Artist Talk | On Isamu Noguchi: Danh Vō and Doryun Chong in conversation

so just in case you're in whoa so what we're going to do is that we're going to run a slideshow of exhibition views of the current exhibition Noguchi for Yambol counterpoint at the m+ pavillion the exhibition has been up since November so we're keeping it for a long run for another three weeks or so until the Easter weekend and then at the end of the exhibition view you will see some images of Yuans past exhibitions just a few of very important projects that he has done over the last ten years or so so just to start off on a little bit of personal note as an individual curator I guess really the first moment of encounter and realization about Yuans work I guess was in 2009 this remarkable solo exhibition at the kunst ala Basel and I think that was an eye-opening experience for many people as well and I feel incredibly lucky to have had sustained conversation over the years a few small things here and there that had really meaningful man manifest manifestations for myself as well as a four different institutions that I worked for so it to me it is a combination to do this exhibition not to suggest that this is the end of it because I hope that this is the sort of milestone for many other things to come but I think we should start talking about the exhibition per se first so there are a number of reasons why I @ m+ we as a whole curatorial team wanted to bring two artists Isamu Noguchi and young vote together one of the reasons and this is going to sound perhaps a little bit too institutional but I think it is good to say is that when you are building an institution with the collection and probe and also what you want to present to the public in the future you think about the important voices and viewpoints not of only of the president but on also in the past internally we use the term anchor you know figures that are really anchoring our philosophy our narratives and to such artists our Isamu Noguchi and Yountville there are many ways to under explain why that is the case but a really simple way of saying it is that for us curatorial Noguchi really represents the ideal of internationalism and cosmopolitanism of the 20th century and at present I think those ideals are more necessary than ever and I think young in his own way in this the first two decades of the 21st century is also realizing that so these two figures representing these ideals of two different times I felt could be in conversation with each other and you know I think many of you who are especially local would know that em+ even though the building is not yet ready to walk in for the public that we have been doing many public programs including exhibitions just at the n plus pavilion over the last two and a half years we've made eight exhibitions including this one exposing and sharing various aspects of the institution's identity and collection such as ink art design architecture in Hong Kong visual culture and having done many of these projects we felt that it is also important to just put artistic practices front and center and really focus on the objects and art making so these are the institutional reasons why we organize these exhibitions but of course it's always a conversation when you're working with an artist so I will post my first question - yon which is why did you want to do this exhibition I don't remember the story like you do I think it's it I'm speaking into okay I think some few years ago I encountered very late and this other aspects of new coaches were which was from an exhibition in Mexico City actually well he the museum only concentrated on the playscapes and what triggered me was that he proposed to do this play scape for children to learn encounter and learn form from a very early age and he proposed several empty lots in New York to make these play escapes and none of them was really was realized so instead he would cast them in bronze and I was thinking that's a very beautiful idea to use bronze as casting in principle your failures and I wanted to understand more also from his own words that basically all his work came from this idea of playscapes so digging into that universe was or is has been or is one of the best experience I've done I am so when I was doing this I think I talked with you and you had in mind also Noguchi and I think that was how it started and what I'm I mean this is not the first time that I you know install other artists work i I I actually really love it because it's a you know you can read about an artist or you can look in an Eden world but to install - we have to install works of other artists is a great privilege and it's a great privilege to to learn about the work - you know I mean new coaches work in public I cannot you know carry them around but you know to just sense the weight of a sculpture it's just something you can we eat or or look at you know so it's when I do these kind of things it's in principle a learning process first of all and then sometimes it turns out good sometimes it's not but in this case I was kind of surprised to go a little bit further there then so you just talked about what was that first realization of your interest but can you say more about what is it about Noguchi that you found interesting because I don't think you've always found him interesting necessarily you might have had as even certain reaction this to a preconception of what kind of audience is but you've really discovered many other aspects of who he is as a person and as an artist no yeah so you know like Noguchi produced works over 60 years that's more than I have lived my life so to dig into his universe I think you know it's kind of impossible but so far these what really what really appeals to me is the is the play playfulness it's the practicality its interim I see this research as a kind of reminder I think in the exhibition - and this is I guess it's also why it's called Noguchi for young ball to remind yourself of what it means to be an artist in a certain way that way that Noguchi works which appeals to me is that oh it reminds me that you know as an artist I think you establish a certain way of thinking through experiences through work through relationships and with that mindset you can do whatever you know and he didn't had any hierarchy between a stone sculpture