[Backstage-list] Ausstellung zu Kunst und Tourismus

[Michael Zinganel]

/Universal Experience: Art, Life, and the Tourist's Eye
/February 11 - June 5, 2005

Museum of Contemporary Art
Curated by Francesco Bonami

It has been estimated that by 2010, the number of people who travel
internationally will reach one billion. Occupying the entire MCA
building as well as its outdoor spaces, the works in the exhibition
/Universal Experience: Art, Life, and the Tourist's Eye/ focus on the
phenomenon of international visual artists whose work responds to their
experiences of traveling. Ranging from large-scale installations and
sculptures to more intimate photographs and videos, the works address
issues related to tourism that include spectacle, architecture,
authenticity, history, souvenirs, and anthropology. MCA Manilow Senior
Curator Francesco Bonami writes in the exhibition catalogue, "The
exhibition is a dialogue between icons and icons to be. It questions how
a tourist attraction becomes a work of art-such as the Eiffel Tower-and
how a work of art becomes a tourist attraction-such as the Mona Lisa. It
questions the role of viewers, asking when we are tourists and when we
are viewers. We enter a museum as tourists, but upon encountering the
mystery of art, we are transformed into viewers. As viewers of icons
such as the Mona Lisa, /Nike of Samothrace/, or Jeff Koons' Rabbit, we
share universal experiences and become tourists and viewers and tourists
again. The exhibition is a system of mirrors, where icons, viewers, and
tourists reflect each other."

The fantastic exhibition catalogue serves as a souvenir guidebook with a
new essay by Bonami and an anthology of critical writings by Charles
Baudelaire, Joan Didion, Umberto Eco, Julia Kristeva, the late Susan
Sontag, among many others. The vibrant color reproductions and
accompanying short texts lead us through the work of more than
seventy-five artists including Vito Acconci, Doug Aitken, Darren Almond,
Matthew Buckingham, Chris Burden, Maurizio Cattelan, Abraham
Cruzvillegas, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Katharina Fritsch, Thomas
Hirschhorn, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Jeff Koons, Matthias M€ller,
Gabriel Orozco, Martin Parr, Andrea Robbins and Max Becher, Thomas
Schutte, Simon Starling, Thomas Struth, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Kyoichi
Tsuzuki, Piotr Uklanski, and Andy Warhol.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is located at 220 East Chicago
Avenue, just one block east of Michigan Avenue, in the heart of the
Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago. For more information please call
312.280.2660 or visit http://www.mcachicago.org.

To purchase a /Universal Experience/ catalogue, please visit the MCA
Store, order online at http://www.mcachicagostore.org or call 312.397.4001.

Major support for the exhibition /Universal Experience: Art, Life and
the Tourist's Eye/ is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in honor
of Bette and Neison Harris. Major support is also provided by Muriel
Kallis Newman, and Donna and Howard Stone. Major corporate support
provided by Bank One, a JPMorgan Chase company. Additional support
provided by Anne and Kenneth Griffin; Nancy and Sanfred Koltun; Helen
Zell; Ruth P. Horwich; the Kovler Family Foundation; Meta S. and Ronald
Berger Family Foundation in memory of our beloved Ronald by Meta Berger,
Jan and Robin, Louis and Robin and J.R. and Michael, Jonathan and
Rebecca and Jessica and Sydney; Nancy Lauter McDougal and Alfred
McDougal; Sara Albrecht; Marilyn and Larry Fields; Wolfgang Puck
Catering; C. Bradford Smith and Donald L. Davis; and Lindy Bergman. Air
transportation is provided by American Airlines, the official airline of
the Museum of Contemporary Art. Hotel accommodations provided by the
Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel, a part of Millennium Hotels and Resorts.