The Naked Museum: Art, Urbanism, and Global Positioning in Singapore

In April and May 2015, representatives of the media and a select public, chosen partly through an online lottery, were invited to visit the National Gallery Singapore before its official opening date of November 24. The new museum is the work of the French architect Jean Francois Milou in cooperatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Art journal (New York. 1960) 2016-07, Vol.75 (2), p.46-65
Main Author: Widrich, Mechtild
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Architecture
Art exhibitions
Art galleries
Art museums
Asian art
Colonialism
Contemporary art
Creativity
Geography
Modern art
Monuments
Museum exhibits
Museums
Social media
Social networks
Space
Urbanism
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Summary:In April and May 2015, representatives of the media and a select public, chosen partly through an online lottery, were invited to visit the National Gallery Singapore before its official opening date of November 24. The new museum is the work of the French architect Jean Francois Milou in cooperation with the Singapore-based firm CPG Consultants. No art was yet on display in the "Naked Museum," as the spring 2015 events were styled, but "participants were encouraged to take creative shots of themselves at the Gallery and upload them on Instagram with #NakedMuseumSG." The focus on visitors' interactions with the building, in images taken by the participants, shows that the gallery envisions visitors shaping the space by their presence, making it their own--at least in the virtual space of social media--as citizens, we guess, of a contemporary, small, but globally competitive nation-state. I approach the building as part of a contemporary art geography, which is not purely tied to a fixed location or time. Rather, it is a shifting and malleable construction, comprising real territory, its imagination in various minds and its representation in various media.
ISSN:0004-3249
2325-5307
DOI:10.1080/00043249.2016.1202630