Come on baby light my fire
TEAM: Anna Barbieri, Anna Hagen – Austria
Museums for 25 seconds.
A matchbox. 38 matches; 38 museums, which are accessible for the time span of a burning match. Not virtually, but in reality.
Deriving from Ed Ruscha’s institutional critique in “Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Fire”, we intend to turn the negative connotation of the fire into a positive device that provides sensory glimpses of a large variety of museums. Art and museums are something unique. We intend to strengthen the importance of the actual sensory experience and oppose growing tendencies of have-it-all on the Internet.
The matchbox is counter-digital. It questions museums’ continuous expansion of online catalogues and virtual online tours and visits. If the normality of the Internet can replace the museum experience, then an ordinary matchbox can become a tool to experience the unique feeling of art even if physically inaccessible.
38 matches trigger 38 museum atmospheres. You light a match. It provides the sensory experience of enlightening. Its light exposes us to particular smells, sounds and views relating to particular museum atmospheres. You sense the museum’s sound and smell. You touch the architecture and visit for the brief moment of the burning match. As soon as the smoke vanishes, the atmosphere of the museum disappears.