Dancing Rounds Soft Footedly: The Museum as a Place to Enthuse?

Has the museum really become the last place where people can be aware of sensual and instructive images, rather than merely promotional and distracting? It is perhaps time to re-evaluate, taking into account the modern trends of extending museums with book shops and bars; and of visitors who can only associate a Tutankhamen exhibition with Egyptian beer. The task of the museum in the 21st century should still be to enhance perception and encourage new opinions and hopefully triumph over the trite event-making machinery. Examples by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Renzo Piano, Herzog & de Meuron or Sejima and Nishizawa (SAANA) demonstrate the success of the modern museum. Particularly the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa (2000 – 2004) is an exceptional illustration of a museum for the new century. It is a museum entirely of glass, structured like a child’s toy. A circular plan contains a myriad of three dimensional rectangles of various sizes (the individual spaces) producing diverse visual axes and physical routes through the futuristic museum. It gives hope that revitalisation and enthusiasm may once more be achievable through art and architecture – simply put, through the museum.