An Imagined Museum

The year is 2052. The museums are threatened with extinction and art is disappearing from society. In this scenario, more than eighty key works from three European collections—the Centre Pompidou, the Tate and the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst—are united in a temporary transnational museum. The show features works by prominent 20th and 21st century artists.

The exhibition was inspired by Ray Bradbury’s science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451, which was published in 1953. In that story Bradbury visualizes a future in which works of literature have been banned from society. The only means of preserving them for later generations is to commit them to memory. The show takes visitors to a future in which the artworks on display face imminent destruction. In nine thematic sections, it illuminates specific qualities and processes inherent to art—for example the transformation of everyday objects, the playful approach to perception, or travel through space and time—and finally concludes with an homage to the enigmatic and unexplainable aspects of art.

Just as Bradbury’s “book people” are capable of saving literary works from destruction solely by memorizing them, the exhibition invites viewers to commit the artworks presented to memory. After the exhibition is over, it will open its doors once again for a major closing weekend on September 10 and 11. There the artworks will be replaced by people who, on the basis of their personal memories and interpretations, will bring them back to mind. These “art people” will transform the exhibition into a living museum.

The exhibition title refers to French author and politician André Malraux’s (1901–76) “Musée imaginaire.” Malraux introduced the idea that, thanks to the photographic reproduction of artworks, every person has the means of compiling his or her own personal imaginary museum independently of time and space. “The imaginary museum,” Malraux explained, creates an art of fiction in which—as in novels—reality is dependent on fantasy.

A publication by Dora García will be published on the occasion of the exhibition.

The exhibition is organized by Tate Liverpool, UK; MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main, Germany; and Centre Pompidou-Metz, France.

Curated by:
Francesco Manacorda, Darren Pih, Lauren Barnes, Tate Liverpool
Peter Gorschlüter, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main
Hélène Guenin, Alexandra Müller, Centre Pompidou-Metz

Following the presentation at MMK 2 the exhibition will be on view at Centre Pompidou-Metz from October 21, 2016 to March 27, 2017.