27 Feb 2013

Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum presents Jochen Gerz: The Gift

As part of the inaugural exhibitions at the new Zaha Hadid-designed Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, the museum has commissioned acclaimed German conceptual artist Jochen Gerz to produce a project about participation, artistic process, the democratization of the art world, and generosity. The Gift is both a portrait of Lansing, the capital of Michigan, and an investigation of the place of a museum within a community.

This project is built through photographic portraits of people who constructed the new museum or witnessed, from near or far, its realization. The series of photographs are installed as a monumental wall of gridded portraits — an ever changing collection of faces which continue to grow as more visitors sit before the camera. An instant photo lab is installed adjacent to this participatory work-in-progress and the large-scale photographs are printed immediately on-site, inserted into frames, and rotated into the exhibition. To reach the broadest public audience, the museum has partnered with the weekly Lansing newspaper, City Pulse, who publishes each day's photographs both in print and on-line.

The Gift: Lansing, Michigan, 2012/13 breaks down the traditional divide between viewer and art object, putting the viewer literally into the work of art. Simultaneously, the process of making and installing artworks — normally done out of the public sight and before a visitor ever encounters the object—becomes an active and visible part of the museum experience. A key aspect of the artist's concept is that he is not personally involved in the production process. Instead, in an earlier visit to the museum, he worked with a group of art students and young artists to develop a collaborative experience and establish a context in which they, in partnership with the museum, become producers. Ultimately, the work questions the traditional concept of authorship, but also redefines ownership through its final component: The 1,183 participants are invited to return to the museum in order to meet the artist and to receive The Gift, a photograph from the installation. The portraits will be installed in their homes as a permanent loan from the museum, extending the public art collection out into the endless world of private in situ installations. Each participant agrees to receive not his or her own portrait, thus becoming the keeper of a stranger.