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In these essays and conversations, Daniel Birnbaum explores what conceptual artist Daniel Buren referred to as the “frames of art.” As a director of institutions, he has organized events inside and outside some of the most significant art institutions in Europe, including the Venice Biennale, the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Moderna Museet and the Centre Pompidou. Like few other curators he has pushed the boundaries of the studio, the exhibition, and the museum in an attempt to find new ways to ‘frame’ art . The volume contains examples of curatorial approaches to education, exhibition-making and the presentation of collections.
It was impeccable timing when Birnbaum in 2019 left the museum world. During 2020 and 2021, when most institutions were closed due to the pandemic, he curated a large number AR and VR exhibitions in major cities around the world.
This book is a hybrid object that triggers AR artworks produced by Acute Art. It ends with notes about new visual technologies and virtual space.
Says Hans Ulrich Obrist in the introduction to the book: “Birnbaum’s ever expanding inter-disciplinary interests, and the strong relationships he has developed over the years with artists as well as so many others working within and outside the field, make his insight into the ‘frames’ of varying institutions, the gallery, and the artist’s studio both valid and engaging. After serving as the director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm for nine years, Birnbaum turned to an entirely new form of framing art—one that is not necessarily physically manifested in any given place but instead is available online for everyone, everywhere. It is therefore all the more interesting to have here before you a physical object that presents Birnbaum’s reflections and conversations about his experiences with experimental institutional approaches to art schools, museums, and his own curatorial projects.”
Daniel Birnbaum is the artistic director of London’s Acute Art, a laboratory exploring art and technology. He is Professor of Philosophy at the Städelschule in Frankfurt and the author of numerous books on art and critical theory.
Daniel Birnbaum, Notes on the frames of art: Exhibition, Academy, Museum
Introduction by Hans Ulrich Obrist
Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, 2022
CIVA
Artistic Director: Nikolaus Hirsch
Secretary general: Benjamin Erarts
Press: Dieter Vanthournout, d.vanthournout@civa.brussels
