SPACE November 2024 (No. 684)
Agora rendering image at Pompidou Center 2030 renovation
Prologue: Physical Norms in Art Museums
On a sunny day, I visited the B Museum▼1 in Paris, which has been a hot topic in the architecture and art world in recent years. This iconic piece of architecture, which opened in 2021 after a delay due to the Coronavirus Disease-19, has become a must-visit spot for art and architecture enthusiasts, as well as fashion enthusiasts. After visiting the museum, I planned to enjoy a picnic in a nearby park to experience the romance and leisure of the urban space. Upon entering the museum, I encountered a security checkpoint for bag searches, typical in European cultural venues. As I casually passed through, staff with stern expressions said, ‘Madam, there’s a knife in your bag. What is it for?’ ‘Oh, I just remembered, it’s for the picnic.’ ‘You’re not planning to picnic in the museum, are you?’ Although I retrieved the picnic knife upon leaving the museum, I now feel embarrassed that I couldn’t appropriately respond. As a curator, especially one focused on the public sector, I failed to assess the power dynamics implied at that moment quickly.
Today, the scope of cultural activities in museums goes beyond just viewing exhibitions. Considering the various activities such as lunches, picnics, yoga, and sports that take place in museums, the physical norms imposed by B Museum seem pretty outdated. This control stems from an exclusive attitude that is wary of unfamiliar bodies, alongside the privatisation of culture. Whether a museum is private or public, these physical norms control the fundamental nature and existence of all cultural domains. While this anecdote could be dismissed with a laugh, it raises a significant question related to the topic of this essay: ‘What is the good public cultural space?’ What architectural efforts are necessary for cultural spaces to not oppose the public but instead welcome and embrace the public? In this essay, I aim to discuss how to architecturally facilitate the essential processes of dialogue and coordinatio...
