As part of my Uni course with our tutor we went around London to view Galleries this time it was an exhibition at the V&A called Tomorrow by the Scandinavian duo Elmgreen & Dragset I didn't know what to expect as I have never seen their work and didn't know much about them either. As I had lost my group I found my way on my own to the section inside the museum where they where exhibiting actually when I got there I realised that it wasn't an exhibition but a spacial installation based on a fictional narrative in the 160-year old museum's former textile department that had been close for eight years, so it was exciting to see that the space had been used again and in an alternative way. It felt great to walk through the corridors of the museum looking at artifacts behind cases and find one self suddenly in The Tomorrow exhibition where one could touch items, sit or actually lie down on the bed it was interactive unlike the rest of the Museum. It's so interactive that while I was in the bedroom I actually pocked into what I thought was a sculpture but it was to my great surprise a person that screamed & then looked at me puzzled ( in my defence I can say that the lighting in the room was quite deem) he wasn't part of exhibit oh no he was a visitor like me.
The Tomorrow exhibition occupies 5 rooms in the form of an apartment obviously of someone wealthy from an upper class background this was given by the expensive furniture, items that I found in each room of the British architect Norman Swann who apparently never built anything. As a visitors we see his house as he is about to move out of it, in the new Kitchen ( made by the new young tenant called Daniel Wilder, the architect student) I saw a lot of boxes used for packing items. The rooms made me think of old stately houses in England, there where real waiters going around the rooms making you feel in a different space and time where the upper classes lived. Elmgreen says that Tomorrow 'is a commentary on the disappearance old British society and a failure of the European experiment'. I didn't get this while being in the rooms, I would also add that the artist's view of what the old British society was in a particular time is narrow and they weren't there to experience the dominance of the upper classes also they are from Scandinavian egalitarian countries, not really elite based, they might base themselves on documentation but it's really just fictional out of their own imagination.
I felt uncomfortable as I felt none of it was real, a bit like mental masturbation. Some items in the rooms where there to give clues about the character of the person living in the house but he was fictional too a bit like being in a theatre setting which is made for the viewer to engage with the 'artwork' in a different way like you would do in a site specific situation so experiencing it directly, it really can not be described. This is not a new concept but it is interesting the way they engage the audience & again the use of the space. This specific direct way of experiencing the installation makes you silent, looking for clues and stretches the time you spend inside the installation this is if you enjoy being in the space, if you enjoy being in an opulent surreal space if not you will be running for the door.
Some of the V&A objects can be found in the rooms and they will go back to the museum, but walking around the rooms looking at the items sitting down, I felt that the artists are interested in the fear of change about the future and the past: there are the old comfortable rooms in contrast with the metallic cold kitchen that indicates a new life has come in and how the future and the past connect with each other or not, about what one does with one life or not, it's about failure of fear of failure shown ( but I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a 'Western anxiety' like the artists said I think this is really stretching it) in one room with architectural projects which never saw the day light, in this sense the installation it's successful.
All Images By Elmgreen & Dragset at the V&A.
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