Berlin – Vienna – Barcelona
April-June 2004
Mobile Museums have been conceived as a travelling artists’ museum. For this project Public Art Lab invited artists to create their individual vision of a mobile museum. Each artist received a construction kit consisting of modular recycling PVC sheets to build an individual museum measuring a maximum of 10 square meters. Due to the modular building method, the artist constructed an accessible structure which formed an independent whole inside and out. The outer structure corresponded to the inner experience.
Franka Hoernschemeyer created the labyrinth and passageway sculpture ‘PVC 304′ consisting of 45 full length floor to ceiling wall-elements with movable joints. Hans Wiegner invited the visitor to his individual museum ‘Heaven’ which was conceived as a light perception cell. The Mobile Museum ‘Psyche’ was curated by Daniela Zyman our curating partner in Vienna. ‘Psyche’ was a collaboration of the sound artist Roedelius and the installation artist Gilbert Bretterbauer. The interior surfaces covered in carpets and curtains encompasses the visitor in an indistinguishable void, whose essence lies in the sensitivity to this inner atmosphere.
The architects Gruber + Popp have been developing the construction plans.
The Mobile Artists Museums have been accompanied by a Mobile Museum Studio which was curated with a changing programme by the local partner institutions A9 forum transeuropa in Vienna and the Centre Cultural can Fabra in Barcelona.
While the traditional museum is characterised by its permanent residence, the Mobile Museums have been created to temporarily occupy already significant urban sites. Their structures created an atmosphere to enliven an urban society.The interiors of the Mobile Museums did not only stimulate perception but also an awareness and sensitivity for the environment. The Mobile Museums aesthetically challenged familiar inner city surroundings by creating and enhancing an unique urban experience. They offered a new experience for an exhibition space and a new perspective for the concept of a museum. Being of a modular system the museum had the possibility to be extremely flexible in regard to architecture, space and a work of art.