or two sticks or chair and throughout all his production you just see this consistent curiosity playfulness a particular mindset which which is good for me to be reminded of so you know you were earlier with saying that I was also thinking about Noguchi - and just to be a bit confessional I guess the way that I previously understood Noguchi was coming from sort of my own interest of you know him being a really an odd man out in many ways you know and and of course everybody knows that he's born to a Japanese father and American mother he clearly had a Japanese name and to be biracial and to have a Japanese name in early to mid twentieth century America is already poses of quite an obstacle and then there's of course the famous biographical episode of him voluntarily entering one of the internment camps for japanese-americans there was a set up in the later years of World War two in the wake of the Pearl Harbor bombing so that really episode was more of an interest to me necessarily the then necessarily the the rest of the aspects really so what has been really revelatory for me is to think about his practice from the beginning to the end and the practice that is not determined by the the conditions of the birth basically but having said that it is true that throughout his career even as a recognized mature artist that he did face prejudice prejudices right that well-known New York critic reviewing his exhibition and calling it a little Japanese mistake for instance were using expressions such as it is oriental and feminine you know I mean I think these are clearly dismissive words so he was standing out against that millio and the generation of artists that he's part of which is basically abstract expressionist generations in a very masculine very macho so and and I don't think so I guess I'm saying all of this to suggest that in a sense you could say that he didn't make it easy for himself you know he could have stuck to a particular kind of formal language a particular kind of philosophy and be consistent and unitary about it because that's what was expected of artists of that generation so I wonder how you feel about I think this this is what makes it so interesting to dig into and it's really what is it that he mentioned that he pretty in foresees the future and what I think is what interest me is really like how he fusion like cultures places but also people you know when you look at the when you look at their career ramps you know of course it's well-known that he was the only apprentice of francuzzi but his lifelong friend and mentor the other one he had more but the other one is Bob minister fuller and to put a light pole into this ancient tradition of people and turn in and even in one of the iqari lamps it's the in this column to fuse these two modernists I mean that's the opposition you know and to to be able to fusion those two characters in this beautiful work like their curries I think you know that's the best so earlier you were saying that he really considered everything like all the works and objects that you see in this slideshow and also in the exhibition of course he considered all of them as a sculptures you know Akari is a light sculpture you know stones of course are but even the furniture pieces that he designed our sculptures for him and for you then then what do you think is the definition of sculpture for him that can encompass all of them mmm you know it's strange because when I look at Noguchi sculptures but I mean there's a certain practicality in in the world but at the same time he can think in geological time you know and that's not so practical you know like when you think of you know when he I mean the simplicity of many of the sculptures you don't really actually only when you look closer you really understand like how simple they are made like how what we'll call it like yeah they're just very simple you know like the way that he sees the stones it's basically the first thing you learn when you carve stone just to do these dots you know and from that like in there's one piece that's called childhood in the exhibition he creates like cosmos you know so that's perhaps the lesson from Buckminster Fuller I guess I'm asking the question because I'm also curious about you would have your own definition of sculpture because you know you often work with objects you know often found objects and images and while Noguchi had as you were just saying very simple and practical ways of producing forms but nonetheless he was a sculptor you know he was working with physical materials whether there are stones or metal or whatnot I guess those two are really primary material so one could argue that he's are still working within the bounds of the definition of classical definition of being a sculptor I mean maybe this is of course very simplistic but the way that you're working with objects are more found objects or ready-mades I mean but is that good enough of a definition of yeah Moses sculpture yeah you know like there's a profound difference I never started with punku-- see you know and I hate zero I mean actually Noguchi knew how to carve stone you know if I if I knew it too I would love to do it you know I think it's just because I don't know how to do it but I think for sure that we share the same curiosity because what he did was that you know he would dance you know I come like the sheet and what murder metal can galvanized steel when that came out it was the company that gave samples to him two or two different designers and artists to test him out you know I mean in that way he was even a pop artist he was just like whatever came along he would he would just mold it fold it whatever and it was a space it just origami and and he was so good in just crossing did from one field to the other easily and and I think every time he saw some new materials he was just all over it and and yeah so I was just looking at the earlier slide that shows outdoor view with a container with one of your sculptures which is the ear part of your project we the people detail and for those of you who are not so familiar with the project a few years ago Yann created the statue of liberty or recreated I should say replicated to one-to-one scale in about 250 260 pieces fabricated in China and with the intention of those pieces never coming together as a