You van be a museum or you can be modern, but you can't be both

In 1974 David Rubin, the then director ofthe Museum of Modern Art in New York, admitted in an interview that «The Museum concept is not infinitely expandable». He ascribed this to the rupture between the traditional aesthetic categories of painting and sculpture and the earthworks and conceptual art that were all the rage in those days. According to Rubin, this latter group called for an entirely different museum environment and, he added, perhaps a different public too. In saying: «The Museum concept is not infinitely expandable», Rubin was, in my opinion, implicitly referring to the problem of the museum as a public institution.

IJskoude douche ("No Rocks Allowed") [guest curator: Haim Steinbach]

An exhibition catalogue/artist's book documents Steinbach's curatorial/artist project consisting of a variety of appropriated visual and textual representations referencing the theme of water. An afterword by Dercon contextualizes the artist's practice

El concepte de museu no és infinitament expansible?

Peer Reviewe

Une extension vers quoi ? Quelques réflexions sur le musée de demain

Dans ce texte, j’explore les implications philosophiques et politiques qu’ont les extensions matérielles des musées, dans leur architecture et leurs plans de réaménagement, sur la question de leurs relations avec le public et, plus largement, du rôle de l’art. Au travers d’exemples tirés des grands musées occidentaux, je réinterroge les rapports entre l’institution, sa collection, son public, et le rôle du musée en société. J’appréhende le musée de demain dans une logique d’expansion constant..

Die zehn Künstler an die ich am 3. Mai 1990 um 19.00 Uhr gedacht habe

Dokoupil curates an exhibition of ten artists concerned with the origin of representation and the concept of landscape and nature. 1 bibl. ref

Hermann Pitz : Panorama MCMXCI

Reminiscent of a travel guide, Pitz's exhibition catalogue includes essays by Dercon and Meschede (in German and Dutch only). An English supplement is provided for a text by Pitz which chronicles the artist's sculptural, site-related, photographic and cooperative works. Biographical notes. Bibl. 3 p

Ine Lamers : Motives

" Urban space is central to the photographs and slide and video installations by Ine Lamers. This book offers an overview of her work from the period 1994-2002. The essays focus on the various photographic, cinematic and theatrical aspects of her work. " -- Back cover

Growth and Risk: Methodology and Micro Evidence

How exposure to risk affects economic growth is a key issue in development. This article quantifies both the ex ante and ex post effects of risk using long-running panel data for rural households in Zimbabwe. It proposes a simulation-based econometric methodology to estimate the structural form of a micro model of household investment decisions under risk. The key finding is that risk substantially reduces growth in this particular setting: the mean capital stock in the sample is (in expectation) 46 percent lower than in the absence of risk. About two-thirds of the impact of risk is due to the ex ante effect (that is, the behavioral response to risk), which is usually not taken into account in policy design. These results suggest that policy interventions that reduce exposure to shocks or that help households manage risk could be much more effective than is commonly thought. © 2007 Oxford University Press