The idea of owning an installation / Pass on project

The BnA Alter Museum is what we refer to as an “accommodation-style museum.” Planned, created, and managed in collaboration with various artists, the museum has 31 guest rooms known as “art rooms” in 16 different styles that serve as the artworks themselves.

At this time, we are hosting installation art (*1) as well as an exhibition themed on the idea of “possessing” that art called “The idea of owning an installation / Pass on project”. This exhibition is an open recruitment program for the art fair known as Art Collaboration Kyoto, and BnA Alter Museum’s very own art director, Kazutaka Tsuitsui, was in charge of planning.

As a place where art fair artworks are sold, we had to ask ourselves various questions. For example, what does it mean to buy and own an art installation when it is tied to a space for a time and can’t easily be possessed? And when a buyer purchases an art installation, what do they actually own? Won’t they have to rethink their understanding of “ownership,” and be unable to share it? What’s more, through the act of trying to own an art installation (*3), won’t they be unable to show others the path to understanding (or not understanding) an artwork that represents a life? Using our position as an accommodation-style museum, where we develop the space itself, and, by extension, the installation art tied to the place known as Kawaramachi Takatsuji in Kyoto, we have adopted the shape of an exhibition that serves as a place for these kinds of thoughts and experiments.

How is it possible for someone to possess an art installation presented as a work of art that reflects the state of possessing space at a certain time? As a clue to the answer to this question, our exhibition is composed of two continuous projects.

[1] A project to develop the actual installation artworks
[2] A development project for the sake of the possession of those artworks

In [1], in addition to the production of the work itself, using the emergency stairwell as the exhibition hall, five case galleries will be arranged featuring works of various materials and possessing different peculiarities.
In [2], as one way to arrange ownership, contracts (*5) will be adopted, and, with the cooperation of Maaru Hiyama, chairman of the exhibition sales project “D4C” (2019-), we are releasing and posting these contracts of sale.

Lastly, within this exhibit, we intend for the projects continuing in this manner to function as a new beginning while at the same time serving as a focal point on humanity, things both abstract and physical, and time and space. Furthermore, through the contracts and projects which are underway for the sake of buying, selling, and possession, the artworks will be regulated, so we look forward to expanding and broadening how we imagine variation.

*1 In this instance, by “installation art”, we refer to “an artwork composed of a space that is itself viewed as art.” Therefore, the work is tied to that location, and the formation of the work, in regard to the production and exhibition of the work, can be limited by various constraints.

*2 Though it has only a slight relation to this exhibit, at Art Basel Miami in 2019, the new sector for large-scale artworks known as Meridians was opened. There, visitors participated in the purchase and sale of monumental installations, even those on the scale of a museum. Though the details of the sales were not widely published, it was revealed that the majority of buyers were museums and large-scale individual collectors. (Reference: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-buying-enormous-artworks-art-basel )

*3 From the chapter “Art in the Age of Biopolitics: From Artwork to Art Documentation” from the book Art Power by Boris Groys

*4 We plan to update the information about each work in the coming days.

*5 Maaru Hiyama’s research focus during his master’s course was the art dealer and curator Seth Siegelaub. During the 1960s and ‘70s, Siegelaub promoted conceptual art in New York City and in 1971, published The Artist’s Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement, an art buying and selling contract for artists.

Planning: Kazutaka Tsuitsui
Cooperation: Maaru Hiyama
Assistance: ACK Coordinated Program Selection Project
Host: BnA Alter Museum

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