Prior to the opening of the Anonymous Museum, the board of directors decided to remove all of the art they had set out because they wanted visitors on opening night to visualize all the possibilities of the 8,000-square-foot loft. So last Friday the museum debuted looking unoccupied, ripe for open minds.
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On opening night no one wore name tags, so no one other than their friends could tell if the directors were in attendance. None of the art will carry name tags either. The directors’ names do appear on an NEA grant application, channeled through the alternative N.A.M.E. Gallery. The proposal puts the terms “museum” and “board” in quotation marks, and promises to “be temporary and present anonymous and uncurated works.ÉThus, our museum is the antithesis of what such institutions usually are.” Furthermore, the museum “will itself be an ongoing, collaborative work of art.”
Another director calls it “a critique of the intimidation of the spectator by the institution. You know, like you really don’t know enough to experience the art without the museum teaching you.”
A contract for prospective “participants” lists ten “rules and conditions,” with three more left blank. Number ten stipulates, “Donations should not resemble the artwork to which you normally sign your name.” One director reports, “Separating the artist’s persona from the artwork was really difficult and exhilarating.” Another claims, “There’s a real liberation to creating something anonymous.”
The first day after the museum opened, the staff in the sparsely appointed office has the TV turned on. It sits on the floor. A football game is on, the only color in the entire place.
