Getting in on the modern museum franchise

Mladen Bizumic tells PAUL PANKHURST about his show, which examines the branding of the modern art museum.

Think of modern art museums and then think of modern art museums as global brands: Tate, MOMA, Guggenheim. It's not Tate but Tates, not Guggenheim but Guggenheims, as the museums sprawl out over new locations, luxuriating in the power of their brands.

Think art museums defined by their architecture. Does the building swallow the art? Is the art competing with the building? Is the architect collaborating with the artists and curators or staging a solo show?

The expansionist Guggenheim empire - New York, Venice, Berlin, Bilbao, Las Vegas, and the online Guggenheim Virtual Museum - provides an example of an art institution and brand that is known by its buildings, beginning with the design by Frank Lloyd Wright of its first permanent home in New York in the 1950s, and extending through to Frank Gehry's gasp-wow creation in Bilbao, Spain.

"Perhaps more than any other art institution in the world, the Guggenheim understands the power of a single building to define its image," according to a statement among the jottings and thoughts on display in a show at Artspace, which looks at the interface of museum art and museum architecture.

The show was to have been called "Tauranga Guggenheim" - an excellent, attention-grabbing name - but someone at Artspace must have worried about the possible consequences of promoting a show as a "Guggenheim".

Instead, it's called Mladen Bizumic, the name of the artist.

Walking in, gallery-goers see a 2.8m-long, architectural-style model of the would-be Tauranga Guggenheim, made of perspex, sitting on a large plinth, dominating the main gallery space.

Behind, stretching across two walls, are 20 architectural-style blueprints for the model, covered with writing: thoughts, quotes, lists, workings, and references (Kafka, Koolhaas, Britney Spears' "Oops I did it again").

One list runs: "Columbia Pictures, Honda, Shell, Versace, Pepsi, Nike, Volvo, Ericsson, General Electrics, Universal Pictures, NBA, NRL, Heineken, Ferrari, Guggenheim."

Elsewhere, a projector shows a computer animation of the building, and a backlit transparency shows the view from the second floor of the Tauranga Guggenheim. An official-looking statement about this new addition to the Guggenheim empire is part of the fiction.

The Yugoslavia-born Bizumic (24) is an Elam graduate - he came up through the sculpture department - and has the label of hot young artist.

He is represented by the Sue Crockford Gallery and his work has ranged across sculpture, photography and performance art.

Bizumic says showing his work in galleries and museums over the past couple of years led to him thinking more about a topic that's always interested him: how artworks are defined and valued by the spaces in which they are shown.

Connecting those thoughts with his interest in the Guggenheim and the architect Koolhaas led to the creation of the Tauranga Guggenheim.

One of the teases of the show is that, despite the mockumentary flavour and the aura of architectural authenticity, even a pretty cursory examination of the model reveals it would never work as either a museum or a building.

"It is a dysfunctional model," says Bizumic.

However, he says he doesn't believe that will inhibit viewers' imaginations; "apart from architects, who would look and realise it doesn't have stairs, it doesn't fulfil safety rules and regulations".

How long did it take to build the thing? "It took me altogether, around six months I would say, taking in things like drawing and planning."

Ambient music is the soundtrack for the exhibition. Bizumic says he slowed down a Kenny G track, Can You Feel The Love Tonight? to one-quarter of its normal speed to create something that sounds like Brian Eno.

It's a nice touch. Art moves from the margins to the mainstream of the globally branded art museums. Here, a music track from the commercial mainstream has been transported out to a margin.

Last thing: "Have you ever been to a Guggenheim?" "No." Bizumic laughs.

* Mladen Bizumic, Artspace, to March 9.