1/24/12

Waiting for Godard @ Museum of New Art

Waiting for Godard @ Museum of New Art
is part of the series "My Life As A Film", in which Stig Eklund has explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety. He creates, or rather regards, things in a way that is different from that of other artists. He sees only the essential, and that, naturally, is all that he represents: A look, a small gesture, a kiss gone wrong, a shrug of shoulders.
 
For this reason Eklund's work is as a rule 'not complete', as people are at first so frustrated to discover. But, fill a room with a dozen of these 'paintings' or so, and one finds they are surprisingly complete. His complete vision of an incomplete world.
 
Art is finished once the artist has said everything that was on his mind, and this is precisely the advantage Eklund has over his fellow artists, that he really knows how to show us what he has felt, and what has gripped him, and to this he subordinates everything else.

- Jessica Hopkins, chief curator at the Museum of New Art   
  
The Little Museum That Still Can...
In a young century dogged by instability and uncertainty, faith in the power of art is rekindled by the reopening of the Museum of New Art (MONA). The need for a contemporary museum in Detroit remains especially strong in view that the entrenched artistic circles continue to oppose such a truly active partner. Moving outside these circles, a small group of collectors and businessmen have stepped forward to support and retain this contemporary in the region.
 
The idea was to choose a city nearby Detroit that would have a fresh atmosphere and without the old politics. A small enough community where the museum could create an art scene which would be new and innovative, and yet still encompass the entire region.
 
As explained by director Jef Bourgeau: "We've never thought in small terms. We don't accept this notion of small. It's a museum on the human scale. I would say that is the ideal scale."
 
This new MONA vows to retain the museum's philosophy since its founding in 1996: that art's joy, power and creativity lie solely in the eyes, hearts, hands and minds of the generation that creates it.

The Museum of New Art (MONA) is located at 7 North Saginaw Street, Pontiac, Michigan - 2nd floor.
email:  detroitmona@aol.com    telephone:  248.210.7560    website:  www.detroitmona.com