BEYOND THE WHITE CUBE

BEYOND THE WHITE CUBE

by Jan van der Marck, an interview for PBS 1998

There’s no doubt in my mind that Jef Bourgeau is one of the most serious and, perhaps, also one of the most successful, despite the lack of visible recognition, artists working today. And I’ve never doubted the seriousness of Jef or his work. I have known him for many years. I have followed what he’s doing. I like his ideas as much as I like his objects, and I have collected his objects, and I have embraced his ideas, and I live in a perpetual dialogue with him you might say.

I know that Jef has worried the established art world. His work has worried institutions. In fact, institutions have protested the fact that Jef has called his setup a museum, because it somewhat casts a doubt on the legitimacy of the real thing. And that’s where he hits home, and that is, I think, where the message sinks in, that’s where the art is effective.

I do not see his museum of contemporary art so much as a satire of the real thing, I see it more of a nudging, a questioning, of the real thing. In that cool Duchampian fashion that has no pathos, that has no big voice, that is a subtle, unsettling challenge to the institution usually known as the museum of contemporary art and the people responsible for the founding, the running, the financing, and the publicizing of museums of contemporary art. And so every museum of contemporary art and every institution by that name would find that this little upstart…whatever it is, in Pontiac, is somehow a challenge, and perhaps, a negative shadow falling over the real thing.

This museum asks all the questions that others do not ask. It is in very close touch with art at its most tender, at its beginning: art not yet seen, not yet recognized, not yet understood. So this very fundamental pioneering work that a beginning, unrecognized museum does is something that I very much sympathize with, because it makes people furious, it makes people think.

It does real exhibitions. They are real avant-garde. They attract a real audience. They have a real following. They are participating in a mail and Internet dialogue with the rest of the art world.

The fact that Jef Bourgeau organizes his own version of Documenta as it is done in the city of Basel every four years, a version of Aperto as it is done in the city of Venice at the Biennale every two years: shows that he understands the way that the international art world works, exchanges ideas, hands out recognition, recognizes new talent. His project operates in ways that are really so similar to those the real or the established avant-garde art world operates. It is on a smaller scale. It is certainly a whole lot more modest. But, all the quality of ideas is there.

Today, the art world does what the world-at-large does: it steals and borrows ideas; it impersonates other people; it tries to deliver a message in a language that we are almost overly familiar with; and yet, it also tries to open up a little space between the original thing and the rendering of it, the simile.

Jef Bourgeau, in many of the works that we have seen in his museum over the last seasons, often puts on the role that we identify with other artists. Again, not as a real act of plagiarism, or of stealing and borrowing, but as a way of bringing new ideas and art trends to a community that is not that familiar to what is going on elsewhere – in a message that he almost quotes verbatim. Of course, quoting and citing sources and impersonating someone else is a strategy that artists in the last decade apply everywhere – in New York, in Europe, and everywhere else. Jef also applies that strategy very effectively and with that he is very much in the mainstream of contemporary ideas.

It’s permitted and it doesn’t beg anyone’s permission for an artist to deal with the whole mass of ideas in front of us, wherever they come from - the real world or electronically, or as a make-believe of something or as a virtual reality. So, Jef helps himself to all of those ideas, and from all the available sources and will do something with it that serves his purposes in a manner, for those who are not familiar with these strategies, looks as though he is simply presenting somebody else’s works, somebody else’s images. But, when you look closely, you see that they are very similar but not the same, that they are used in a different manner. They are rendered in a different scale. They are presented in a different context. All of those things. And that remove, that he creates, from the sources from which he quotes, from the realities which he finds – that remove is really what is his. That zone within which he operates is the zone that sets it all apart from the original model.

Like much of early conceptual art, Jef does make us live in our minds. He forces us to constantly check and double-check what is behind his work, what is he really saying, and why is he saying it. And, in this very sense, I would call what he does concept art. Some people might say, yes, but he makes objects, he puts videos in objects, he combines objects and images in an assemblage manner that goes back to that other tradition. True.

Still, his finest work to me is the concept of a museum of contemporary art. The challenge in that concept, the political statement in that concept. And the fact that no one, no one else has done this type of thing: the manner in which he has done it. There is just no precedent for it, nor is there a parallel.

