Artist’s Choice: Herzog & de Meuron, Perception Restrained
When the MoMA invited us to contribute to the Artist’s Choice series in 2006, we knew right away that we would not foreground our own artistic preferences. The subject matter of our contribution would be the perception of art itself. Everyone knows that the holdings of the MoMA are unparalleled in quantity, quality and density. How can we possibly pick out the gems when we only have gems to choose from? The problem facing the museum is not a lack of first-rate art but rather a lack of perceptive attention on the part of museum visitors, despite the spectacular galleries in the new extension. The art is there, spread out in a panorama, professionally illuminated, impossible to overlook – but it is not seen. Our project is an attempt to offer a spatial alternative to the existing galleries for a limited period of time and in a limited space, a site of heightened concentration and density that will function like a kind of perception machine. By obstructing and putting pressure on perception, the viewing experience is intensified and becomes more enduring, more selective, and more individual.
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