whole the way the Statue of Liberty has so seeing the particular image which is coming up soon sitting next to the play sculpture by Noguchi there is in fact despite what I was describing that I guess affinities there in terms of the idea of using found object or already made yeah yeah so the place called shed the red one outside it's made of six sewer pipe bins and it's the largest bin before the gets docked Noguchi just take six of them and creates this beautiful thing you know yeah it's just so good no yeah but there yeah I don't you know like it looks like a very structured exhibition but we actually it was very impulsive decisions and you know we made the containers because when we looked through the checklist from the coaches were suddenly we just had too many works you know and I mean I actually would be happy if there was less work of mind but there wasn't a little push from Dorian that no we need like to have some of your works but the main pavilion was full already we added some more spaces and I don't think I ever told you this but one of my favorite designs of all time is the Billy shelf okay it's an IKEA Billy shelf IKEA fill the shelves because that was created in Ord when the Kea remember was after but that was one of the best designs when it was outsourced to be produced in China Billy shelves was designed you know you called here like Scandinavian modernists or whatever but it's actually designed so you have no sink really space in the context is in the container and I always thought there was you know pretty good design so when I stomp into new couch is work he has of course I mean this is what many years many decades before IKEA but he has the same principle known like when you think of these folding sculptures like strange bird all their car is is made like to be collapsible and ship and in his case of course it derived from other ideas so I thought it was interesting to try it out but never again is terrible to exhibit in containers then maybe we can actually drill a little bit into just to share with the audience here how an exhibition comes about so one thing that I haven't mentioned yet is that the exhibition is co-curated and co-organized with a partner which is the new Gucci Museum in New York and so there is there was a partner who was a Dakin heart was a senior curator there and we really relied on his expertise in the work of new Gucci we gave I guess I think our brief was too give us the whole diversity of new Gucci's practice as impractically possible because of course it is quite a lot of logistics and costs to be able to bring certain them that many number of works almost three dozen works from the museum and he really was able to secure works from the 1920s to the 1980s and you can see in the images really vary a whole variety of works but the way that we planned it is really without planning right because we didn't have a floor plan we did try but then we gave up we didn't plan where all the works were going to go we knew that volumetric Klee there were more or less fit into the space in a very airy way so it was really decided on the spot which I think works with the way that you work in general but it will be great if you can just share with the audience what were you thinking when you were as you are placing certain objects yeah believe it or not I've never made an market before in my life I mean I try it or somebody have imposed it on me but I I just never did it and I think it's really because I believe that you you know like there's so many elements that you can foresee you know and I think actually it is a problem many times when I go and see exhibition and when you have seen it made up in a Sketchup or or maquette you know because it's it's it yeah it's just a method for me to be in the space having the physical object there and understand the relationship between those things one principal thing that I was I wanted to do for this exhibition was to break down these hierarchies you know to put like a paper lamb with a bronze sculpture or brass culture and a stone sculpture you know because there is no difference in principle and so I took so that assess you know place to departure and and then it looks like this so then okay I'm gonna just keep keep at it so then there were certain so of course as specific decisions that you made a for instance the round bases that you want it to have and then one of the combination of works that you see there are strange bird the sculpture from 1940s that was cast in bronze in the early 1970s sitting next to these three little pop marked granite sculpture and then there is an acharya and hanging i mean that's a very particular kind of decision that you made to create the combination so what was your thinking there there was to break yeah that is maybe we yeah whatever and you know like i'm I'm still here to learn you know so the round thing we take one element at a time and I'm just like I have done so many square and seen so many square pedestals you know and you don't know why it should be like this so I mean I was just thinking maybe ramen would be good one thing I was thinking of was that new coochie I mean he was good in so many things but he was not like the best colorist you know I mean they they you know they probably because he's a sculpture and me too you know I told you so many called cider and the colors are nice and was thinking maybe we should add in some colors too and this was a nice way of doing it and sometimes it actually adds in I'm just a little bit too tired of you know white balls and white pedestals and square things you know so so it's a it's it's actually I'm testing it out so and then one of the decision that we had to make rather close to the actual installation it was a little bit nerve-wracking is to include that the pavillion forum and just to share with the audience they were originally that that what would you call a sort of almost like a diamond shaped the square panel of acharya lamps which is called motto PL - originally we were going to build a room that is more like a cube but then what happened is that there there was actually a lot of regulations in Hong Kong where if you build a cube then and the people can potentially enter then there has to be an exit sign even if it is just the size of 3 meters by 3 meters so we had to abandon that but then