By: Frank Provenzano

The Museum of New Art (MONA) turns the traditional notion of a museum exhibit on its head in the style of an absurdist play by Eugene Ionesco or Marx Brothers movie.

MONA opens its doors in a new home downtown called Documenta U.S.A., featuring 2,000 works by artists from 45 countries. Every 100 minutes, the art on exhibit – slides, catalogues and postcards of original works – will change.

MONA was established last fall in Pontiac, and director Jef Bourgeau began moving into the Book Tower in downtown Detroit in the spring. While supported by about 100 members, volunteers and a board of directors, MONA is foremost the brainchild of Bourgeau. His critics call him a self-promoter; his supporters characterize him as a passionate believer in the power of current art to provoke much-needed discussion about contemporary values.

In the past few years, no other artist in Michigan has aroused as much controversy as Bourgeau, who remains most widely known for his claims of censorship when the Detroit Institute of Arts abruptly closed an exhibit of his work in November 1999, DIA director Graham Beal said Bourgeau’s survey of art from the 1990’s was deemed potentially offensive to museum visitors for its use of pejorative words, its overt sexual references and its desecration of religious symbols.

Several months after the DIA controversy, Rochester artist Bourgeau was cited for showing indecent material at the Oakland Art Center in Pontiac; the citation was promptly dropped. The material in question was a photo of an 1866 painting of a woman’s genitals by Gustave Courbet – among the most acclaimed artists of the 19^th Century. The exhibit was part of a symposium about censorship.

Before the opening of his new space, the Free Press talked with Bourgeau, 51, about what he and MONA are trying to accomplish.

Q: Do you show any of you own work at MONA?

A: No. If I showed, it would be vanity. I haven’t done or shown my work since the DIA exhibit.

Q: About 5 years ago, you began an artist’s project called the Museum of Contemporary Art in Pontiac. At one time it was a converted closed inside an art gallery. What was that about?

A: There was a fictitious director, and I used a fictitious person to write a phony review of the show that blasted it. It was all meant to be satirical. I wanted to show that what is or isn’t quality art isn’t clear.

I did a phony museum show with reproductions on the wall. I hired a person to sit behind a desk, read a book and be obnoxious. I was playing with the notion of what is a museum.

Q: Do you think of yourself as a gadfly?

A: Art should be for everybody, but there’s a hierarchy. Collector, critics and curators determine what is art, and the audience is often left out.

I’m raising issues. I don’t know if that means I’m a gadfly or not.

Q: The May auction for MONA raised $40,000. How did the local arts community respond?

A: Well, the response was about two-thirds from artists outside the area. There’s still a hesitation to believe anything positive can happen here. Instead, there’s this question of someone’s motivation.

Q: Are you tired of people questioning your motivations?

A: Yeah, yeah. I don’t even understand them myself. I ask myself all the time, "Why am I doing this? It’s killing me."

Q: You see yourself as railing against elitism?

A: For year, museums have seen themselves as secular cathedrals where you pay respect to what artists have done. Genuflect as you pass. And with today’s contemporary art, museums are afraid to show it.

Q: Because it’s offensive?

A: That’s part of it. The other part is that people don’t understand it. We can’t wait 5-10 years before we figure out where to place contemporary art in art history. Contemporary art is about initial impact; to initiate a response. Historical art initiates an aducation.

Q: Do you think the DIA is skeptical about what you’re doing?

A: They’re an encyclopedic museum. We should complement each other.

Q: See, there I go. I’m saying "you" in referring to MONA. You, Jef Bourgeau, are the museum.

A: That’s the spin that’s been put out. People say, "There’s the guy who’s trying to disrupt the status quo." Most other cities the size of Detroit have a contemporary arts museum. We’ve put ourselves down for so long that we don’t feel like we belong in the international art world. I’ve heard people say MONA is just a project run by a crazy artist and there’s no one else involved in it. That’s not true.

Q: What is the explicit benefit of a thriving contemporary-art museum?

A: If it succeeds, it could help us feel better about how we feel about ourselves culturally.

Q: What’s keeping big financial backs from supporting MONA?

A: The biggest game in town is the DIA. It’s a social club, too. The big money is there. The party line, though, is that we’re scum and should be kept away from. I just don’t see how we can be a threat. WE have a business plan, but we realize sometimes funding can be a burden. When funders get involved, you goals might change.

Q: How is revenue generated here?

A: There is not revenue. In the last year, I’ve put in $6,000 from my savings.

Q: What is the major obstacle to MONA’s success?

A: The cynicism that it can’t be done here. If art is about the free flow of ideas, there doesn’t have to be a lot of cost.

Q: In five years, where do you expect MONA to be?

A: Our ultimate goal is to have a stand-alone space.

Q: A building in Detroit?

A: Downtown on the riverfront. Why not?

Q: The size of a casino?

A: The size of a casino.

Q: Will there be gambling?

A: Well, everything’s a gamble.