Between Certainty and Ephemerality

Art institutions such as museums and galleries have long been viewed as monopolizing the world of aesthetics and creative culture, reinforcing a world of privilege and enforcing exclusivity.[1]

The notion of showcasing art to the public originally occurred post-French Revolution, with governments and family-owned cabinets of curiosities open to public displays. However, by the late 19th century, these institutions primarily served the privileged class, evolving into systems of meticulously curated art experiences for the masses.[2] In the late 20th century, the institutional power shift led to the development of para-institution and anti-institution movements. “Art museums, in their traditional format, were based on the concept of a universal art history. Accordingly, their curators selected artworks that seemed to be of universal relevance and value. These selective practices, and especially their universalist claims, have been criticized in recent decades in the name of the specific cultural identities that they ignored and even suppressed.” [3] The last two decades have seen a significant evolution in art, as artists increasingly integrate political discourse and diverse cultural perspectives into the galleries. Still, the architecture of galleries remains in the "white cube" context that isolates art from reality and the outside world. "The essentially religious nature of the white cube is most forcefully expressed by what it does to the humanness of anyone who enters and cooperates with its premises." as Brian O'Doherty noted.

"Artists as curators" is one approach to breaking the "white cube" model. However, spatial structure limits ways of curating. Thus, architecture plays a crucial role in engaging participation. The thesis explores the idea of "Architects as curators, which aims to embody the act of viewing art and reinstating galleries in the context of tangible reality. Post Anti-Institutional movements, artists and galleries moved from the East Coast to the West Coast for the opportunity to curate their works independently. Sitting in Los Angeles, the project proposes a demountable strategy for the gallery, proposing a traveling gallery that adapts to different sites and typologies. Three abandoned sites were chosen as examples to show the capacity of the demountable structure. The three sites include an LA metro tunnel, the Wilshire Professional Building, and the Sunken City. With their initial form, including liner, vertical, and cluster, uncommon ways to construct experience and art presentation are challenged. Audiences, creators, etc, as a collective body involved in a shared space, hold a sense of common memory from the routine and ritual of life. An exhibition will occur on three different sites but will be curated differently based on the site's typology, along with familiar scenarios that are translated into the exhibition framework.

The dissolution of institutional power in a social context is prominent in the ongoing discussion of an alternative form of gallery space. The ability to evolve formally gives the project a sense of timelessness in its temporary moments in socioeconomic shifts. The informality of 'life' puts gallery space on a scale of closeness and a series of ongoing changes. The interruption of deconstruction and embodiment desensitizes the nature of the pureness of the 'white cube.'

[1] Carol Duncan, Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums, 1995

[1] Dimaggio, P. (1982). Cultural Entrepreneurship in Nineteenth-Century Boston, Part II: The Classification and Framing of American Art.

[1] Boris Groys, Entering the Flow: Museum between Archive and Gesamtkunstwerk - Journal #50 December 2013