The architectural condition of the present day gallery is built on the notion of display rather than patron interaction. This condition contributes to the formal nature of the institution which suggests that a level of hierarchy exists within the institution between the curator, the artist and the patron, placing a level of limitation on accessibility and interaction between the institution and society. To begin to re-shape the gallery as an institution, it must be asked what role architecture can play in changing the current framework of the gallery from the exclusive and formal nature to a social and participatory environment.

Modern and contemporary architects, artists and theorists including Le Corbusier, Marcel Duchampe, and Olafur Eliasson, have written critiques of the limitations that a gallery built on the notion of display places on art and public participation in and with art. Architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner wrote in his survey A History of Building Types, “...museum architecture has not developed any significant new types since World War II.”, claiming that “...no new principles have turned up, except that the ideal of the museum as monument in its own right has been replaced by the ideal of the museum as the perfect place to show, enjoy, and study works of art.”1

It is becoming contemporary practice to avoid the formal nature of the gallery to allow for an artist to free their work from the restrictions of the institution. This shift in thought has created a movement described by curators and art critics as the “laboratory” paradigm - a “non-institution” that promotes an inclusive and interactive environment with society. Noted art critic and curator Nicolas Bourriaud has designated the term “relational aesthetics” to describe this movement.2

A small number of “non-institutions” that promote an open relationship with society are beginning to establish themselves throughout Europe. Of particular note is MMX: Open Art Venue, a one-year art experiment based in an abandoned, ex-squatter house in the Mitte district of Berlin. Opened in 2010, the venue aimed to establish a relationship with the surrounding community to act as a creative resource to find alternative ways of exhibiting international work.3

The thesis will unfold in two parts. The first will aim to establish an open dialogue regarding the limitations that the gallery, as a formal institution in contemporary society, places on art (meaning the artist, their work, and the viewer). This dialogue will come as a result of a number of small, temporary interventions to be established in various locations throughout the Faculty of Architecture grounds at the University of Manitoba. The second half of the thesis will be driven by the first, building off of the dialogue created to ultimately establish a new type of gallery. A gallery for relational art and aesthetics will be developed through an understanding of the spatial and social needs of a piece of relational art established through the enacting of the interventions in part one.

re lat ional pract ice: construct ing a new gal lery typology

- Kelsey McMahon Faculty of Architecutre University of Manitoba Lisa Landrum, advisor

1 Michaela Giebelhausen, “Museum Architecture: A Brief History”, in Sharon MacDonald, A Companion to Museum Studies. (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006).

2 Bishop, Claire. Antagonism And Relational Aesthetics. (October 110, Fall (2004)).

3 Loyche, Rebecca, Jason Burgess, Jonathan Gröger, and Pamela Cohn. MMX - One Year One Book MMX Open Art Venue. 1st revised edition ed. Berlin: MMX Open Art Venue, 2011.