was also like fire alarm and whatever we had to like sprinkler you know you have to put sprinklers on that so we basically had to gave up that idea so we adapted this idea of the pavilion which you were inspired by your trip to sort of mountainous region of China and they started incorporating into your exhibitions and so I guess the first question there is that why were you so interested in that particular form it's not like the form only this actually this is the structure you know it's a you know we forget it but if you strip down like oh this kind of you know Chinese ornaments you have like a very modular system which was refined during the Song Dynasty like to do Gong like the Chinese joinery and it is it's a modular system that you know the the Bauhaus look very much into it too and and you know like I always really liked that structure I mean like the joinery so when I traveled and in this region of the tongue I mean that word many places but in this region you could buy them you know they still do it so so what port 3 or something so then I use it for different exhibitions and but this is also a testing old you know but it's I did it one time only before which was in Denmark somewhere and they're just really nice spaces within the space where they just function very well you know I didn't you you know this is something you have to try out but they are very functional people really use them and it just creates like this intimacy that protects you a little bit especially this is not like with the pavilion it's not that big but especially these monstrous Museum like the one you're getting is it's just like two big spaces you know and you have to protect yourself in spaces but also just yeah they're monstrous rooms monstrous spaces it is I mean definitely really loved because I think it's really lovely for visitors even though it is a rather small gallery the fact that they can sit down and also look out and look at other works whether inside as well as outside I think is it's a you know as a special touch to it you know it's very much appreciated so but then you know of course what we had to do in that space is that unlike when you did it in Copenhagen when you had six meter high ceiling we have only three and a half meter high ceiling we actually had to squash the roof structure but you didn't seem to be too bothered by that so it's not about the forum itself for you then yeah I was a little bit bothered actually you know I mean it looked a bit weird sort of it but you know you cannot get it all and sometimes you just need to go with the flow and all right maybe enough about that exhibition then you know that I think we can talk about some of the previous exhibitions that you had done that people have been looking at the show it arranges in day from 2009 to 2013 I believe so 2010 I think the artist space exhibition was in 2010 so that was I guess this second or third exhibition following the Basel exhibition where you did something totally different but also I thought was quite beautiful and revelatory can you share with the audience what you wanted to do in the artists space exhibition what did you do you didn't tell me about that question [Laughter] no it's difficult you know I don't know like all the exhibitions is have been like a journey in itself and it is really true when I say that everything you know like I mean I wasn't breakfast bread breastfeed it with culture you know so I learned it very late and even in in school I didn't thought I would become an artist you know and then I did one exhibition and it took the next exhibition and I learned from them not only from exhibition making but also art in general and you know people you know and I think that's how you know like that was what happened basically so so each space is each situation each country demands certain things and and and that is a part of my learning process and you know like I'm not that young but I hopefully still have 20 30 years to work so I better keep something for the future you wanna open it up to the audience okay I think we can spend a lot of time asking more questions not just from me but from the audience so if anybody has questions for yon please raise your hand don't be shy there's a question of it just wait for the microphone hello Dan I'm Chris Paul from Randian magazine I'd like to hear about the genesis of the series of letters the Saints letters that your father writes who copies in his calligraphy I'd like to hear about how that concept developed if you could use a couple of minutes on that if you have a couple of hours I'm fine I've dad I'm totally fine with that I'm not sure about everyone else but I'm not going anywhere so for the firm maybe you explained the piece a little bit and then I can tell about that so the text of the letter is based on a farewell letter that was written by a french jesuit missionary who was a sent to northern vietnam when it was known as Tonkin and that this is 1860s and so the missionaries name is a Chantal fan Donna and it's a beautiful very flora at the language of the nineteenth century which includes passages such as you know all of us are all of us are God's children and we're flowers in God's garden and then God decides when to pluck the flower and then I'm going early er than normally expected and you know it's like a beautiful letter beautiful text and so Yun found it some time ago and decided that this letter will be written by his father who has a beautiful penmanship but as essentially open Edition or endless Edition whoever wants a cop of this letter can send a check with a certain amount of money and the Yuans father will write it and send it back to you so again endless in a sense that it will continue to go on as long as Yuans father is alive or is capable of doing it and I guess another aspect of important aspect of that particular work is that he doesn't understand French so it is mechanical process does he understand now what it means okay now he does okay but he didn't necessarily understand the content of it before so he written like 1600s I think we have 36 minutes I hope I can manage this so there's a lot of things in it first of all I think if I contribute to anything in the arts that was with this body of work or this work or body weights I still can't define it but I was traveling in Vietnam very late