“Fiction enables us to grasp reality and at the same time that which is veiled by reality” – Marcel Broodthaers The Museum of Modern Art, Department of Eagles was created in 1968 by Marcel Broodthaers. It was opened as a semi-fictional institution, with Broodthaers taking the role of ‘museum director’ just months after he participated alongside fellow artists and students in the occupation of the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. A wave of demonstrations and occupations were happening across Europe and the World in 1968 due to the increase in social awareness of the population and the dissatisfaction towards the institutions and governmental policies that allowed events such as war, racial discrimination and the onslaught of global capitalism to happen. The occupation of the Palais des Beaux Arts symbolised a re-claiming of institutional space and a contestation of state authority in Brussels. For Broodthaers and others, the focus of dissent was the museum (the Palais). Broodthaers had deliberately taken up the role of ‘artist’ four years earlier (he had previously been working as a poet and writer), and through the ‘museological’ format he found a way to both critique the institution and form a space to experiment with his own artistic ideas. The Museum was initially opened in Broodthaers’ house and studio, and had no permanent location. The image of an eagle acted as the emblem of the Museum and its Department of Eagles. There were 11 subsequent sections that included prints, signage, photography, drawings and many artefacts which were shown in various exhibitions and locations. Arnolfini is presenting a selection of signage, door panels and photographic documentation from various sections of the Museum in Gallery 2, alongside Miroir d’Époche Regency (Regency Period Mirror), a large convex eagle mirror in Gallery 1.
Front cover: Miroir d’Époque Regency (Regency Period Mirror), 1973 Marcel Broodthaers Museum of Modern Art, Department of Eagles Collection S.M.A.K., Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent With special thanks to The Estate of Marcel Broodthaers
MARCEL BROODTHAERS MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, DEPARTMENT OF EAGLES