A PLACE IN THE MUSEUM

Similar to a butterfly that does not need a showcase, Art Brut can do without a museum. In contrast to the great number of works of contemporary art that have been conceived and made for this institution, Art Brut acts only on its own summons. It could be compared to a canary that does not look for its cage, a fish that cannot survive in the water of an aquarium. The sky towards which it flies or the sea in which it loses itself are a sufficient prison for it. When it chooses to be confined, its cases (the Palais idéal of facteur Cheval, the Watts Towers of Simon Rodia, the Maison Picassiette of Raymond Isidore, the laser sanctuary of Mr. G.) possess free air and the dimension of a crazy dream.
Such virtues are, of course, absent in today museums, too often forced to organize the gloomy transit of crowds equipped with audiophones in the direction of the museum store selling souvenirs. We should, however, beware of caricaturing. The exclusively mercantile system satisfies only those searching in the works for a little narcissistic thrill. It does not please those who expect from the museums something more than just the recognition of a déjà-vu by exhibiting the formated products. The professionals of culture are beginning to worry about what seems to degenerate into trivial leisure. This is the reason why the museums cannot do - and more and more so - without Art Brut.
Even if the fundamentalists of Art Brut plead for recovery, the parenthesis of negation caused by indifference has long been closed. Little by little Art Brut has won if not its own place - as it is eccentric by definition - then a place in the museum, perhaps waiting for a great international exhibition. abcd has a pragmatic attitude in respect to this new evolution. The exemple of Marcel Duchamp shows how well the provocations are digested by the museum. Even Dada, in the museum, has become a mummy and nothing proves that the vitriol of Art Brut would not become a syrup.
Nevertheless, Art Brut is subversive without willing to be so, as is - to do a pastiche of Lewis Carroll - "logic without effort." That is why we can trust its capacity to resist museological normalization. The protest of Dada, even if it seemed radically absurd, had as its backdrop the slaughter of the First World War. That of Art Brut is more ontological, to the extent to which it can be considered a protest. It will probably wear out some time too. The great icons of Art Brut will somehow end up in the pantheon of contemporary art but hopefully in the meantime Art Brut would keep its beneficial capacity to disturb.
The high places of Art Brut are certainly not the museums. It is Darger’s room, Wölfli’s cupboard, the bag in which Jules Leclercq put his tapestries and which he always carried along. But who would complain if the museums became more interesting ? As long as there is someone who will jump out in front of the inacceptable image of the small phallus decorating the naked belly of the Vivian girls, there is nothing to worry about as far as Art Brut is concerned. The millstone of blind admiration that weighs heavily on the museum visitors, would only become lighter for while.