CIMAM - International Committee of ICOM for Museums and Collections of Modern Art
CIMAM´s 2011 Annual Conference ´Museums and the City´ was held in Ljubljana and Zagreb from November 14 to 17, 2011. The conference was organized in collaboration with Moderna Galerija Ljubljana, Muzej Suvremene Umjetnosti Zagreb, and Ars Aevi Sarajevo. In addition to the formal conference sessions, case studies, understanding local context sessions, and workshops, CIMAM also organized a post-conference tour to Sarajevo.
Museums today are increasingly looking for contact with the city, with their immediate environment, so why should they be presented any differently? And just what is this ´immediate environment´? Have there been any essential changes over recent decades in our understanding of what this means? And a related question: What, in fact, is the space of the museum? Or to put it another way: what, in fact, is its shell? No longer is this merely the museum´s building; it is, at the same time, the city – both the local physical city and the global virtual city. And who, exactly, can be the audience of this museum, which covers so many spaces at once? Who are our citizens?
CIMAM´s conference in Ljubljana, Zagreb, and Sarajevo presented these three cities as special case studies that are both interesting in themselves and in many ways comparable to other places in the world – in particular, to many smaller cities that have never been world capitals but that play important roles in their own regions. From their examples we can learn that it may be easier in smaller cities to develop synergies between artistic spaces that are very different in status, between central museums and small non-governmental organizations, between artists and art institutions, between the museum and the city, and so on. Especially in times of crisis, collaboration between different groups and organizations in a city has often meant the creation of platforms that allow work to take place in relative autonomy, that provide a kind of shield against the undue pressures of politics and capital.
CIMAM´s 2011 Annual Conference Publication includes text by: Boris Buden, The Capitalist Truth of the Communist Past: A Short Reminder; Zvonimir Dobrovic, Domino; Lu Jie, Long March - Ho Chi Minh Trail; Project (2008– ongoing); Ana Kutlesa, Blok; Tomislav Medak, BADco; Galerija Nova, What, How and for Whom of WHW; Bojana Piškur, The Metelkova Case: From Army Barracks to Museum of Contemporary Art; Tadej Poga?ar, The Other Museum. P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art; Tomislav Pokrajcic, Kontejner; Amila Ramovi?, Ars Aevi Art Depot; Gabriela Rangel, Venezuelan Museum; Renata Salecl, Art between Violence and Identification; Barthélémy Toguo, The Third Hand, Bandjoun Station, Cameroon; Emina Višni?, POGON - Zagreb Center for Independent Culture and Youth - Dvorana Jedinstvo; Asta Vre?ko, City as a Museum. The Workers´ and Punks´ University; Eyal Weizman, Notes on Forensic Architecture; Akram Zaatari, The Time Capsule.
We hope you enjoy this publication and look forward to seeing you this November in Istanbul for CIMAM´s 2012 Annual Conference ´Museums Beyond the Crises´.
The sessions´ video recordings and the electronic publication are available online at http://www.cimam.org/meeting/meeting21.php?id_reunion=15
For information and requests please contact CIMAM's executive team at:
CIMAM
Fabra i Coats
C/ Sant Adrià, 20
08030 Barcelona
T. +34 933469923
Jenny Gil
Inés Jover