The Problematic of Video Art in the Museum, 1968–1990 By Cyrus M ...

classic museum as typified by the Louvre.⁹ Through new possibilities opened up principally by MoMA in 1929, art museums would be able to engage with various media, such as video art, as an “auratic” art.¹⁰ This brought on the necessity for creating a new kind of exhibiting space that would be required for interactive or spatial installations of contemporary art. As such, exhibition spaces within museums would gradually be transformed towards total spatial environments suitable for constant modification and variance.¹¹ Developments of this nature would lead critical commentators to contend that many museums today, in a sense, function as “playgrounds” and “centres for entertainment”.¹² This book will argue that much of this was originally instigated through the procedural influence of MoMA in New York.

Video Art: A Framework of Development

From the outset, video art's imbrication by art museums engendered specific problems in relation to acquisition and exhibition. For instance, although not of pressing concern to the artists/museums, who would first be attracted by video's capacity to document present events, the complexities and problematics surrounding video art would be dominated by its non-archival form. Acquisitions would deteriorate with the passage of time and level of depreciation. As a result, preserving the original tape quality would be impossible, thus presenting a largely unforeseen commercial problematic in terms of asset (in contrast with other traditional forms of relatively static art).¹³

Through this, many of the fundamental tenets and strategies associated with museum practice (such as preservation and conservation, as well as the practice of asset investment) would be challenged. This had presented problems which would be compounded through a basic and fundamental need for the works to be presented in contexts that were suitable and sympathetic to each piece. Specialised installation would need to be built into an environment that had been organised for purposes of reflection. For video art, often this would entail that it be separated from other works in a museum's collection. As a result, within art institutions,