Preservation and Presentation of Installation Art

West, Franz

Clamp

1. Installation history
2. Carnegie International 1995, Pittsburgh
3. Proforma, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna
4. Proforma, Kunsthalle Basel
5. Proforma, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
6. Acquisitions, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
7. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
8. Vrije Ruimte/Another Space, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
9. Inside Installations, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

9. Inside Installations, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (2007)
creator(s) Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
publisher Kröller-Müller Museum

The exhibition the Kröller-Müller Museum organized on the occasion of the research project Inside Installations Presentation and Preservation of Installation Art was organized during two periods. During ’Inside Installations I’, 25.10.2006-07.01.2007, all the parts of the Clamp were documented and underwent some conservation treatments while on show in the gallery. During ’Inside Installations II’ the floor was laid out and the walls were erected, so the whole Clamp was installed.

The room is situated in the middle of the large gallery with one of the smaller walls facing the entrance, so people have to walk into the gallery or around the walls before they can enter the Clamp. Following what is said in the text that accompanied the Clamp during previous shows, two benches and two tables were placed inside the Clamp. One bench is placed with the back of the seat towards the opening on the edge of the floor thus facing the interior. Papille was placed in front of it in the opposing corner. The other bench is placed near the middle against the back wall welcoming people to enter the room and take place. The Telephone sculptures were positioned along the right wall, one of them outside the room on the gallery floor. The poster design of Clamp and ’Plato’s Sonne’ were left on the gallery wall were they had been already during the course of the show, meeting the idea of mingling the existing surroundings with the Clamp. Rondell was placed behind the long wall of the Clamp, leaving a passageway where visitors can walk through. The black side is facing outward, integrating in the overall appearance of the back of the walls when looked at from a distance, whereas the yellow side is facing the back of the Clamp and almost illuminating it. The intensity of the brightness is enhanced between the overall black and white appearance when walking past it through the passage way.

The red telephone was left out of the interior of the Clamp and kept isolated from the installation at this point. It would give the only prefab instrument an artificial object-like look, displaced in the environment of within the Clamp. Placing a disconnected non-functional telephone in an interior where people can take place to make themselves at home seems odd. This could be a plausible clarification of the fact that there is no visual proof of the presence of the apparatus during any of the exhibitions when the artist had designed the set up of the Clamp.