in life I'd started to travel back to Vietnam and I stomp into this church who had like a skull on display and there was a little text about it that it was the same telephone Bernard the head was there but the body was in Paris at that time I think the year after I was fortunate to be invited for residency at Cadiz in Paris so one of the first thing I did was like where is this body you know I wanted to that's weird why would the body when you're where is this body and it's dumped into the seminal the trains or the mission since the 17th century but they were of course mostly active in 19th century and has dumped into this most beautiful museum they have like you know every time a mission a Coquille they would drag release and you know the knives the whatever and anybody that goes to Paris are interested in missionaries who go to that place anyhow that was one thing and it was actually when I was in Paris that I you know I was looking around and there was this book with a lot of letters from silver Bernard and then of course okay another thing is that I knew my father handwriting because when he had these shitty food stalls when I was child you know he hated to do the burgers and fries and whatever so it was my mother but he loved like - you don't write these signs you know a burger and fries for 25 Kroners or whatever and that was what he was using his time for that's one thing it's very fragmented but I think towards the end it describes were very well like my working process and you know like one thing I'm always concerned about is that what is it in society that defines quality and not that's of course a totally made-up thing and with my background I was unlearned from very early on that you have to define these things yourself you have to make your own space my father he when he had all this job I shouldn't tell this publicly but I have done it before he you know when he did like the tax fraud thing for his businesses he would because the businesses were always really bad so he would you know every night he would take the daily receipts and he would you know rewrite them but you can do that when you don't earn so much money so imagine you've done that for 30 years or something he retired and my little sister she had like a shop but you earned more 20 times more than he ever did when he had shot you know and he one time asked my sister if she needed some help you know and and and she was yeah why I know why not and he was doing this you know but imagine how many hours that would take so it created this system that he had to get up like at six o'clock in the morning and just sitting there for eight hours and doing this and the worst problem was that he collected all the original ones and he wanted my sister and brother who had like country house to take him and burn them you know to burn the traces and I came back one day and there was this family drama and my brother complained because he was like I'm not gonna participate in this you know and I told him you know like I think actually is really beautiful because it's not about the money I think it's about this beautiful thing that he for 30 years did something you know and that was what he was good at that was what he had done every day for 30 years you know and sitting to have being you know sitting there retired doing nothing in this boring country of Denmark you know just to activate yourself and you know this is what we forget us privilege you know that for people they just want to do something they feel comfortable with because they know what it is no I think these kind of elements constituted this world because it didn't matter what my father was doing so I told him when I saw the letter it all fall in planes you know - I mean I never had a really good relationship with my father but to activate him and just making him doing this leave you know it doesn't matter if it's calligraphy or sitting and pong putting in these numbers I think that's reality that's why I think that this piece is the contribution that I've done to them in the arts now I forgot like what I wanted to say all over but the pieces are kind of all over so I can tell a funny story and was like because I pay him this hundred the cost yeah okay I gave him 100 euros for it for each letter of course and this is a lot of money for him so I of course he didn't ask questions and you know like you know that's this term conspiracy of silence that's what my family do you know and me so with a lot of things so he never asked really he was just happy that i centered him this morning once a while and he we have this terrible chat site with expert like the worst worse expert Vietnamese said you know like sitting down complaining about how the Communists took over and they live everywhere so he found somebody that could speak French so a year later he would have a turn translated I think and he came back to me I was I went to church every Sunday until I was 18 years old and he came back to me and he was like young why didn't you ever tell me that I was writing this important letter of a Saint he's the saint I mean he's he's a real thing what do you call it yeah yeah so he came that you know and I was like you know that's not part of the project so what he this is what makes their work so beautiful because it's out of my hands even so he started to send it like when I have an army of nieces and nephews so when they have birthdays you know he would send them one and churches around the world he likes you know like the Vatican and some old churches he would send it to them so yeah it just it totally got its own life and that's that what that's what makes it beautiful you know and it has like all these contradiction because I really you know microbe my preferable framing is really to the clip frames you know the standardization because I see this work as totally a standardization you know it's really like making calligraphy into pure labor so it has all these kind of perversity in it which attracts may not know I thought I had there was only 12 minutes so I think we came forward very fast yeah we can go on to the next question anybody else no yeah okay here's a question first hi it's working I'm another from another magazine and I'm writing something about I already talked to Dorian but about the lasting impact of Noguchi especially going into maybe