Situated at the beginning of a phase of transition between the CIVA as it is in 2021 and its new home at Kanal in 2024, “Institution Building” is a self-reflection of an institution in transformation, a questioning of the role of cultural institutions as such – and of the CIVA in particular – and hence instigating a process of reinventing itself for the coming years. In a sequential logic each chapter aims to reimagine one component of the architecture museum: Hospitality (26.08), Format (02.09), Collection (09.09), Audience (16.09), Agency (23.09), Pedagogy (30.09), Emancipation (07.10), Environment (14.10), Preservation (21.10), Idiom (28.10).
Institution Building; .
Photo by Thomas Ost for CIVA, Brussels.
Institution Building; .
Photo by Thomas Ost for CIVA, Brussels.
CIVA, Brussels, 2021:
The exhibition “Institution Building” displays and questions the different elements of a museum – not only the most visible parts (such as the exhibition) but also the less public, often hidden components (such as archive, administration, maintenance). Following a sequential logic of 10 institutional components the exhibition will grow week by week, adding another element and eventually present the institution as a cadavre exquis – a permanently changing organism, constantly on questioning and legitimizing its raison d´être.
