In autumn 2004 the Museum of Art Lucerne launched a series of projects under the heading "Collection Lab" which marked the beginning of a new approach towards the museum's own collection. The high innovative factor of the programmatically entitled project is due to the fact that art historical, conservatorial and curatorial questions are presented as a process and made public, and thus is academic research as it is conducted in museums; more or less intensively but normally behind closed doors. Research now takes place inside the exhibition spaces and the public can participate in its progress, which is continually documented.

 

The first in the series"Collection Lab" was dedicated to American artist Paul Thek (1933-1988) who in the late sixties started to attract attention with his processoriented and sitespecific installations. Over a period of seven month the approximately seventy inventorised items that make up the work group by Paul Thek in the collection of the Museum of Art Lucerne were spread out and publicly displayed as well as matched, as far as possible, to the known work ensembles, such as"Dwarf Parade Table" or"Artist's Co-op"...more