this internet age he could have been a person on the internet who maybe would be all over it because he was a designer he was in you know design public spaces he was an artist he was industrial person involved with technology I'm wondering do you think he won is is he properly appreciated in Asia because of his multiracial identity and also what impact or what inspiration do you think he could have in the future Dorian he's already spoken to me about this are you okay um I you know like you know I think for me it's exactly what he did not to talk about the east or the west I think he ran from home you know every home he had he would run from it I think of course you know like when you look into his production he changes all the time until the late you know in his you know like late period where he really was much more focused and established like the museum's and looking ahead no but what I would but attract but I think everybody should be interested in is like how we of course have to live in the moment but we have to see yourself in geological time and that's I will recommend everybody to do that you know and then it's beyond like the near future or the internet or the cosmopolitan or whatever I think he was he planted trees like this you know because and which he knew he never would see and yeah thinking in geological time it it keeps us a little bit more modest hi I do not want write for a magazine and so my question is really about your relationship to objects I think we've discussed in the beginning clearly about sculpture and materiality and how it is there are primordial matters that come into play when one sculpts and then often I hear or read the found object that already made associated with your work and I'd like to disagree because I don't feel like formerly that's interesting to you at all and please correct me again but there is really I feel like an emotional seeking in the object where there is really a thought object rather than a than a found object and I think it's a really wonderful poetic and emotional difference in your work and so I don't know if that's a question and also maybe part of that concern when I look at your work may also be about I mean philosophical beyond your personal experience with it because how is it that I feel what you feel even though I am not having I do not have your experience or your or your reasoning for choosing an object over another no that's a very good question and I actually so it's you know like when I look at art or what attracts me looking at art is that sometime it pins my mind you know I've seen this table so many times and I see ten years later any close with me and you know we should have we should know by now that everybody looks at things differently there's no you know you know there's no that's not a uniform viewer we look at things with the blockage we all carry it and that is very different from me to you you know and I don't know how to negotiate these kind of things I I you know like I don't know even why I my work is so much out there you know because when I started to boy what I found so beautiful when I did like OMA taught him like this washing machine and things from my grandmother I mean my poor grandmother you know I was interested in this idea that some party that we were people that would go into the exhibition would look at these kind of things that they recognized the world but it's just really estranged you know because I think that's reality the estrangement between you and me and audience and the artist and I wanted actually to represent that in the exhibitions that was why I never had like any information whatever because I thought that was reality and that was the estrangement that we have to confront ourselves in order to move forward in any direction the in strange meant between us humans you know it was my biggest question we still today actually how is it that we can have this massive amount of people functioning in these cities you know totally detached from each other you know but it functions that is so scary hi my question is about also the objects they each use and kind of the stories behind them it's funny that you just mentioned how you used to present them without any text or anything like that and created a kind of dichotomy of estrangement I was wondering if you really care about the authenticity of things or like reality like it seems like you're interested when your father kind of went rogue with the letters and everything like that and started writing to other people and like a lot of the objects that you use are very loaded like historical objects and like when I saw your show take my breath away at the Guggenheim I questioned whether these things were actually what they said they were or if it even mattered in the first place like is it just the story or that like poetic beauty that you enjoy that's more important that you know somebody told me born in 75 and half the birthdays of 5/5 of orcas is in Chinese a very good numbers and I always said that I was born under a lucky star weird things came to me you know and so so I mean some objects are more important historical than other portable project but I think the combination of them makes it interesting you know I mean like who cares about my fault my grandmother's fridge you know and in the other hand you know to get the chance to buy MacNamara mimo things from robert mcnamara you know so so it i you know i don't know how it happened but it did you know and I can only say that I'm born on the doggystyle and you know of course I'm also professional so you you know what I had to do was to sharp my eyes and look at things near you and far from you and you know it's it's a little bit skill too but I don't think I answered you could see any other questions from the floor nope anything else that you want to discuss oh there's a question over here I want to know more about the objects in the exhibition the orchid the plants why they are there and I know that the museum have to spray them and water them every day and because it might cause harm to the object and how did you do you know that how do you negotiate that with the museum nougaty museum the second question is either a kind of switch between being a curator a collector in an artist when you place an object or playing with the certain space how do you