Under Construction: Perspectives on Institutional Practice

Museums, galleries, foundations, collectors, artists, viewers--how do they all come together? How is that changing? This collection of essays and some photographs from a Cologne working group called European Kunsthalle tackles the fundamental issues facing new initiatives and institutions for contemporary art. It is divided into five topics: The Problem of Location, The Process of Societal Transformation, Cultural Economies, Curatorial Concepts, and, most ambitiously of all, The Way in Which the Art System Operates. Articles and discussion transcripts include "The Crisis of the Audience," "The Cultural Politics of Institutions," "Smuggling: A Curatorial Model," "The Power and Powerlessness of the Private Collector" and Liam Gillick's "Revised Construction of One."