This week, in addition to reading the article by Vanessa Schwartz on the Musee Grevin in 19th-century Paris (available via e-res), please visit the websites of: Bodies: The Exhibition; Madame Tussaud’s wax museum; and the recent Kiki Smith exhibition at the Whitney. You might also want to look at some of the controversy surrounding the Bodies exhibition.
One question to think about might be whether Schwartz’s discussion of the Musee Grevin in relation to both a particularly modern brand of “spectacular commercial culture” and to the concept of a “museum” can help us to think about these contemporary exhibitions? Can we perhaps situate Kiki Smith, Bodies, and Madame Tussaud on a continuum between these two categories?
2 responses so far ↓
cynthia.h // March 14, 2007 at 12:14 am
I think the reason why the Musee Grevin was patronized by all classes was that it connected the high culture and the low culture through the realistic reproduction of past and present events. It was the way in which these dioramas were display that created the satisfaction for the spectators’ basic voyeuristic urges, and it was the sensation of spying on real people. It essentially offered a peepholes into Parisian life. I am not quite sure about how did Kiki Smith’s show provide similar notion, since her works involve more self-referential elements. Bodies… the Exhibition, on the other hand, definitely has the same gesture as the wax museum in a different content. The display of the body, well, is crutcal in terms of articulating the corps to a state of artistic presentation. Respectful and low key, the lighting is the essence to create the illumination of these corps as if they were artifacts of fine art. What is similar to the attraction of the Musee Grevin is the satisfiction of the spectators’ voyeuristic craves. What’s inside a human body are there for scrunity, for most of the public it’s not the daily routine.
Regarding the controversy, the degree of edication value is indeed questionable. Afterall, it’s another example of democratic practice for the public to decide whether it’s a go-to or turn-off.
Sarah B // March 14, 2007 at 6:49 am
While I feel like the controversy surrounding Bodies certainly doesn’t help its case, I wonder how much damage it’s done. I’m sure many people have not seen it out of protest, but that certainly doesn’t seem to have affected how well it’s done. I haven’t gone to see it myself, but everyone I know who has really enjoyed it, no matter how reluctantly. It seems like such a strange attraction to have gained so much popularity, and I’m not sure how much that owes to a sense of voyeurism. I recently had friends come visit from out of town, and on their last day here they were stuck trying to decide whether they wanted to go to the wax museum or Bodies, and chose Bodies because they’d heard so much about it and wanted to see it first hand.