Book Section
Michela Alessandrini
‘Repetition: Summer Display 1983’ at Van Abbemuseum
Or, What Institutional Curatorial Archives Can Tell Us about the Museum
The reactivation of Rudi Fuchs’ 1983 exhibition ‘Summer Display’ took place in 2009 as part of the collection series, ‘Play van Abbe part 1: The Game and the Players’, and was entitled ‘Repetition: Summer Display 1983’. The reconstruction questioned the codes and systems used within (but also consciously and unconsciously outside) the museum and raised several questions, including: what story did the original composers want to tell, and how can this piece of history be understood today? Is the new presentation a separate exhibition entirely or a copy of the ‘original’ one? What is then the difference between the idea of copy, repetition, and reenactment? And what is the role of the museum’s archive in the process of restaging? What can curatorial institutional archives tell us about the museum itself?
Keywords: curatorial archives; curatorial practices; exhibition reactivation; Charles Esche; Van Abbemuseum
| Title |
‘Repetition: Summer Display 1983’ at Van Abbemuseum
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| Subtitle |
Or, What Institutional Curatorial Archives Can Tell Us about the Museum
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| Author(s) |
Michela Alessandrini
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| Identifier | |
| Description |
The reactivation of Rudi Fuchs’ 1983 exhibition ‘Summer Display’ took place in 2009 as part of the collection series, ‘Play van Abbe part 1: The Game and the Players’, and was entitled ‘Repetition: Summer Display 1983’. The reconstruction questioned the codes and systems used within (but also consciously and unconsciously outside) the museum and raised several questions, including: what story did the original composers want to tell, and how can this piece of history be understood today? Is the new presentation a separate exhibition entirely or a copy of the ‘original’ one? What is then the difference between the idea of copy, repetition, and reenactment? And what is the role of the museum’s archive in the process of restaging? What can curatorial institutional archives tell us about the museum itself?
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| Is Part Of | |
| Place |
Berlin
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| Publisher |
ICI Berlin Press
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| Date |
4 January 2022
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| Subject |
curatorial archives
curatorial practices
exhibition reactivation
Charles Esche
Van Abbemuseum
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| Rights |
© by the author(s)
Except for images or otherwise noted, this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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| Language |
en-GB
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| page start |
231
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| page end |
238
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| Source |
Over and Over and Over Again: Reenactment Strategies in Contemporary Arts and Theory, ed. by Cristina Baldacci, Clio Nicastro, and Arianna Sforzini, Cultural Inquiry, 21 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2022), pp. 231–38
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References
- ‘Directory entry Van Abbemuseum’, Art & Education <https://www.artandeducation.net/directory/82357/van-abbemuseum> [accessed 11 March 2021]
- ‘The Game and the Players’, exhibition press release, Van Abbemuseum, museum website <https://vanabbemuseum.nl/en/programme/programme/play-van-abbe/> [accessed 11 March 2021]
- ‘1975–1987: Rudi Fuchs, Exhibition- and Acquisition Policy’, Van Abbemuseum museum website <https://vanabbemuseum.nl/en/about-the-museum/building-and-history/1975-1987-rudi-fuchs/> [accessed 11 December 2019]
- ‘Strange and Close: Play Van Abbe’, project presentation, Van Abbemuseum, museum website <https://vanabbemuseum.nl/en/programme/programme/strange-and-close-1/> [accessed 16 December 2019]
- Calvino, Italo, The Castle of Crossed Destinies, trans. by William Weaver (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977)
- Fondazione Prada Team, Journalists, and Friends, ‘Why and How: A Conversation with Germano Celant’, in When Attitudes Become Form: Bern 1969/Venice 2013, ed. by Germano Celant (Milan: Progetto Prada Arte, 2013), pp. 393–421
- Gallissà, Núria, Maite Muñoz, and Marta Vega, Folding the Exhibition (Barcelona: MACBA–Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2014 <https://www.macba.cat/en/learn-explore/publications/folding-exhibition> [accessed 11 March 2021]
- Greenberg, Reesa, ‘“Remembering Exhibitions”: From Point to Line to Web’, Tate Papers, 12 (Autumn 2009) <https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/12/remembering-exhibitions-from-point-to-line-to-web> [accessed 11 December 2019]
- Miessen, Markus, ‘Safe Haven’, Volume Magazine, 15 (April 2008), n.p.
Cite as:
Michela Alessandrini, ‘“Repetition: Summer Display 1983” at Van Abbemuseum: Or, What Institutional Curatorial Archives Can Tell Us about the Museum’, in Over and Over and Over Again: Reenactment Strategies in Contemporary Arts and Theory, ed. by Cristina Baldacci, Clio Nicastro, and Arianna Sforzini, Cultural Inquiry, 21 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2022), pp. 231-38 <https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-21_23>