Simon Dybbroe Møller

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Playing this kind of game can be fun, but I don’t think Møller thought it essential. What is truly ingenious about BRAIN is the way it fits perfectly within its location. The transparent walls match the glass walls of the gallery, effectively collapsing the public space outside the gallery into the interior exhibition space. Formally this speaks to the supposed opacity of contemporary art—Møller’s made his entire exhibition visible, down to the screws that hold up his scattered items. Metaphorically we might say that it demonstrates the porous nature of memory: the artist’s mind is on display for all to see, without clear definitions of inside and outside. Møller’s piece works because it does not ­wholly rely upon foreknowledge of its concept; seeing the work as an allegory of the artist’s mind is one way of experiencing the installation, but ­experiencing it without any prior knowledge is a visual experience just as meaningful. That, I’d argue, is the point, and it succeeds wonderfully.   

[Originally published in December, 2010.]