Einstein and Tagore plus Macuga

Einstein playing guitar 

When was Modernism? is an installation, which was presented for the first time at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp. Now it is recreated and remodelled at Iniva`s space in London where it applies the pioneering ideas of the art school established by Tagore in India, which was developed, along with the utopian ideas of the Bauhaus school.

Goshka Macuga isnt`t 'bitter mace' the meaning of the words of her name in Polish her art is something incompatible or different to the genetically modified artefacts of the contemporary art. Once I heard about her I was surprised at her perspectives. Her observations, her atypical solutions, pointed my attention towards new ideas.
Macuga has placed a tree inside the gallery space; somehow it isn`t just a prop, whose provenance is known only by the curator. This tree is coming into leaf despite the unfriendly environment. Although taken out from nature this tree is still real.   

Goshka Macuga, When was Modernism? photo Iniva

Organic-totemic forms of sculptures placed on the shelves around the tree incarnate the show`s own interpretation of the tree growing calmly in the middle of the display.
Those artefacts are abandoned student`s work, found by Macuga on Tagore`s school campus at Kala Bhavan. Their anonymous 'speechless comment', creates added value to Modernism as a theory. They would show us that we never learn our opinion of Modernism, know or understand its its references to twentieth Avant-garde or postmodernism. 

Macuga inspirits all that others just gloss over. Her work is not about abstraction in the creative process. Its about materializing it The. artist`s intention and the interest which she puts into her objects turns trash into meaningful objects. Thanks to this process the abandoned sculptures have spoken as a prophetic choir to us.

Her method is to work with the artefacts of other artists. It could be a student`s work, Einstein`s word or Picasso`s Guernica. Her approach is always different from superficially using other`s people work
She wouldn`t judge them by the important, more important and the most important label. She is aware that the seemingly unimportant objects speak surprisingly explicitly as in this case.

The performance curated by Macuga Parentheses on Truth, Beauty and Humanity played part its role in the installation. She invited two musicians to translate words onto sounds based on few talks between Tagore and Einstein. 

The background of this performance was a big glass which appeared to let not only the light in, but also cyclists, pedestrians, dogs and cars. When the musician` s explanations began to overrun, causing my inner disturbance and forcing my inner voice to sing the moon, the other narration was developing behind the glass. As the musician tried to control the situation giving us more and more details, all the strands from behind the glass became a cheeky yellow sticker placed on his back with short but powerful words 'bite me'.
When the musician`s ego was flaying about above our heads, for the sake of the balance in the universe multi-track actions were started with the appearance of a few girls, wearing pink dresses and carrying balloons. One of them performed a short dance with the cartoon groom. Then a homeless man arrived to listen or to watch the talkative musician with huge admiration.

Chill out, Saturday afternoon in East London brought also a few couples and a five person family, probably Americans. The great final belonged to two adorable dogs, who announced their presence with wee and poo.     
The performance was ended with music and although the sounds was quite amusing I don`t know how to relate them with the great thinkers word? 

Monika Waraxa 18/11/13, London

Edited by Helen King