(I'm liveblogging from TED 2008, in Monterey, CA) Presenter: Thomas Krens, director of the Guggenheim Foundation on rethinking museums.
After showing slides of works by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rubens, Manet, Picasso, Mondrian, Warhol, Gehry, 1948 Indian Chief motorcycles, Krens asks: How do these objects of beauty tie together? How do we experience art, truth and beauty? Do art museums work as a territory for encountering these ideas?
The art museum is an 18th century idea (the encyclopedia) in a 19th century box (the extended and recycled palace) that more or less fulfills structural destiny sometime toward to end of the 29t century.
Art museums conjures up a Greece that never existed. It belies the fact that these sculptures were colorfully painted. Museums should be agents of agitation, social information and cultural change. Museums as platforms and networks of exchange.
Trying to establish bridge to Middle East. Wants to work with Abu Dhabi. The ruler of Abu Dhabi has a master plan to divide main island (1/2 size of Manhattan) into six centers. Wants Guggenheim to design cultural center of island with museums, parks, artist installations, a Yale cultural campus, a wold cultural forum, performing art centers, and grand canal through the island dividing it into 19 pavilions. Guggeneim Abu Dhabi is much bigger than Bilbao and will extend into desert.
