JURGEN BEY, MARTI GUIXÉ, ANNA KOCH, AND STINA NORDENSTAM
The idea behind the summer exhibition in the project space at Magasin 3 was not to invite artists; instead, designers Jurgen Bey and Marti Guixé, dancer/choreographer Anna Koch, and musician Stina Nordenstam were invited to put together an interdisciplinary exhibition. Visitors encounter Koch's choreographic challenges right away, in Magasin 3's idyllic garden, where texts on signage and an audio recording offer movement instructions and notes on choreography. Nordenstam's work, a twenty-five-minute sound piece that includes both documentary and fictional material on UFO's, can be found in the small glass pavilion—and, while unfortunately only in Swedish, is probably the "artiest" thing in the show. Guixé undertakes an analysis of the museum gift-shop knickknacks that increasingly overshadow the sales of catalogues and books, and considers how museums, as well as nation-states, use souvenirs in their branding. Guixé's designed objects are displayed on the floor, like counterfeit or pirated items for sale on the street, within a small, newly built white cubicle in the gallery space. The items are not in fact for sale, however—instead, Guixé suggests a reflection on merchandise and consumption, and how it affects us. Design that defies the rules of the market economy would seem to be counterproductive, and this is probably why it is refreshing to see it presented in an art space.