Asuncion Molinos Gordo
13 Dec 2010 - 31 Jan 2011
ASUNCION MOLINOS GORDO
Untitled 3 (WAM)
WORLD AGRICULTURE MUSEUM, Part 1 (CAIRO)
December 13, 2010 – January 31,, 2011
Since their appearance, museums have gone through a process of transformation. They have changed from being small wonder rooms or cabinets of curiosities, stuffed with various oddities, to large spaces filled with technologies such as audio guidance equipment and touch screens. Despite their physical transformation, the essence and functions of museums as cultural constructions, has not changed. “A museum” is still the place to display information considered relevant or interesting to a sector of society; it’s a place to build national pride. It’s a toll to which to accomplish common identity, but also a place to generate curiosity, provoke thought and bring together knowledge about specific issues. When “Agriculture” was first placed in a museum, farming was considered an important part of modernity and therefore deserved to be on display under this sublime umbrella. Now-a-days, agricultural knowledge is no longer considered part of our contemporary world; countries whose economies are mainly built upon agricultural produce are seen as undeveloped and outdated. Artist Asunción Molinos proposes a second look at the current agricultural situation, which she considers plays a key role defining the ‘contemporary world”. Her installation, Untitled 3 (WAM) World Museum of Agriculture, will apply the mechanism of an old cabinet of wonders, to raise curiosity towards the new process of food production and its cultural impact. Inspired by the aesthetics of the Agriculture Museum of Cairo, the space will be presented as a “social arena” where different and opposing discourses referring to food sovereignty, food security and the use of biotechnology will be on display. Their positions, myths, truths, opinions and data will collide in a portrait, a phantasmagorical spectrum of this thing, once called “agri-culture”.
Untitled 3 (WAM)
WORLD AGRICULTURE MUSEUM, Part 1 (CAIRO)
December 13, 2010 – January 31,, 2011
Since their appearance, museums have gone through a process of transformation. They have changed from being small wonder rooms or cabinets of curiosities, stuffed with various oddities, to large spaces filled with technologies such as audio guidance equipment and touch screens. Despite their physical transformation, the essence and functions of museums as cultural constructions, has not changed. “A museum” is still the place to display information considered relevant or interesting to a sector of society; it’s a place to build national pride. It’s a toll to which to accomplish common identity, but also a place to generate curiosity, provoke thought and bring together knowledge about specific issues. When “Agriculture” was first placed in a museum, farming was considered an important part of modernity and therefore deserved to be on display under this sublime umbrella. Now-a-days, agricultural knowledge is no longer considered part of our contemporary world; countries whose economies are mainly built upon agricultural produce are seen as undeveloped and outdated. Artist Asunción Molinos proposes a second look at the current agricultural situation, which she considers plays a key role defining the ‘contemporary world”. Her installation, Untitled 3 (WAM) World Museum of Agriculture, will apply the mechanism of an old cabinet of wonders, to raise curiosity towards the new process of food production and its cultural impact. Inspired by the aesthetics of the Agriculture Museum of Cairo, the space will be presented as a “social arena” where different and opposing discourses referring to food sovereignty, food security and the use of biotechnology will be on display. Their positions, myths, truths, opinions and data will collide in a portrait, a phantasmagorical spectrum of this thing, once called “agri-culture”.