibition Robin Page

735 Total Art Ben Vautier

739 Everything Is Architecture Hans Hollein

749 John Armleder in conversation with Mathieu Copeland (part 1)

753 John Armleder in conversation with Mathieu Copeland (part 2)

758 Lessons in Scandal / Historical Landmarks Arnaud Labelle-Rojoux

777 Sources & Credits