Art Of The Day Weekly

UFO or cathedral: what will the museum of the XXIst century look like?

GENEVA – A long, chronological frieze outlines the phenomenon of exponential acceleration. The first markers are few and far apart: the Uffizi in Florence in the 17th century, the Louvre in 1793, the new building of the British Museum in 1857. The 20th century is denser, with in particular the Guggenheim in New York by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1959, Pei’s new Louvre in 1989, and the Guggenheim Bilbao by Gehry in 1997. The 21st century seems to be shooting fireworks with more frequency on all continents, as Asia and the Middle East catch up with the Western countries. They too have spectacular creations. A selection of these new museums - recently opened or still under construction, or even interrupted like the Guggenheim Helsinki by Moreau Kusunoki or the China Comic and Animation Museum by MVRDV- show that the architectural gesture has become the founding principle. For various reasons – the most emblematic case is that of the Palestinian Museum at Bir Zeit by Heneghan Peng -, these museums don’t always hold an identifiable collection. Their strange forms though, and the audacity of their design, like the Zeitz Museum set up on former silos in Johannesburg by Heatherwick Studio, or the Pingtan Museum that floats like an island, are enough to turn them into venues worth a visit in itself. Hence a sometimes disquieting thought: while museums have never attracted as many visitors, they are not always being visited as sanctuaries of knowledge or of –even questionable! – art. They are increasingly seen as places to distract, or to go on shopping sprees. The patron muses must be quite moved, sitting up there in their ether! A theme park is not necessarily a place of learning. New museums must know how to stay a cultural and educational course, an aim not always clearly included in their specifications.
• Musées du XXIe siècle. Visions, ambitions, défis at the Musée d’art et d’histoire, from 11 May to 20 August 2017.

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