			BEYOND THE WHITE CUBE by Jan van der Marck, an interview for PBS 1998 There’s no doubt in my mind that Jef Bourgeau is one of the most serious and, perhaps, also one of the most successful, despite the lack of visible recognition, artists working today. And I’ve never doubted the seriousness of Jef or his work. I have known him for many years. I have followed what he’s doing. I like his ideas as much as I like his objects, and I have collected his objects, and I have embraced his ideas, and I live in a perpetual dialogue with him you might say. I know that Jef has worried the established art world. His work has worried institutions. In fact, institutions have protested the fact that Jef has called his setup a museum, because it somewhat casts a doubt on the legitimacy of the real thing. And that’s where he hits home, and that is, I think, where the message sinks in, that’s where the art is effective. I do not see his museum of contemporary art so much as a satire of the real thing, I see it more of a nudging, a questioning, of the real thing. In that cool Duchampian fashion that has no pathos, that has no big voice, that is a subtle, unsettling challenge to the institution usually known as the museum of contemporary art and the people responsible for the founding, the running, the financing, and the publicizing of museums of contemporary art. And so every museum of contemporary art and every institution by that name would find that this little upstart…whatever it is, in Pontiac, is somehow a challenge, and perhaps, a negative shadow falling over the real thing. This museum asks all the questions that others do not ask. It is in very close touch with art at its most tender, at its beginning: art not yet seen, not yet recognized, not yet understood. So this very fundamental pioneering work that a beginning, unrecognized museum does is something that I very much sympathize with, because it makes people furious, it makes people think. It does real exhibitions. They are real avant-garde. They attract a real audience. They have a real following. They are participating in a mail and Internet dialogue with the rest of the art world. The fact that Jef Bourgeau organizes his own version of Documenta as it is done in the city of Basel every four years, a version of Aperto as it is done in the city of Venice at the Biennale every two years: shows that he understands the way that the international art world works, exchanges ideas, hands out recognition, recognizes new talent. His project operates in ways that are really so similar to those the real or the established avant-garde art world operates. It is on a smaller scale. It is certainly a whole lot more modest. But, all the quality of ideas is there. Today, the art world does what the world-at-large does: it steals and borrows ideas; it impersonates other people; it tries to deliver a message in a language that we are almost overly familiar with; and yet, it also tries to open up a little space between the original thing and the rendering of it, the simile. Jef Bourgeau, in many of the works that we have seen in his museum over the last seasons, often puts on the role that we identify with other artists. Again, not as a real act of plagiarism, or of stealing and borrowing, but as a way of bringing new ideas and art trends to a community that is not that familiar to what is going on elsewhere – in a message that he almost quotes verbatim. Of course, quoting and citing sources and impersonating someone else is a strategy that artists in the last decade apply everywhere – in New York, in Europe, and everywhere else. Jef also applies that strategy very effectively and with that he is very much in the mainstream of contemporary ideas. It’s permitted and it doesn’t beg anyone’s permission for an artist to deal with the whole mass of ideas in front of us, wherever they come from - the real world or electronically, or as a make-believe of something or as a virtual reality. So, Jef helps himself to all of those ideas, and from all the available sources and will do something with it that serves his purposes in a manner, for those who are not familiar with these strategies, looks as though he is simply presenting somebody else’s works, somebody else’s images. But, when you look closely, you see that they are very similar but not the same, that they are used in a different manner. They are rendered in a different scale. They are presented in a different context. All of those things. And that remove, that he creates, from the sources from which he quotes, from the realities which he finds – that remove is really what is his. That zone within which he operates is the zone that sets it all apart from the original model. Like much of early conceptual art, Jef does make us live in our minds. He forces us to constantly check and double-check what is behind his work, what is he really saying, and why is he saying it. And, in this very sense, I would call what he does concept art. Some people might say, yes, but he makes objects, he puts videos in objects, he combines objects and images in an assemblage manner that goes back to that other tradition. True. Still, his finest work to me is the concept of a museum of contemporary art. The challenge in that concept, the political statement in that concept. And the fact that no one, no one else has done this type of thing: the manner in which he has done it. There is just no precedent for it, nor is there a parallel.