Radical museology: or, What's 'contemporary' in museums of contemporary art?

Abstract

"In the face of austerity cuts to public funding, a handful of museums of contemporary art have devised compelling alternatives to the mantra of bigger is better and richer. Radical museology presents the collection displays of the Van Abbemuseum in Enhoven, the Museo Nacional de Reina Sofía in Madrid and MSUM in Ljubljana as outlines of a new understanding of the contemporary in contemporary art. Radical museology is a vivid manifesto for the contemporary as a method rather than a periodization, and for the importance of a politicized representation of history in museum of contemporary art."

Contents

Going inside -- Museums of contemporary art -- Theorizing the contemporary -- Time machines: the Van Abbemuseum -- Archive of the commons: the Reina Sofía -- Repetitions: MSUM Ljublana -- Dialectical contemporaneity.