A 3,000-square-foot converted retail store with makeshift walls, an unpolished concrete floor, a large-paned front window and an unmistakable draft does not fit the conventional definition of a museum. Of course, the question is: If MONA isn’t a museum, then what is it? The simple answer is that MONA is a struggling experimental gallery with the goal of one day persuading big-time investors to support the real deal.

The more complicated answer is that MONA is foremost an enigma, like nearly everything that Bourgeau touches.

"The traditional terminology for an art museum is too confining for the 21st century and actually is meant for the more traditional encyclopedic spaces. Contemporary museums need to be redefined as more organic,  a living space," said Bourgeau. "We intend to show whatever is new and engaging in the contemporary international art world."

That means art created by living artists that has yet to go through the pedantic meat grinder of academic criticism. And it likely means art that draws heavily on technology and provocation, including performance artistry.

Perhaps an example of what to expect at MONA is in the back-room gallery, where images e-mailed by artists from around the world are plastered on the walls.

The modest MONA space – about the size of one of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ midsize galleries – doesn’t meet the most basic requirements for being called a museum. It has no significant financial backing, permanent collection, endowment or paid staff.

"There’s a problem with the terminology they’re using," said MaryAnn Wilkinson, curator of modern and contemporary art at the DIA. "We don’t have a word for what they’re trying to accomplish. Traditionally, a museum is a collecting and documenting institution."

Yet, in Bourgeau’s logic, notions of art and museums are part of a slippery game of semantics.

Whereas in 1971 Marcel Duchamp pushed the idea that in a given context even a urinal could be considered as art, Bourgeau has set out to redefine an art museum. He espouses the idea that art should be considered "of the moment," not just a historical artifact.

In the recent past, Bourgeau’s style of art has proven to be combustible. Last November, Bourgeau accused the DIA of censorship when the museum closed his scheduled 12-week exhibit, "Art Until Now," a graphic examination of 1990s art. DIA director Graham Beal deemed several pieces inappropriate for the museum’s audience, including one using the "n" word and one with a toy doll wearing a condom, titled "Bathtub Jesus."

Then, in March, Bourgeau was cited by Pontiac police for showing obscene material in a historical exhibit at a Pontiac gallery that featured photos of works of art once considered for censorship. He was acquitted.

There’s a slight display of defiant satisfaction when Bourgeau notes that the $12,000 settlement he received from the DIA provided seed money for MoNA.

"We were the only major American city without its very own and very public contemporary art museum," he said. "The local arts community has been resigned that there’s nowhere to show what’s happening now."

But directors and curators at local museums don’t share that assessment.

"He’s making it sound like there are no other art museums exhibiting contemporary art," said Gregory Wittkopp, director of the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills. In the last several years, Cranbrook has mounted cutting-edge exhibits dealing with video art, contemporary painting and performance art. "I’m confused how they’re using the word ‘museum,’" said Wittkopp.

The new venture "sounds like an interesting idea," he said, "but the important question is, ‘Will they be what they say they are?’"