A Collection of Spaces

A Collection of Spaces gathers artists’ spaces on the fourth floor of the museum and intends both to offer a representation of the singularity of the MAMCO collections—through the emphasis on protocol, score and collaboration with the artist as nodal points of the collection’s politics—and to allow ephemeral, performative and living forms to find a place in its midst. This articulation between archives, collections and performative formats is also a proposition which is new for the museographic field and its codified practices.
 

Claude Rutault’s Inventaire (1989–94) gathers the entirety of his definitions/methods. This ensemble, first presented at MAMCO in 1994 and integrated since within the museum’s collection, is a form of seismograph of Rutault’s practice. It is now re-installed following the artist’s wish.  

Sarkis’ L’Atelier depuis 19380, set up at the MAMCO since 1994, is the only environment which still bears witness to the wooden “cabins” that characterized the museum when it first opened. The artist considers this space as a “travel studio” which, once or twice a year, he occupies to resume his work.  

These two historical artists’ spaces adjoin rooms dedicated to the Ecart Archives and the Concrete Poetry Cabinet. The Cabinet is made of 30,000 artworks and documents brought together by Zona Achives, which under the auspices of Maurizio Nannucci, is one of the biggest private collection on Europe. The post-Fluxus activities of the Ecart group have found a location for their re-emergence in Geneva, thanks to the HEAD Geneva, the Print Room of the Musée d’art et d’histoire and the complicity of John Armleder. 

Sophie Costes, curator in charge of the MAMCO collections, worked on the re-deployment of Sarkis’ studio and, with artist Emilie Parendeau, of Rutault’s Inventory; Paul Bernard, curator at the MAMCO, was in charge of the organization of the Concrete Poetry Cabinet; and the Ecart display was organized by Lionel Bovier and David Lemaire, curator at the MAMCO.

The Concrete Poetry Cabinet and Ecart’s space are generously supported by Fondation Leenaards.