The “Museum Tools” interactive sculpture series examines the civic role of the museum as it exists today. Although these institutions strive toward a principle of ‘openness’—in terms of access and representation—they often fundamentally fall short. It’s with this in mind that Fuzinato engages a number of critical model-making workshops at Kreuzberg’s museum of modern art, photography and architecture, Berlinische Galerie.
Created with the help of roughly 60 participants, including open call respondents and drop-in visitors, this wall installation proposes new ways of understanding, organising and managing the way we construct and represent our collective heritage. With the help of fine cardboard paper, cutter blades and glue, each model signifies a different dimension of the museum. These utilitarian symbols act as knowledge mediators; cardboard representations of chains, hammers, clocks, face covers for a museum of the future. They come as critiques of the exclusivity and conservatism of contemporary institutional models, while suggesting more open and diverse alternatives. These green and sustainable spaces propose new spatiotemporal conceptions of narrative within the building, along with intersectional feminist perspectives that go beyond dominant patriarchal histories.
Produced by contributors during the workshop, the pieces were then presented as their own functional tools for visitors to view, use and build upon within the Berlinische Galerie’s “207 m2: Space for Action & Collaboration” collaborative space. By applying participants’ own wishes, needs and perspectives onto these objects, “Museum Tools” opens a space for action and cooperation to a broader public. It asks, what kind of artistic measures would make museums places for reflecting on their own contradictions and conflicts, and how can this action change the way they operate?
Exshibition view at Berlinische Galerie, 207m² Raum für Aktion und Kooperation
In cooperation with Jugend im Museum e.V.