battle in the berkshires

Like most everyone else, I've been reading about the situation involving Mass MoCA and Christoph Büchel, pausing only long enough to periodically scrape my chin off the floor.  Geoff Edgers has a post with links to the Globe's story and other coverage, plus there's yesterday's Times article and commentary from Culturegrrl.  Like she says, it's a mess, and I can't imagine how those involved must feel.  That said, there really isn't much for me to say until the picture becomes clearer.  With basic facts in dispute, it's hard to come to any conclusion more concrete than someone is acting in bad faith.  This, from Richard Lacayo, is clever

Buchel says that MASS MoCA mismanaged the whole project and spent more than necessary on some of the elements, like the house. He also issued a list of demands to the museum last winter with a classic statement: "The artist demands full autonomy with regard to his artwork."

Well, for that to happen, sometimes the artist has to come equipped with is own checkbook.  Just ask Diego Rivera.

But it doesn't really help one evaluate which party failed to fulfill their proper responsibilities to the other.  The forum in which that question would be most conclusively tested, the courtroom, unfortunately seems to be where the museum and the artist are headed.  I hoped, and hope still, that outcome could be avoided, and perhaps it will, but the situation as it stands seems an untenable one.  The lesson, I guess, is always get a contract.  A good one.

Comments

[martin]

oh man, i am so addicted to this beuchel thing...

my real thinking is that he was overwhelmed by the space..it was just a freakout on his part, he is reputed to be a total perfectionist. every piece a good artist does is not going to be a hit; the problem with installation art is that your failures are public.

but, there is the tiny part of me saying that it is in fact all intentional on his part. which, in a sense is brilliant, if not for the fact that mass moca, and north adams, are EXTREMELY soft targets.

so, if it is intentional, i wish more people knew in fact how lame it is.

ugh... i could go on and on. i'm trying to reign it in.

[Larry in North Adams]

As someone who moved to North Adams because of the presence of Mass MOCA, I have been greatly saddened by the controversy which has now reached the unfortunate legal stage. On one hand, the conception that Beuchel proposed is a solid one, and the additions he desires, clearly indicate an important work in the making.

OTOH, small institutions like Mass MOCA are not rich, and artists do have a responsibility to work within budgets agreed to. It is the duty of the artist to help solve problems created during the process, not to run and hide, hire lawyers and become obstinate.

The public is the loser here, and while the museum seems to want to let the public see what the controversy is all about, it seems the artist wants either an open checkbook or to keep it hidden from view.

Perhaps it should just be hauled off to the dump so both the artist and institution can move on wtih their respective work.