BUSCH-REISINGER DISPLAYS GROUP PORTFOLIOS IN MULTIPLE CONFIGURATIONS

Cambridge, MA - March 1999 - The exhibition Multiple Configurations: Presenting the Contemporary Portfolio will be on display at the Busch-Reisinger Museum from May 13 through August 1, 1999. The exhibition will present five possible ways to display five group portfolios. These portfolios were created as multiples in inexpensive and large editions intended to be distributed to the popular audience, to be experienced in an intimate setting, and to be handled by the viewer so as to seamlessly integrate the art experience into the everyday. The artists represented will include Marina Abramovic/ Ulay, Joseph Beuys, James Lee Byars, Christo, Hanne Darboven, Robert Filliou, Richard Hamilton, Jörg Immendorf, Arthur Köpcke, Sol LeWitt, Annette Messager, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Sigmar Polke, Katherina Sieverding, Ben Vautier, Wolf Vostell and Lawrence Weiner.

Multiple Configurations is organized by Jacqueline van Rhyn, 1997-1998 Werner and Maren Otto Curatorial Intern, Busch-Reisinger Museum, and supported with funds the John M. Rosenfield Teaching Exhibition Fund and the Alexander S. Beal, Robert L. Beal, and Bruce A. Beal Exhibition Fund, as well as Intel Corporation. The Curatorial Internship Program at the Art Museums is designed to broaden the experience of persons embarking on professional and scholarly careers in art history who are considering the museum profession.

Since the 1960s, the group portfolio has been a favorite medium for artists seeking to challenge standard practices of museum display, especially to eliminate emphasis on a single artist and to divert attention from a single object. These portfoliosæwhich can come in the form of a box, a crate, or a suitcaseæoften contain unwieldy works that are too fragile or difficult to exhibit in the museum setting. Once in museums, portfolios are generally viewed only in study rooms.

Multiple Configurations will attempt to effectively present these portfolios to the museum audience. The passive viewer will become an active user as each display will require a different form of engagement on the part of the visitor. The displays will not only allow museum visitors to interact with the objects, through activities such as opening drawers, using a kiosk and watching a live performance, but encourage them to see themselves as crucial participants in both the display and the experience of the art.
The portfolio from source to use, 1985, is a pink wooden box, about the size of a shoebox. Inside the box, layered one on top of the other, are nineteen objects, made by eleven artists, that can be unfolded, opened, and projected. The box itself, which is an integral aesthetic component of the portfolio, not only houses and unites the art but also prescribes the order in which the art is viewed; each layer has to be lifted out of the box in order to view the next one. In the exhibition, from source to use will be presented in a set of transparent drawers, with the work by each artist placed in a separate drawer. The user is not restricted to viewing the portfolio contents from the top down. Instead, the drawers can be opened in any order.

Hommage à Arthur Köpcke, 1980, comprises of a cloth covered box, with its title and publisher's name embossed on the lid, which houses one print each by seventeen artists. The portfolio will be absent from the exhibition gallery; a facsimile will stand in for the original. The original will be accessible in the Busch-Reisinger's study room, where visitors may unpack the portfolio and arrange the individual works as they wish. An important component of this display will be a packet of information on Köpcke, provided to enable users to arrive at their own conclusions about how the works in the portfolio act, alone and together, as homage to Köpcke.

The portfolio Saltoarte, 1975, will be presented twice in the exhibition gallery. The box will be on display in a vitrine and a facsimile of the contents will be presented through a specially designed computer kiosk, produced by Visual Structures Group of the Digital Design Initiatives Research Unit at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. The contents of the portfolio can only be experienced virtually. The kiosk allows the user to interact with the works while not harming them and provides unlimited space for extensive object labels and additional information on the artists and the context of the portfolio. Thus, as the user navigates through the virtual display of Saltoarte, he will be able to actively participate in the creation of his own art experience.

