I have a crush on a building

I visited the new MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) Denver building for the first time last night. I loved it! It’s small enough that it’s manageable, but has wonderful details such as the rooftop café and viewing deck and the gorgeous wood-paneled library. Galleries are relatively intimate spaces for contemporary art, which is nice to see. Designed by David Adjaye, it’s exactly the type of building where I would like to show my art if I were an exhibiting artist. You must visit when you come to Denver.

The downside was a video installation titled Legend by Candice Breitz. It consisted of 30 screens of Jamaicans singing Bob Marley tunes a cappella. By itself, it was great fun to watch (I LOVE Bob Marley and these folks were having a blast with the songs). I honestly could have watched all 63 minutes of it if it weren’t for the volume. It was loud. Extra extra loud. You could hear it in every gallery and couldn’t stay in the room with it very long for fear of blowing out your eardrums. I felt it distracted not just from Breitz’s installation, but from the rest of the museum experience.

I was disappointed that more people weren’t in the galleries. Granted, it was 3 in the afternoon on a Tuesday, but the building just opened. Maybe everyone was at home in bed–recovering from Rockies fever.

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3 thoughts on “I have a crush on a building”

  1. I agree – nice building When I was there for the preview last week a few of the artists had a hard time speaking due the distraction from the loud music that echoes throughout the museum.

  2. Alyson B. Stanfield

    Lisa: Don’t you wonder what the thinking is behind that? If the artist demanded that it must be heard and understood on all three floors? It’s really a bummer. I don’t recall reading about this in the paper reviews, but I’m going to go back and see if anyone mentioned it.

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