What Is to Be Done? Contemporary Art Museums Searching for New Institutional Models (Illustrated by L`Internationale Members)

This master’s thesis focuses on the contemporary art museums – members of the Confederation «L’Internationale» – that, following the rhetoric of critical institutionalism, transform their practices and agendas in order to create a consistent and noncontradictory institutional model, which would enable them to express a politically committed view of the present, act as a platform for citizenship and conceptualize new models of common living. By providing analyses of key projects of the three museums in question, namely, Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven), MACBA (Barcelona), and Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid), the author shows that in the current socio-political climate those radical institutions are struggling with the risk of being instrumentalized or pushed into a more conventional form of existence. A possible solution to this problem might reside in the creation of local infrastructures through the interlacing of institutional and non-institutional actors, as well as in establishing regional and international horizontal networks, which would, apart from favouring individuation and radicalization, create a strong sense of solidarity among its members. Key words: critical institutions, institutions of the commons, contemporary art museum, radical institutions, experimental museology, networks, L’Internationale, esthetics and politics, art and revolution, local/global, art activism, archive exhibitions.