MuseoMag: MuseoMag 2024_01

MuseoMag 2024_01

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Title:: MuseoMag

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Title:: MuseoMag 2024_01

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Title:: Empty space in the museum: An exploration in words and images

32 MuseoMag N°I 2024 In this series of photos, Éric Chenal explores the empty rooms of the fourth floor of the Nationalmusée um Fëschmaart. © éric chenal EMPTY SPACE IN THE MUSEUM An exploration in words and images As we prepare to reopen the permanent collection of modern and contemporary art on the fourth floor of the museum after several years of renovation works, we take a moment to reflect on what empty spaces in institutions like ours can mean and how artists have responded to them. Éric Chenal’s images capture the transient state of the rooms in question, offering a visual exploration of the notions considered in this piece. As much as museums are known for their exhibitions, where curators transform spaces into rich experiences filled with artworks, objects, relics and historical documents, empty walls and unfinished floors are also part of the museum experience. Because our temporary exhibitions are just that – temporary. Hidden behind no entry signs and plastic sheets, there is a whole world that visitors rarely get to see. In this liminal, in-between space inhabited by workers, curators and conservation experts, objects are carefully packed, walls are taken down or put up and layer upon layer of paint is applied in preparation for the next project, where the space is again filled with content, each exhibition an exercise in storytelling and worldbuilding. Yet absence can be presence too. When it is emptied of objects, the framing device that is the exhibition space itself comes to the fore. It draws attention to what is otherwise invisible – the social institution behind the art on display, the architecture that shapes our perception. How does this space influence the way we see the works on show? ABSENCE AS PRESENCE Ilya and Emilia Kabakov address this in their installation The Empty Museum (1993); a replica of a gallery in a classical museum with burgundy walls, velveteen benches and pools of light on the walls where the paintings would normally hang. Bach’s famous organ piece Passacaglia plays in the background. By replicating the space of the museum,

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