Artists Imitating Museums

Why would artists pretend to be a museum? When artists and activists open thematic museums, they do more than copying their surfaces and procedures. They rely on audiences that have learned what museums are: cognitive infrastructures that guide categorization and memorization. Bernhard Garnicnig argues that artists imitate institutional forms to move beyond self-organization, institutional critique, and the limits of having their work categorized as art. Drawing on anthropology, art history, and political theory alongside close readings of projects such as The Natural History Museum and The Museum of Capitalism, the study reveals that artists adopting institutional forms join the ongoing struggle over the making of truths in an era of proliferating organizations claiming institutional status.