Make mine a MoCA, by Rebecca Geldard

by pmaxwell, 20 December 2007

Eeny, meeny, miny, Mo’

Rebecca Geldard examines the rise of contemporary American art museums beyond the modish LA and New York city zones

MCA Denver
Photo courtesy of Mark Sink

Part I: MCA and MOCAD

The acronyms used to describe America’s biggest contemporary art museums are no longer hinged with geographical tags. Say you’ve been to MoMA and everyone knows you were in New York; MoCA and they presume LA – a mean feat given the number of institutions across the country to have adopted the Mo’ moniker. Recently, MassMoCA, as vast as its nickname implies, has dominated cultural headlines for its legal wrangle with prominent Swiss artist Christoph Büchel over his vast installation ‘Training Ground’, which following acrimony over materials and costs was shown incomplete to the public against the artist’s wishes. Then of course there’s SFMOMA in San Francisco and MoCA Miami – which experiences major volumes of art world traffic during the annual Art Basel Miami Beach, just finished – but what about those a little off the international trail?

MCA Denver
Photo courtesy of Mark Sink

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver has opted for the truncation MCA over MoCA – with the omission of that little ‘o’ the shortened title resonates with the seriousness of a hard-won qualification, perhaps, or the formality of a less visible Association. The MCA has moved from an ex-fish market site to celebrate its eleventh year with a new permanent building in the Central Platte Valley designed by British architect David Adjaye – his first project on American soil. This environmentally efficient cube, made possible by a host of private backers, opened in October with the bold Walt Whitman-inspired ‘Star Power: Museum as Body Electric’. The nine-strong group show, devised by head curator Cydney Payton, features the likes of emerging South African video artist Candice Breitz and 1998 Turner Prize winner and long-time collaborator with Adjaye, painter Chris Ofili.

MCA Denver
Photo courtesy of Mark Sink

This very slick grey glass structure offers 27,000 square feet of space over four storeys with five self-contained exhibition spaces. There is no collection and the global curatorial mission is to provide solo exhibition slots for early career and more established artists contributing to art production of the past 10 years – with the focus on new work. This ambitious building project has already garnered worldwide editorial attention and so far the regional press have responded favourably to the museum’s creative strategy and continued commitment to representing and engaging the local demographic. In fact, the appointment process for the architect was informed by a series of public lectures during which candidates were put through the wringer by selection committees and each attended by several hundred residents and interested parties. Rumour has it that the second-floor project space will be allocated next to a Colorado-based artist, but the museum remains tight-lipped about its future exhibitions programme.

Detroit, on the other hand, though home to the Detroit Institute of the Arts (DIA), has been crying out for a dedicated contemporary art museum. Enter MOCAD, which with the additional ‘D’ sounds less like a hot beverage and more like slang from the street – a title perhaps more befitting its squat utilitarian shell and singular focus on contemporary art. This rough and ready former car showroom is currently being rented by the museum (according to the Detroit Free Press for $1 per year) from the Manoogian Foundation, who originally secured the derelict site as a contemporary art space for the DIA. The new tenants and designer Andrew Zago (under the temporary, unremunerated direction of Detroit arts writer Marsha Miro) appear keen to utilise the building’s history to communicate their experimental approach to curating. The concrete floors and brickwork of the open interior spaces have been left largely exposed and the commissioned graffiti work from San Francisco-based Barry McGee for it’s industrial front neatly echoes this same sense of temporary customisation.

MOCAD, another non-collecting institution now in its second year, has an annual programme of three to four major shows, again only achievable through private funding. The current big gun ‘Words Fail Me’, about art’s testy relationship with language, is the brainchild of UK artist/curator Matthew Higgs and comprising international figures such as rising French star Philippe Parreno and famous Swiss innovators Fischli/Weiss whose works grapple with the complexities of meaning. PAPERRAD, the notorious multimedia outfit from Pittsburgh are up next in January with a project incorporating video and sound offerings from local music makers VIKI and Mountains and Rainbows. Looking at the programme to date, it seems clear that Miro and head curator Mitch Cope have been at pains to make the link between art of the moment and the museum’s urban reality.

Peter Fischli / David Weiss Questions, 1981-2002 405 slides, 5 projectors, 2 dissolve units, painted polyurethane, black rubber, turn table, CD and CD player Dimensions variable Copyright Peter Fischli / David Weiss, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

While these new museums are certainly upping the creative ante in their respective locations, inevitably there will be those who feel that the focus on current art production will prove problematic over time in terms of the lack of contextual provision for such ‘wet paint’ works – traditionally a prerequisite of the public institution. Interestingly, MoCAD’s Miro has in the past aligned the privately funded art institution with the European museum model of the Kunsthalle – in the sense, perhaps, of being one part of an association of civic arts venues.

And both institutions are members of cultural hubs featuring venerable institutions. MCA has links with the nearby Denver Art Museum, which boasts some 4,500 modern and contemporary works and then there’s the small matter of the Clyfford Still Museum scheduled to open in 2010. MOCAD, in Detroit’s “Woodward corridor”, which is swiftly becoming a thriving arts centre, has forged alliances with neighbouring organisations including the Cranbrook Art Museum for their recent ‘Shrinking Cities’ project about declining populations, from Germany, for which they organised a shuttle bus between the two venues.

Beyond the private/public debate and the question of whether or not these cutting edge hybrid spaces require validation from accredited public institutions, their organic growth from and commitment to these very different cultural environments will likely prove the cornerstones of longer-term success.

MCA Denver
MOCA Detroit