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Large close-up shot of the exhibition (photo by Milan Ilnyckyj)

The Canadian War Museum will “adjust” its controversial Bomber Command exhibition this fall so that greater “respect” is shown to Canadian war veterans involved in the Second World War bombing of Germany. Bomber Command veterans have long complained that the exhibition makes them out to be “war criminals” whose bombs needlessly killed thousands of German civilians.

But historian Randall Hansen is calling the museum’s decision craven and appalling and says that the exhibits’ adjustment signals that the museum is ceding to political pressure and is forsaking its credibility as an independent institution. Since last spring the Canadian newspaper The National Post has been reporting on the case and here you can read how the story unfolds:

Read article ‘The risks of rewriting the record’ (April 17, 2007)
Read article ‘Alter bombing display, war museum urged’ (June 13, 2007)
Read article ‘Museum to change bomber exhibit’ (August 28, 2007)
Read article ‘Historian decries change to war museum exhibit’ (August 29, 2007)

Read article ‘Depressing surrender at war museum’ (Toronto Star, 31 August, 2007)

Go to website Canadian War Museum

Harald Szeemann (Photo: undo.net)

Artforum brings the news of a complete catalogue of Szeemann’s exhibitions titled with by through because towards despite. The publication is supported by an exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel, which ends September 2.

with by through because towards despite at Kunsthalle Basel
Harald Szeemann in Wikipedia

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Indonesia has picked an architect to design a museum in Aceh province in memory of the close to 170,000 people who died there during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. But the project is not without controversy. Adamy Aulina, assistant manager for public facilities and building at the Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency, says she hopes the museum will help survivors heal. But the museum has its critics who are concerned the project comes too soon after the disaster, and could draw resources away from thousands of people who are still battling to rebuild their lives.

Read article (Voice of America, August 27, 2007)

See photos of the winning design by Ridwan Kamil

The Brazilian port city of Santos will build a museum to honor its best-known treasure: Pele.

Santos Mayor Joao Paulo Tavares Papa said the 16 million real (US$8 million, €6.6 million) museum would spearhead the renovation of the city’s historic district, presently in ruins.

Papa announced the project on Thursday with Pele and Sao Paulo state Governor Jose Serra.

“We are joining the desire of Pele with the disposition of the governor and the recovery of our heritage. These are long-standing dreams,” Papa said on the city’s Web site.

Pele, 66, leaped when Papa made the announcement and punched the air, his trademark commemoration after scoring a goal.

“This project will attract tourism and promote the country, that deserves this gift,” he said. “I feel proud.”

Read full article (International Herald Tribune, August 24, 2007)

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The new, temporary Serpentine Pavilion in London by Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen (phoyo by Luke Hayes)

See more pictures (Frankfurter Allgemeine)

Go to website Serpentine Gallery

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Daniel Richter in front of Centre Pompidou (© F.A.Z.-Julia Zimmermann)

Visitors last week to Paris’s Centre Pompidou may have recognized a familiar face among the street artists who do portraits of tourists outside the museum: none other than the German painter Daniel Richter. As the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’s Niklas Maak reports, Richter joined the street artists incognito and spent two days doing portraits for sums far less than his work typically command in galleries.

Taken from Artforum.com (International News Digest, week of 08.20.07)

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Milwaukee Art Museum by Santiago Calatrava

A 2006 survey by the American Association of Museums found that 50 percent of responding museums had begun or completed construction, renovation, or expansion in the previous three years. The boom is partly due to museum officials who recognize that using name architects for expansions helps attract tourists, according to association spokesman Jason Hall. Also, it is easier for museums to get donors for capital improvements than operating expenses because donors like having their names attached to the work.

Read article (The Boston Globe/AP, August 22, 2007)

For an overview of all institions in the US that over next several years will either expand, relocate or build new museums, you can see an interactive map on the website of the New York Times.

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Eight contemporary Chinese artists have been offered their own personal museums in Dujiangyan, in Sichuan Province. The city plans to begin construction on an 18-acre plot of land soon. (photo by Xiao Quan)

For years their work could not be exhibited in China, but in recent years the country’s leading contemporary artists are being courted by major art collectors abroad and their paintings set records at international auction sales. And now, a local government in Sichuan Province (the area in western China) has offered to give eight contemporary artists, all under 60, their own personal museums to operate. In a country with no major museum of contemporary art — not even in Beijing, where most of the eight artists work — this is a novel development.

Read article (New York Times, August 25, 2007)

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National Museums Liverpool (NML) opens the International Slavery Museum on Slavery Remembrance Day, August 23 2007, with an ambitious mission to use the museum to explore not just the abolition of slavery but also wider issues around racism through history. There’s a fascinating section of the museum where the reality of slavery and the continuing experience of modern cultures and racism are entwined and explored through music, exhibits and more interactives and films.

The second phase of the museum, a Research and Resource Centre is planned to open in 2010. Here visitors will be able to explore issues discovered in the museum, using an archive, community zone, reference library, internet access and a learning suite.

Read article (24 Hour Museum, August 21, 2007)
Go to website International Slavery Museum

He wowed us with the Tate Modern Sun. Now Olafur Eliasson has helped to create a clever helter-skelter at the Serpentine Gallery in London. Like past Serpentine Pavilions the steel frame structure, clad in plywood panels, delivers the requisite killer looks. The gallery has already dubbed its giant, tilted cone bound in a spiralling ramp the spinning top, though it’s as much like a flying saucer crash-landed from a 1950s B-movie: ominous, like a Trojan horse, and melancholically gloomy (in a very northern latitude, kind-of-optimistic sort of way). The pavilion opens in Kensington Gardens on Friday, August 24.

Read full article (The Times, August 21, 2007)

Go to website Serpentine Gallery
Go to website Olafur Eliasson
Go to website architect Kjetil Thorsen (Snøhetta, Norway)
See images of the work in progress on Flickr.com