LA COLLECTION MUDAM EST ENGAGÉE DANS LE DEVENIR DU MONDE

Upon the occasion of his first exhibition at Mudam as director, Enrico Lunghi responds to the questions of Marco Godinho, visual artist and curator of the French artist selection of the latest Prix d’Art Robert Schuman.

Is it important to start the year 2010 and your first exhibition at Mudam with works of the collection only?

Starting to work on and with the collection is a “classic” way of “kicking off” as new director. But I also think that it was indispensable to do it given the history of Mudam. Those who have disparaged this museum, since the first project by I. M. Pei and still after its opening, always accuse it of “not having a concept, nor anything to fill it with”. Yet the concept was clear to all those who had reflected on the problem: it was necessary to “invent” an internationally renowned art museum for Luxembourg, knowing that such a thing had never previously existed in our country. Up until then, for any professional or informed art enthusiast, there had only been one possible choice: to constitute a contemporary art collection because, for the equivalent in modern art, it was necessary to start 50 years beforehand!

Hence, since 1996, a committee headed by Bernard Ceysson began the first acquisitions, then, from 2000, a board instituted by Marie-Claude Beaud took over. Well, Marie-Claude Beaud had the difficult task of following the completion of the never-ending building work, preparing the opening (with the Eldorado exhibition, including a large number of artworks from the collection hung by the artists in the framework of the programme Be the Artists’ Guest) and putting Mudam into orbit in just a few years. She achieved all of this in a magisterial way! And I’m happy to arrive at the right moment to put on a first large exhibition consisting solely of works from the collection, as director and with a minimum of hindsight.

Is it, in some way, a homage to the work carried out by your predecessors? And can one see in your choices a policy for the acquisition of future works and exhibitions to come?

Yes, it’s a homage to all those who have “made” Mudam up to this point! For me, a museum is a palimpsest, the visions are superimposed on each other, they do not relace one another. It’s a permanent adventure, a perpetual becoming, which is built on what preceeded it. An observant viewer of the exhibition Brave New World might be able to detect the two main periods of acquisition under the influence of my predecessors and perhaps already infer some new orientations. Yet it seems logical to me to constitute meaningful groups of artists that we consider to be the most important of the collection. Thus, the latest acquisitions have reinforced the presence of some of them, while opening up some new avenues. But this will require a little more time to affirm itself.

Could you tell us about the title of this exhibition? Is its antithesis “Rotten New World”, or are they complementary? To what extent is “Brave New World” ironic?

The title, of course, refers to the French translation of the famous novel by Aldous Huxley, which itself referred to Candide by Voltaire and which in turn was a response to Leibniz... But I also wanted to include the original title in the concept as well as its German translation because it’s interesting that in each language the meaning is very different. It’s therefore both a historical (or philosophical) and cultural (or linguistic) mise en abîme. In Luxembourg, where the three languages – along with others – coexist on a daily basis, this could be an issue. But I also chose it with a certain humour: implying that a visit to Mudam is like entering a brave new world is a way of reversing the situation given that many people don’t think much of contemporary art.

You have developed the exhibition like a writer including a prologue, an epilogue and four distinct episodes, but without partitioning them, allowing potential interactions between each part. Could you give us some clues about this opening of multidirectional, fragmentary thought which intermingles in a vast cultural mix, and your inevitable relationship to literature?

It’s obvious that I never aimed to illustrate Huxley’s book through this exhibition. But, in inclining towards the Mudam collection, while I was merely a candidate for the post of director, I rapidly realized that it said much about the world around us. It is not a formalist collection, nor is it obsessive: as an art collection it is open, diversified and rich and is also engaged in the evolution of the world. This is what provided me with the idea for the title already in the autumn of 2008. Well, I had wanted to find a simple means of linking the artworks to one another, but without wrapping them up in a suffocatingly theoretical discourse. So I thought of a sort of narrative about the essential themes, such as the body, territories, dreams and nightmares, but without fixed partitions because, in the living world, frontiers are never watertight.

As curator and director of the museum, what importance do you attach to research, process, dialogue, discussions with artists and their respective worlds? To what extent has this influenced your choices and the preparation of an exhibition?

It’s the first exhibition that I have put together from an existing collection. Usually I’m in dialogue with the artists and build the exhibition with them. But in this case I only dealt with the artworks: it’s an entirely different type of task. As director, I feel responsible for the collection of my museum. I want to show the artworks in such a way that they enrich each other and give the viewer meaning, pleasure and emotion. As a result, the artists are not much involved, they are just invited to the opening to see the exhibition like anyone else. This seems normal to me: artists should only sell to those whom they trust, and if they only sell to make a fast buck, they should no longer worry about the artwork. But there are not only exhibitions of the collection: the next one will again be produced in close collaboration with the artists.

It is apparent in this exhibition that you are bringing together numerous themes already developed at the Casino. Can a single exhibition encompass all the others?

No, certainly not! Each exhibition is just a try-out, a rough sketch, an attempt to understand more, to grasp part of the world and human thought. This is also what makes the mind already fly towards the next one as soon as an exhibition is inaugurated.

The epilogue of the exhibition closes with the words “The joy of being of this world is unwavering”. Is simply being alive already the most beautiful creation?

We wouldn’t be here to ask the question if we weren’t alive...

To conclude, I’d like to have your opinion about the following quotation from Jorge Luis Borges: “The idea of frontiers and nations seems absurd to me. The only thing that can save us is being citizens of the world.” Borges’ words plunge us into a universal position open to the world. What does this notion of borders and nation represent, especially in a country like Luxembourg? What is the satisfactory attitude to adopt on a daily basis to physically and mentally inhabit a world as complex as ours?

Borders and nations are complex historical constructions. We can no longer imagine ourselves without them, but that doesn’t mean they are the best solution for the future. The 19th century colonial nations, imbued with their technical and cultural superiority, blindly and cruelly exploited and subjugated all populations and territories to their will. Today we should be aware that we are all on the same planet and that resources are limited. However, we continue to behave like predators as if that could last forever. We are a gift of nature and we endlessly poison what gave birth to us, in every nook and cranny. I think if we saw ourselves as united with the peoples of the whole world and respected life in all its forms, it would be proof of real humanity. But there’s little chance that such a brave new world could exist anywhere outside our dreams.