Two portfolios will be presented in combination with a performance. Adjacent to the vitrine which will display In Memoriam George Maciunas, 1984-1986, will be a video station. It will show the piano concert performed by Nam June Paik and Joseph Beuys in memory of the artist George Maciunas. As the concert was integral to the multi-media homage, it not only completes the display but "activates" the portfolio's contents including the Primeval Piano, a wood sculpture by Paik and the Piano Duet recorded on a record album, both from 1986. The portfolio Weekend, 1972, will be on view once a week, on Wednesdays at 2:30 pm. This presentation of eighteen prints by seven artists housed in a suitcase will offer the audience the opportunity to discuss with the presenter, Jacqueline van Rhyn, the particularities of the portfolio's contents. The Art Museums' admission is free on Wednesdays.

The Harvard University Art Museums consists of the Fogg Art Museum (founded in 1891, opened in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (founded in 1902, now housed in Werner Otto Hall), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (opened in 1985). The Straus Center for Conservation is located in the Fogg. Through their collections, the Art Museums serve Harvard University as a catalyst for the instruction and scholarship, as a training ground for future academic art historians and museum professionals, and as a general resource for the greater-Boston area and all parts of the world.

The collections of the Art Museums consist of more than 150,000 objects in all media, with works ranging from antiquity to the present and from Europe, North America, North Africa, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Developed with an emphasis on their value for teaching and research, the collections comprise a unique resource in terms of breadth and quality, and are one of the finest university art collections in the world.

The Art Museums are open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., and Sunday 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Closed holidays. Admission is $5.00; $4.00 for senior citizens; $3.00 for students; free under 18 and to all on Saturday mornings and all day on Wednesdays. For general information, please call (617) 495-9400. For tour information, please call (617) 496-8576. Web site: www.artmuseums.harvard.edu. The Harvard University Art Museums is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

PUBLIC PROGRAMMING

Gallery Talks
Sunday, June 6, 2:00 p.m., Busch-Reisinger Museum
Linda Norden, Barbara Lee Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Fogg Art Museum.

Saturday, May 22, 11:30 p.m., Busch-Reisinger Museum
Sunday, July 11, 2:00 p.m., Busch-Reisinger Museum
Jacqueline van Rhyn, curatorial assistant, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, Fogg Art Museum.

Cyberarts Festival
As participants of the Cyberarts Festival (May 1-15, 1999) the Art Museums will be represented by the kiosk for the display of the portfolio Saltoarte, designed and produced by the Visual Structures Group of the Digital Design Initiatives Research Unit at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, and two Web sites: Investigating the Renaissance and Sargent at Harvard (www.artmuseums.harvard.edu.). For more information, please call (617) 496-1822.

Roundtable Discussion
Wednesday, June 2, Fogg Art Museum, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Adjacent Realities: Considering the Interactive Kiosk in Museums Galleries
$25; $20 for Friends; space is limited and advance registration is required, please call (617) 495-4544 to register.

Ivan Gaskell, Margaret S. Winthrop Curator of Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts; George Liaropoulos-Legendre, assistant professor of architecture, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University; Ron Spronk, research associate for technical studies, Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies; and Jacqueline Van Rhyn, curatorial assistant, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art

In conjunction with the exhibition Multiple Configurations: Presenting the Contemporary Portfolio in the Busch-Reisinger Museum and the first Cyberarts Festival in Boston (May 1-15), this discussion will explore issues concerning the presence of the computer in the museum. Museum exhibitions today frequently include a computer kiosk station to provide additional information about the art, the artist(s), and artistic techniques. However, these kiosks, usually located at the entry or exit of the exhibition or in an adjacent room, function only to provide supplementary material rather than as an alternative way to display the art and to engage the viewer. What happens when the kiosk becomes integrated into the exhibition, becoming an additional mode of display? Will its presence detract or enhance the museum experience? Drawing upon examples of computer kiosks currently in the Harvard University Art Museums, join curators and media specialists as they share their experiences and the issues they encountered in designing these kiosks.