Euclidian plugged nowhere spaces are not white cube
Erasing interior design (similar of Rauschenberg
erasing De Kooning) for exhibition space is a result of a process, not a
stereotype.
Why should we design an exhibition room in a museum ?
The shape of an exhibition room space cannot substitute
its own sophistication, its own twisted wall or “modern promenade” for the
loosing of utopia, the missing of ideology in art scene. Bargain control the
production, and the notion of
authorship is directly used and feed by post liberal system. Art curator are the
vector of this flux and a museum its black bunker mirror (in
the sense of Black utopia of Mike Davis).
The only attitude we could have when we are
commissioned to realize a museum is, first, to accept the reality of this global
supermarket for blind running exhibition over the planet[1]
and simultaneously to introduce all the condition to experiment other
relationship and paradigm, by :
developing mixed function, reprogramming flux, access,
changing scale between public and domestic, including all services to produce
flexibility, and plugging all IN/OFF network.
“Euclidian plugged nowhere space” is an instrument which
absorb this preliminaries and paradoxical
In
B_mu Bangkok Museum (with the adviser Ami Barak) what it’s means :
-A
strategy of mixed program : exhibition room 360+300+200 m², Interior/exterior
(under the mesh) exhibition room 300 m², Lounge/exhibition 120m²,
multifunction/theatre/movie/exhibition 200 m², labyrinth stair case 150 m²,
restaurant/bar 130 m², Book Shop 70 m², office library 130 m², carpenter
room 150 m² and temporary storage 250 m² on ground floor for a maximum
useful, courtyard 1500 m². Interior design introduce domestic scale in
bar/restaurant and all lounge located in excrescences (between envelop of dust
and exhibition room).
-A
strategy of access : The link between entrance hall and exhibition is done by
a labyrinth stair which extend all relation inside the Art Centre. This
introduce the sensation of a disconnection between each room and give the
possibility to close one of them depending of the schedule of the museum. The
art lift is largest as possible : 6x4x4 meters, from the car park (if artist
want to use it) and storage/carpenter services to the third exhibition on the
top.
-
A strategy of Network and flux : All room are plugged : fresh and wasted water,
IN/OFF net line, electricity low and high voltage, video system, controlled
air conditioning, humidity, temperature…All this network are set on the
periphery inside the slab of each exhibition area under a linear grid (so all
the plug are directly accessible). Each room could become a temporary bar, a
private event, and more…(including specific event for supporting founds)
-A
strategy of extension and transformation : Exhibition could be extended
through the interface surface under the mesh, both inside and outside, between
the two climate : controlled and polluted… (300m²). The lounge in all
excrescences could be open or close or reintroduced in exhibition space (120 m²).
All the furniture in the restaurant, in the multi/function room, and in lounge
could be put away (sliding or automatically removable) to redefine specific
function. Nowhere space could be “white
bunker” closed on itself, or link to the city and its environment (opening
terrace under the mesh, sky hole on ceiling, transparent facades on
excressences fussing the dust...
-A concept of light : Like Inuit people talking on the white color with 20 words, here, we could describe the project by : wet gray, glossy gray, silver gray, rough gray, smooth gray, transparence gray, shadow gray…There is a gradient of light between entrance which are only using grey spectrum (to introduce a continuity between dusty urbanism and interior space) and exhibition where the full light spectrum is reintroduced. The staircase are the dumper space of this effect. All ceiling in exhibition room are done by a alveolar translucid plastic with hidden fluorescence light with a power of 700 lumen (on dumper). Line of removable spot light are included in each ceiling. Natural light is coming from excrescences on façade and on roof (4x4 meter width). It could be easily closed or opened by plywood to hide it. The glass façade of each excrescences could be used for video projection (which could be view both inside and outside of the museum, like a palpitation by night). On day light, an occultation rolling system could be used.
B_mu
is an hybrid, a complex mix shape coming from the sedimentation and
ectoplasmic dusty situation of Bangkok and from the recognition of
the deterritorialization, of the “team back two” aspect of a
contemporary exhibition room.
B_mu
is a mirror of here and now…of
this global/local….glocal condition.
[1]
Three examples: The curve
Blue Gallery in London designed by Decoi in 2001 has been destroy the day of
its opening by artist’s request :they refused to make an exhibition in a
left surface space. The second is the rehabilitation or renovation of Tate
Gallery and Centre Pompidou which, both reintroduced white cube
like an obsession of deterritorialization. The third is the new Palais de
Tokyo in Paris, where the trash environment is becoming colonized
by this sickness of white…