Back in the 90’s SEINFELD was the hottest TV show around with the tag line, “IT’S A SHOW ABOUT NOTHING.” It’s backdrop was the city of New York and now it seems like there’s a Museum in the heart of New York that’s mimicking a little bit of the SEINFELD show; It’s a Museum with NO ART–ZERO but truly a place where IDEAS ALONE ARE HUNG ON THE WALLS
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? What, indeed. When my friend John shared this with me a little over a week ago, I was beyond fascinated and confused. And part of what unites all of us, reminds us, that at our best and worst, we are all living creatures who are often FASCINATED AND CONFUSED at the same time. In that state, we not only operate, we COOPERATE at a very high level, most of the time without notice.
THE MUSEUM OF NON-VISIBLE ART
Museum of Non-Visible Art showcases remains unseen.
Although the artworks themselves are not visible,
the descriptions are readable, and open our eyes to
a parallel world built of images and words.
This world is not visible, but it exists, as surely as thought itself exists.
The Manifesto of MONA explains everything else about the why and how.
And what a Manifesto:
RULES FOR THE CREATION OF THE NON-VISIBLE
You shall not litter the world with art. (You shall not make.)
What you have not made must be beautiful.
What you have not made must have value.
You must bring what you have not made to market.
(The market will give it value.)
You must give to the market absence.
(Money is banal until spent.)
You must offer the market anguish.
(What is spent is painful.)
You must make the market beautiful.
(Nothing beautiful without pain.)
You must increase the world behind the eyes.
The wreck of the Medusa.
It left us with phosphenes.
You must conjure them and sell them.
Only when you have done this are you one of us.
————————————–
By Douglas Anthony Cooper
In accordance with Praxis
(Brainard and Delia Carey)
FASCINATED AND CONFUSED. . . ?
Have you heard the story of the architect from Shiraz who designed the world’s most beautiful mosque? No one had ever conjured up such a design. It was breathtakingly daring yet well-proportioned, divinely sophisticated, yet radiating a distinctly human warmth. Those who saw the plans were awe-struck.
Famous builders begged the architect to allow them to erect the mosque; wealthy people came from afar to buy the plans; thieves devised schemes to steal them; powerful rulers considered taking them by force. Yet the architect locked himself in his study, and after staring at the plans for three days and three nights, burned them all.
The architect couldn’t stand the thought that the realized building would have been subject to the forces of degradation and decay, eventual collapse or destruction by barbarian hordes. During those days and nights in his study he saw his creation profaned and reduced to dust, and was terribly unsettled by the sight.
Better that it remain perfect. Better that it was never built.
The story is a fable, but its main idea — that a thing’s ideal state is before it comes into existence, that it is better to not be born — is equal parts terrifying and uncanny. – C.B.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. . .
STRANGE
ODD
SURREAL
STUPID
BRILLIANT
Maybe the TRICK is the TREAT
and whatever is beyond the
. . .
Well before you decide, how about you take a closer gander yourself and WONDER as you WANDER
DARE beyond a smidgen of DARING and
I M A G I N E
https://museumofnonvisibleart.com/
(Be fascinated and confused as you forgo perfection and go full throttle for PROGRESS)
