Description

Museums of contemporary art are expanding and in crisis. They attract ever-larger audiences; architects constantly redesign them; and the ever-swellling ranks of artists are producing a greater quantity of art than ever before. Meanwhile, museum funds are dwindling amid economic crisis and an overheated art market. The question of which art is to be collected has also become a more openly discussed topic. How do curators meet these challenges? How do artists view their relationships to museum? How do practitioners navigate between ideas, ideals and realities? This publication gathers interviews with artists, architects and curators of the contemporary art world, such as John Baldessari, Ute Meta Bauer, Suzanne Cotter, Bice Curiger, Chris Dercon, Charles Esche, Liam Gillick, Michael Govan, Jacques Herzog, Thomas Hirschhorn, Philipp Kaiser, Rem Koolhaas, Lars Nittve, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Thierry Raspail, Tobias Rehberger and Beatrix Ruf, among others.