<nettime> The Ontological Museum Project

[Cecil Touchon <touchon@sprynet.com>]

Hi Brian and all,

    I have been lurking here for some time and thought I would respond to your cry... 
    The internet remains for me a great tool especially for conceptualization and projecting ideas into my slice of the art world. As some of you know I am the founder of the Ontological Museum (OM) of the International Post-Dogmatist Group ( http://ontologicalmuseum.org ) and its most active wing; the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction (IMCAC) ( http://collagemuseum.com ).
    The OM was founded in 1996 as a kind of alternative to typical art museums whose collections have been established according to the whim of wealthy collectors whose primary interest - it seems to me - is in wealth building. I wanted to attempt something more akin to a scientific specimen gathering museum that is not based on the collector market - where most museum art comes from - but rather by asking contemporary artists to donate works to the museum with an open arms attitude. I established an listserv for the museum in 1998 which, at this time has some 1,300 collage artist participants ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/collage/ ).
    The most successful project so far has been a mail art exchange among collage artists called the Baker's Dozen International Collage Exchange. Well over 10,000 collages have been exchanged through this project and the Museum is approaching 1,000 works of art collected into its permanent collection; many have come in through this exchange and many through direct contributions of artists from around the world. ( http://collagemuseum.com/collage-exchange-index.html )
    Where Duchamp gathered his assemblage into a valise and Cornell gathered his materials into a shadow box, the OM shall gather its assembled parts into a museum as the ultimate framing device. The OM will then attempt to promote its gathered and growing collection of art and other intellectual property as all museums promote their collections; through publications, reproductions, exhibitions, scholarly monographs, etc. All of this done so far through the use of the internet as the primary social environment and communicating vessel working to promote cooperation and communication among artists from many cultures world wide as suggested in the following post-dogmatist statement...

"The International Post-Dogmatist Group has been founded to advance creative endeavor in all of its multifarious expressions, to encourage freedom of creative experiment and diversity of perspective, to foster tolerance and understanding among creative persons of all nations, to provide a context for interaction and association, to honor and acknowledge all those who, whether known or unknown, have worked to encourage and nurture the creative unfoldment of the human spirit and to overcome the oppression of ignorance and fear."

    I am now in the process of working toward the museum becoming a non-profit, finding funding and finding its own permanent space which I envision as a museum complex that incorporates enough dynamic elements to become self sustaining without a heavy reliance on wealthy patrons. The museum has been set up to operate on a shoe string thus far but the need for funding is starting to become important.
    Well, I just though I would give a synopsis of what my main internet project has been the last 10 years and certainly shall be for the next 10. I do this in conjunction with my personal career as an artist and poet. ( http://cecil.touchon.com )

Would love to hear from others and would expecially love to receive any materials for the museum. Here's a page showing some of what we have an interest in:
http://collagemuseum.com/exhibitions.html 

Best Regards,
Cecil Touchon, Director
The Ontological Museum
6955 Pinon Street
Fort Worth, Texas 76116
http://ontologicalmuseum.org
&
Casa del Artista
Inn and Exhibition Space
307 Calle de las Piedras
Cuernavaca, Morelos Mexico 62270
http://casadelartista.com

Brian Holmes wrote:

>...
>Calling all lurkers! In Montreal and elsewhere.
>
>best, Brian
>


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