between isms and ologies

‘The modern’ is a term that like Zeno’s paradox describes an impossibility, a real moment, a just now. Two concurrent exhibitions at The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) mark out the territories of the modern and two divergent fields of contemporary artistic and curatorial practice emerge. One is a wonderful and extensive exhibition of works by John Cage, the other a comprehensive selection of artists working with the issue of modernism itself.

The Cage exhibition is a garden of earthly delights including a large collection of his original scores, recordings, films, and gems from his fellow travellers such as La Monte Young, Nam June Paik, Rauschenberg, Cunningham, and Morris et al. One striking thing is that the original scores for major works of exploration show not only Cage’s meticulous musical focus but also his concern for craft and penmanship. I count myself as very fortunate to have had John Cage as a teacher when I was studying at The Art Institute in Chicago in the eighties and what I most particularly remember was his openness to new ideas. There was nothing doctrinaire in his manner and despite the rigor of his practice, or perhaps because of it, he remained receptive and open to counter argument. The exhibition at MACBA exudes his generosity and the curator Julia Robinson a graduate from Princeton who has previously worked with exhibitions with George Brecht and George Maciunas shows a genuine insight, understanding of Cage’s work that exceeds the retrospective coverall. Amongst highlights is the TV sequence of Cage’s classic Water Walk from 1960 where Cage plays on everything wet from a pressure cooker and a bathtub to a sip of Campari and soda.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KKE0f1FGiw

In contrast to Cage’s exuberance the Modernologies exhibition is exemplary of a current contemporary practice that bears the mark of documentary erudition. Sabine Breitwieser the curator has brought together a selection of artists that clearly fit within the remit of contemporary conceptualism. With this goes an an-esthetic or anti-aesthetic move, an emptying out of visual excess and a desire to present work as free of any visual over stimulation. With works by over thirty artists including Armando Andrade, Dorit Margreiter, Florian Pumhosl and Alice Creischer/Andreas Siekmann the show is like exact joinery. Each part is dovetailed to fit, each join is seamless, no seams, no rough edges no internal frictions. And it perhaps this, that makes it also seem somewhat vapid. To make the exhibition legible an audience needs considerable prior knowledge, a good grounding in cultural history including art, architecture and design, a firm grasp of twentieth century philosophic discourse, a picture, road map, and chronology of the modernist canon and a good deal of time. I am hard pressed to imagine that the majority of MACBA’s visitors possessed this prerequisite. One and is confronted with density rather than accessibility and even a feeling of inadequacy. It is this that stands in such contrast to Cage’s generosity. If Cage represents a critical part of the enterprise of modernism, an aspect of the metanarrative itself then these critical synechdoches, these re-writings, re-interpretations and re-positionings are forced into comparison within MACBA’s own walls. The comparisons may seem unfair, especially when viewed as the attempt by a younger generation of artists to come to grips with the hegemony of modernism, but the attack on the dominant master narrative appears encapsulated in the guise of its own intellectualism and visual neutrality. The mix of playfulness, humour, integrity and acute focus that characterises Cage is not evident in Modernologies rather the exhibition seems intentionally sober and dispassionate.
It also seems that these differences are inherent in the curatorial practice that underpins the shows. Julia Robinson’s art historical Ivy League background is set against Sabine Breitwieser’s contemporary curatorial role as the former head and founder of the Generali Foundation in Vienna. With more than 80 exhibitions and numerous publications Breitwieser has a specific focus on conceptual work and has written extensively on such artists as Edward Krasiński, Gustav Metzger and Allan Sekula. The Modernologies exhibition is in many ways a distillation of many of her previous curatorial ideas and as such the catalogue is a statement of purpose. Robinson's more comprehensive chronology is not as challenging but as an exhibition seems more rewarding. A Cage exhibition on this scale has been long overdue and perhaps the sense of seeing an old friend, of reawakening a past memory or visiting a beloved place is too heady a mix to ignore. Both exhibitions give considerable food for thought and the combination of the two a fantastic double take!