Andreas Fraser created a project that is called “Information room” (1998) in which she installed the archive of Kunsthalle Bern. Usually public doesn’t have an access to this archive. In this case ,“Information room” became a project about transformation the material in order to explore the relationship “between the act of making information accessible to the public and the transfer as symbolic action”.
At the beginning, Kunsthalle Bern was supposed to work in collaboration with Fraser. Instead, Fraser delivered only the idea and the whole project was conducted by the institution.
Nevertheless, the idea was to ‘displace, into the public space of the gallery, all the information that had been collected by the institution’. Basically the director of Kunsthalle saw it as an attempt to “invert the selective, directed, institutionally sanctioned presentation of pre-digested information which such ‘information rooms’ and related educational projects tend to display”. Whereas Fraser was talking about “Information room” as a public process.
Andrea Fraser’s description:
The director agreed to my proposal and, as a first step, moved the archive of the institution into the gallery, arranging it in appealingly haphazard and sort of post-minimal cubes of archive boxes on wooden pallets on the gallery floor. These boxes sat there like that for a much longer period of time than I supposed they would. Right away, people began opening up the boxes and going through them, pulling things out, putting them back-or not. I was actually quite surprised that the institution did not make any particular provision for insuring that the materials were not taken out or even taken away. While I wouldn’t have asked the institution to do that it was, I think, quite good interpretation of the process which the concept was intended to initiate. The intention was certainly to disorganise and derationalise the information presented by the institution. After a few weeks it really became a big mess. It was great. Apparently, people spent quite a bit of time looking through the material there. I was told that there were a few people who even came back regularly, sitting down for hours at the table(which was also haphazardly placed in the gallery) looking through box after box.
The programme I developed for the information room included installing the entire archive and the entire library in the gallery, along with as many of the posters as would fit on the walls. The thick was that all the books and archive boxes were to be installed with their spines to the wall, so that the visitors would have access to the material, they would not be able to pre-select what they pulled from the shelves. Meanwhile, the posters would be installed behind the bookshelves, so one would only be able to see them taking out the books. I wanted to make a Cageian information room where all information would be available, but access to it would be rendered arbitrary, accidental. But this argument was also supposed to provide a bit of protection of the archive which was supposed to be installed on the higher shelves. However, it took, I think, four or five months for these shelves to be installed. Various trustees and former directors of the institution, who apparently had secrets hidden in some of those boxes and were concerned about liability, began to protest. I can say that it was all out of my hands. The Cageian information room turned into a Cageian project as well!!"
At the beginning, Kunsthalle Bern was supposed to work in collaboration with Fraser. Instead, Fraser delivered only the idea and the whole project was conducted by the institution.
Nevertheless, the idea was to ‘displace, into the public space of the gallery, all the information that had been collected by the institution’. Basically the director of Kunsthalle saw it as an attempt to “invert the selective, directed, institutionally sanctioned presentation of pre-digested information which such ‘information rooms’ and related educational projects tend to display”. Whereas Fraser was talking about “Information room” as a public process.
Andrea Fraser’s description:
The director agreed to my proposal and, as a first step, moved the archive of the institution into the gallery, arranging it in appealingly haphazard and sort of post-minimal cubes of archive boxes on wooden pallets on the gallery floor. These boxes sat there like that for a much longer period of time than I supposed they would. Right away, people began opening up the boxes and going through them, pulling things out, putting them back-or not. I was actually quite surprised that the institution did not make any particular provision for insuring that the materials were not taken out or even taken away. While I wouldn’t have asked the institution to do that it was, I think, quite good interpretation of the process which the concept was intended to initiate. The intention was certainly to disorganise and derationalise the information presented by the institution. After a few weeks it really became a big mess. It was great. Apparently, people spent quite a bit of time looking through the material there. I was told that there were a few people who even came back regularly, sitting down for hours at the table(which was also haphazardly placed in the gallery) looking through box after box.
The programme I developed for the information room included installing the entire archive and the entire library in the gallery, along with as many of the posters as would fit on the walls. The thick was that all the books and archive boxes were to be installed with their spines to the wall, so that the visitors would have access to the material, they would not be able to pre-select what they pulled from the shelves. Meanwhile, the posters would be installed behind the bookshelves, so one would only be able to see them taking out the books. I wanted to make a Cageian information room where all information would be available, but access to it would be rendered arbitrary, accidental. But this argument was also supposed to provide a bit of protection of the archive which was supposed to be installed on the higher shelves. However, it took, I think, four or five months for these shelves to be installed. Various trustees and former directors of the institution, who apparently had secrets hidden in some of those boxes and were concerned about liability, began to protest. I can say that it was all out of my hands. The Cageian information room turned into a Cageian project as well!!"
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