In this interview some of the recent works of Goshka Macuga at the Walker Arts Centre and The White Chapel Gallery were discussed . The interviewer Milovan Farronato introduced the works highlighting the site specific nature of her works and thus their direct relation to the commision of the Gallery. The two works discussed were It Broke from Within 2011 at The Walker Arts Centre which will be moved to a gallery in Basel, and The Nature of the Beast 2011 which has been recentlty moved from the Whitechapel Gallery to Castello di Rivoli.
In the commision from the Whitechapel gallery Goshka explained how she used the hundred year history of the institution to create an installlation with direct relevance to gallery. Picasso's Guernica was important both in Whitechapel's own history, being used as part of an anti fascist event in 1939, and also current relevance in the display of the image at the UN and the Colin Powel controversy regarding the war in Iraq. The image therefore has a very powerful anti war comment. Goshka wanted to create an interactive gallery space, also commemorating the previous life of the space as a library. Thus the public were encouraged to make an appointmenst to conduct a meetings in front of the Guernica copy. Over the year the story of the work futher developed. Goshka expressed her surprise at some of the misconceptions of the work that became apparant when requests for pro war meetings in the gallery were requested. When the installation was moved to Castello di Rivoli the work was changed, firstly because the Guernica had to be returned at the end of it's loan but also because the history of the object had also changed. Thus a new chapter of the objects history is being created in the new institution.
It Broke from Within also has many specific links with the original gallery space. The forest scene is part of the only remaining native american forest that was left as a technical oversight of the lumbering company, of the very same Walker. Furthermore the exhibition space aims to recreate, with places to sit and the inclusion of the theme of the continual protest of one man in miniapolis, the town square function that the Arts Centre aimed to create in its foundation. These are some of the instituitional links that cannot be transferred when the installation is transferred to Basel, which will change the work of art, from it's original commission.
Through the interview Goshka also explained some of the problems that were encountered and worked through when working with comissioning galleries. She highlighted her use of other artist's work as an issue that often occurs in her commissions, but explains that through comprehensive discussions and relations with the galleries many things can be achieved.
by Eleanor Bouchard
publishing by alessia
onDate 20.05.2011
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