Art for the many, not the few
JOHN ZEPPETELLI, the new head of the Musée d’art contemporain, wants to foster ‘a more inviting experience’ for visitors
The new director of the Musée d’art contemporain envisions a museum that lives up to its location in Place des Arts — what he calls the epicentre of cultural life in Montreal — with exhibitions that are “bold, intelligent and beautiful.”
And accessible to a wider public, said John Zeppetelli, who takes over as director and chief curator on Aug. 12.
“It’s very early to be speaking about plans, but I want a more inviting experience” for visitors of Montreal’s contemporary art museum, he said in an interview.
For Zeppetelli, who takes on the museum’s top two roles from Paulette Gagnon (as director) and Marie Fraser (chief curator), success will be measured by his ability to deliver exhibitions that are both rigorous and popular.
“I applied for the job in full knowledge that the board wants a larger audience and an increased membership, so we can develop and strengthen the museum,” he said.
Zeppetelli’s credentials have quieted any fears that the MAC would dumb down its offerings in an attempt to find new audiences. But he noted that much contemporary art is hermetic, with references to art history and theory that are best understood and enjoyed by people who are already immersed in it.
“We need to provide some interpretive tools so that visitors discover: ‘Wow, this is completely connected to the world,’ ” he said. More information in the form of text on the walls is possible; so are more guided tours.
And curators, “who want to transmit the sense of wonder they experience in the art they bring to the museum,” should become more accessible to the public, Zeppetelli said. They should be on the museum’s website “to explain in intelligent but accessible terms why you should come in.”
Another way of attracting bigger crowds is with the carrot of sensual and/or sensational experience. Zeppetelli cited the current Rain Room installation at MoMA PS1 in New York as an example. The Rain Room uses 3D imaging technology to allow visitors to walk through pouring rain without getting wet.
“Maybe I will be offering a combination of difficult and easier experiences,” he said. “Enlist people in one obvious thing, then introduce them to more difficult work.”
The MAC’s galleries may be reorganized.
“The galleries are beautiful and soaring, but I sometimes feel lost in these vast rooms,” he said. Flexible spaces are especially needed to meet the needs of digital art, which will only get more exposure in the future, Zeppetelli added.
When he visits another museum, he assesses the experience, including: Does it have an inviting entrance, inside and outside; a nice café and a bookshop where visitors can buy the catalogue?
As director, Zeppetelli will oversee all operations, including finance, communications and marketing. He will work with the board on the expansion project and on fundraising activities.
The new $35-million museum expansion project — the province rejected the first one — will double the exhibition space and create an entrance on Ste-Catherine St. that doesn’t require a giant arrow to point the way.
As chief curator, Zeppetelli becomes boss of people who have been colleagues and friends. “We’ll work collaboratively,” he said.
One big project is the Montreal Biennial, which is scheduled to open at the MAC on Oct. 9, 2014 and run for three months. The MAC’s own Quebec Triennial has been folded into the existing Montreal Biennial, with each institution contributing two curators.
One focus of the new biennial will be to connect Que- bec artists with their international colleagues, Montreal-born Zeppetelli said. The theme is L’Avenir.
Zeppetelli says he is both honoured and “slightly daunted” by the appointment, but said he has touched on all aspects of museum culture in his career.
“I came to museums as an artist who wanted to show in these places,” said Zeppetelli.
At the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, where he started as a gallery guide and worked in the bookstore, Zeppetelli developed a series of artist talks and panels. He said he wants the MAC to make more use of the adjoining Cinquième Salle in Place des Arts for its own public programs.
Zeppetelli has also worked at a New York gallery through a program at the Whitney Museum, has organized media arts festivals and taught the history and theory of video art at Concordia. For the MAC, he organized an international symposium on the legacy of modernism.
It was at the Saidye Bronfman Centre, where Zeppetelli organized exhibitions, that he first worked with Phoebe Greenberg. She hired him in 2006 as curator for her new DHC/ART foundation and gallery.
“I am eternally grateful to Phoebe,” he said.
Zeppetelli put on solo and group shows at the DHC, including Chronicles of a Disappearance, which won him recognition as best curator of 2012 by the Contemporary Art Galleries Association.
Art is a form of spirituality that is potentially a life-altering opportunity, Zeppetelli said. “I want to transmit this passion to people who are now only marginally interested in the visual arts,” even though they may be sophisticated in their television and literary interests.
He wants the MAC to attract people from all walks of life, including the vulnerable — the physically disabled and others — who have been served with educational programs at the DHC.
It’s a great challenge to shape an institution and to make arguments for work that offers insights into contemporary life, he said. He wants to have people “think of the museum as an oasis for free thinking,” rather than a place where ideas are imposed.
The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, 185 Ste-Catherine St. W., is showing one permanent and three temporary exhibitions. On Abstraction II complements the permanent A Matter of Abstraction and runs through Oct. 20. The temporary shows Michel de Broin and Eve Sussman/ Rufus Corporation continue to Sept. 8. For more information, visit macm.org.
Cory Arcangel: Power Points, curated by John Zeppetelli, continues to Nov. 24 at DHC/ART, 461 and 465 St-Jean St. For more information, visit dhc-art.org.