Getting back in the Saddle

Howdy!

I think I have completely recuperated from CIHA2004 (the 31st Congress of the Comité international d'histoire de l'art) and while it was extremely tiring (being in doors for three days listening to four syllable words, and cocktail parties four straight nights) it also was a blast.

I think that the highlight for me was the talk by Peter Stohler and Daniel Walser about "The "Un-Private Home" as a Site of Art Display." To reprint their abstract:

Prestigious bourgeois settings such as the Kramlich Residence in California (architecture: Herzog & de Meuron), built to house both the couple and their art collection, are not the only places where art is staged in private spaces for a public audience in the form of temporary exhibitions. In European cities too, a trend towards places in which art is presented contextually, away from conventional institutions, in private homes, has been noticeable in the past few years. This development is possible because the very concept of privacy is softening at the edges in the face of changing ideas in the Western world about living and working (as shown in the exhibition The Un-Private House, curator Terence Riley, MOMA, New York 1999). The "Un-Private Homes" are a hybrid, semi-public exhibition venues ("not-so-white-cubes"). They walk a fine line between a will to present art and demands posed by public interest.

Between the obvious relation with Zeke's "No White Cube" and the most frequent question posed by visitors here; "do you live here, too?" There were way too many similarities. I was very happy to hear that there were other places in the world that were doing similar things. Now I just need to get my hands on a copy of their talk, and see how I can make this place even better.