Believers at Mass MoCA
Troubled Berkshire Museum Keeps the Faith
By: Charles Giuliano - Apr 09, 2007
The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art continues to grapple with installation artist, Christoph Buchel, and a seemingly endless list of demands and punch lists which has the opening of "Training Ground" in the museum's largest space, roughly the dimensions of a vaulted football field, some four months off schedule, with no potential opening in sight for the rapidly approaching and crucial summer season.
During the opening last Saturday of "The Believers" in a series of second floor galleries there was a general buzz from those chatting with director, Joe Thompson, curators, installers and museum staff that there was some optimism that through negotiations between lawyers for the museum, and those representing the artist, the controversial project, which has entailed buying, chopping up, and reassembling a local house comprising some $100,000 of the estimated $250,000 spent so far, may at some point be on view as a "work or installation in progress." So far, all that is visible consists of the ticket window of the former North Adams Cinema elements of which are glimpsed by squinting through a slit in the locked double doors that lead to the sealed off gallery.
The delays in opening an already expensive exhibition, with nothing to show for it other than massive media coverage, represents a disaster for the cash strapped museum which has yet to raise a sufficient endowment to sustain programming and to tide it over through problems such as this. Mass MoCA operates on a tight budget and as a young and ambitious museum it is largely dependent on the revenue stream of seasonal visitors to pay its bills. In general, it takes years, if not generations, to endow contemporary art museums. For example, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston survived hand to mouth through most of its history although it has recently moved to a $50 million building and increased its space by a factor of ten.
On its sprawling campus of buildings of the former Sprague Electric in North Adams space has never been an issue for Mass MoCA. It has plenty of expansion possible in other undeveloped loft buildings when and if it can raise the money. Right now, Thompson more than has his hands full in a complex and expensive struggle with a temperamental and demanding artist. Few fault Thompson in this epic spat but insiders wonder whether the risk factors had been sufficiently explored with an artist known to make outrageous demands on museums displaying his complex installations. Clearly, too much is at stake, including the success or failure of the season, not to have run all of the possible contingencies. But this is also not the first time that serious snags have been encountered in programming the museum's largest space and potentially biggest draw.
Last summer, for example, the antique amusement park rides comprising the Carsten Holler exhibition were delivered essentially as scrap and required remarkable ingenuity on the part of installers to set up. None of the equipment appeared to be functional so the artist and Thompson decided that it was to be presented as a still life, so to speak, of an amusement park. How convenient, but the truth is that the installation was a flop: A significant waste of time, money and space. Similarly, a prior installation by Ann Hamilton ran into trouble when a fire code severely limited the height of the build up of scrap paper periodically floating from dispensers mounted above the space. So that installation which was never really seen as the artist intended represents another flawed effort.
The museum was under some pressure to get it right this time. There is also more involved than a problem for Mass MoCA. The museum was funded largely through State seed money with a mandate to bring economic recovery to the hard strapped Northern Berkshire County promoting jobs and revenue through increased tourism and community outreach. So there is bound to be a negative impact on the prime tourist season if Mass MoCA doesn't get its act together quickly. On the other hand, if there is an agreement with the artist, clearly, the curiosity factor will be huge as all that currently negative PR may prove to be a bonanza.
Last Saturday night, Thompson seemed edgy and off his game as he made opening remarks for The Believers and introduced former curator, Nato Thompson, and his associate in the project, Liz Thomas. When Tom Krens, formerly director of the Williams College Museum of Art, proposed Mass MoCA to former governor, Michael Dukakis, he left prematurely to become director of the Guggenheim Museum. The project was turned over to a then very young Williams grad, and Krens understudy, Joe Thompson. He saw it through to completion and several years later is still its founding director. Similarly, Thompson has been surrounded by very young staff members including the original curators Laura Heon and Nato Thompson who left for better positions. The museum has just hired a new curator, Denise Markonish, who is established in the field but still relatively young.
As Thompson and the curators noted during the opening remarks for The Believers it is just the kind of project - ambitious, edgy and risky - that Mass MoCA is unique and noted for presenting. It combines outsider art with elements of wacko faith. It may well be Nato's most interesting exhibition and we will have the next year to absorb all of its complex bells and whistles. It will be tough on tourists but there was great opening night buzz among artists and locals in attendance. The audience was thrilled and amazed when the artist Theo Jansen demonstrated his enormous, sprawling Strandbeest or Beast Animal. We were floored as he pushed it about on whirling legs and caused its wings to flap.
We will offer a review of the exhibition when there is time to view it more thoroughly. For now, it is refreshing to see something new in the galleries but wonder if it alone will be enough to fill the parking lot in the months to come. The delayed work by Buchel "Training Ground" may prove to be an unfortunately apt metaphor for Mass MoCA itself.