switch between these roles thank you okay so the first question is that Noguchi when he did all his exhibition if he had a bass inside of that exhibition of course that should be flowers in it and of course we were not allowed to pour water in that way so we had to find other solution and so that was why the orchid came about and when we had them and somebody took me to this beautiful there's another place once you go if you haven't been there the flower market in Hong Kong and when I came there there was just I was like we have to buy more or you know and then you know the Lord flowers came about and it's Noguchi Museum there was like bring those flowers they are fantastic I mean they really try to keep this period of Noguchi as he was alive which is what all mushy museum should do so I want to emphasize that we have very proper registrar's and conservators at em plus and of course their job first of all is to sure the proper handling and the conservation of the objects especially not only the objects that are owned that belong to us in our collection but also on loan as well and you know it is a very typical sort of different personalities that one finds in the museum curators always want things to be shown without abstentions and so that people can get close to it without touching and then of course registrar's and conservators want to always put up barriers and then not because they don't care about the public access to it but because really they the remit is to take care of the objects so I think you know what was also interesting is that it wasn't just no no no it is understanding because if they don't understand if they don't have the information about how Noguchi as an artist would have thought about these objects he wanted them to be used and then the kuchi museum with the mission of preserving the legacy as well as a spirit of the artists are willing to let certain things happen that you normally wouldn't do in the museum's then then we would have to listen to that but you know certain conservation concerns are real when you have I think this is what you are asking about when you have organic matters inside a museum of course it can attract insects and vermin and whatnot so you just have to end of course humidity is always an issue so in case if you want this much detail we do take them out to soak them in water and then we let all the water to drip first so the moisture is contained and then we bring them into the gallery so that it doesn't you know potentially drip onto sculpture or to the aquarium so what so you know it was actually very intense but productive conversation and negotiation that we have to do as a hosting institution that has the responsibility of taking good care of the objects but also hearing from the lender and what they're willing to do and if they are willing to do that then we have to make that happen as well so you know we all came from different points but I think we found a place that's satisfactory for everybody you know that's why the Okies are still hanging there so the other question was a friend of mine told me you don't go you don't get out of the closet in order to be put in a box and I really believe that you know like I think you know we all assign if we have roles assigned to us which is not our agenda I think one have to break free from them and find our own agendas and to I just don't understand these categorization you know for me it's a learning process and to learn that's what we have to do in life and that's why I wear all these kind of dresses I think we have time for one more question if anybody has any you have another one okay she has another one I'm sorry but I'm curious to another thing in the exhibition that is the inside the container there's a the way that you do with the lighting is that mmm certain kind of choice with the lighting in there and thence the the fire thing I don't know what to call it extinguishers yes is it like my law in Hong Kong that you have to have it there or it's it's there because Hong Kong knows talk about them no it's just I mean it was a kind of crazy exit signs like hell Hong Kong knows yeah we're very law-abiding actually yes that's not how it was really I mean you know like I I can I can sleep in the night you know because the most terrible thing was actually the installation team what they had to do and go through no I mean maybe I do container show or the place for a places but never again in Hong Kong and it would not recommend anybody to do that so just to explain a little bit there Hong Kong does have very stringent regulations one might say overzealous regulations of course it comes from a starts from a good place of course it's a safety first and on all of that but I think the part of the work that we are doing at this new museum is to also talk to other stakeholders including governmental departments to make them understand that there are different considerations and concerns that one has to take into account in space of art and culture so you know it's a really a learning process speaking of learning process I think it is a learning process for all our friends in the the fire services department and health and safety regulations Department and and I don't really mean it as a joke either that we have been making exhibitions over the last five years you know but in that space for two and a half years in each exhibition if you have seen more than this one then sometimes we build a lot of temporary walls and whatnot and that poses a even more challenge so it's an education process for you know people whose job is to follow and enforce regulations to be exposed more to these different situations and we certainly are very hard at educating them because once we inside the actual museum building it's literally 50 times the as much as the exhibition space so you know I will admit that this has been a very challenging aspect of what we do but one has to stay optimistic and positive about these things as well great on that note about regulations unless if there is any final question nope okay then I think we're good so thank you everybody for your attention and thank you young [Applause]

Channel: Art Basel

Views: 2,961

Rating: 4.6842103 out of 5

Keywords: Art Basel

Id: 2H46ZIlHL8A

Length: 61min 58sec (3718 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2019