What do a dead kitten rug, one of Hitler’s
handtowels, the model of a model building, and varying shades of pink icing
have in common? You probably got it straightaway; they are all part of a new
trend in art curation (apart from the pink icing which is the theme of a set of
cupcakes that have been ‘curated’ in a local cafe).
For a while now mixing traditional museum objects
with art has been part of how curators bid for attention, but it's heading into
the mainstream. We've already mentioned how much we liked the last Documenta
(Hitler stuff) and David Walsh’s cabinet of curiosities Mona in Hobart (kitten)
but in 2013 it's Venice's turn. (But first check out what we suspect is
a pic of an OTN staffer in the 21 January 2013 New Yorker article on Walsh hanging out with the Chapmans).
Venice curator Massimiliano Gioni is taking his
theme for the big show from the model of a museum building made from wood,
plastic, glass, metal, hair combs, and model kit parts by Italian/American folk
artist Marino Auriti. The model for Auriti’s Encyclopedic palace of the world is 1:200 scale so we're talking 36
floors reaching around 700 meters. The idea for the museum's content was not
modest either. It was intended "to hold all the works of man in whatever
field, discoveries made and those which may follow.” Perfect for the Venice
Biennale and Gioni is up for it. There’s a rumour he may even stretch as far as New
Zealand as he sets out "to explore these flights of the imagination in a
show that—like Auriti’s Encyclopedic Palace—will combine works of contemporary
art with historical artefacts and found objects.” Now that's what Auriti was
dreaming of.
Image: Marino Auriti with his model now housed in
the American Folk Art Museum
