Maria Lind, Lunch Talk on August 8, 2012

In her lunch talk Maria Lind focussed on the history and current questions of mediation in contemporary art, from the 1920s to today. She talked about Alexander Dorner, who undertook groundbreaking work as director of the Landesmuseum Hannover  from 1925 to 1937, establishing "atmosphere rooms" and starting to collect contructivist art, photogaphy and film. After migrating to the USA he became director of the art Museum at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1938. At Rhode Island, Dorner reorganized the traditionally displayed works in the Museum into dramatic installations which appealed to the public. Lind then turned to Willem Sandberg, the director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam from 1945 to 1962. During his tenure he expanded the museum and developed new exhibition techniques, earning international renown. The private gallery of Iris Le Clert (Yves Klein, Le Vide, Armon, Le Plein) was a the third example of  new mediation tecniques and methods. Lind also referred to Charlotte Kolon's Spaces of Experience: Art Gallery Interiors from 1800 – 2000 (Yale University Press), which includes useful information on the history of these developments.

Lind then considered the current situation with regards to the concept of collectivist spectatorship, the educated consumer, the educated citizens spectatorship, and the entertained consumer. In the discussion we talked about the necessity of establishing new criteria for the evaluation of small-size art insitutions, going beyond merely counting numbers and sponsers.

Hildegund Amanshauser