By
Moderna galerija, Tomšičeva 14, SI-1000, Ljubljana, http://www.mg-lj.si
Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Placa dels Angels, 1-08001 Barcelona, http://www.macba.es
Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Stratumsedijk 2, 5600 AE Eindhoven, http://www.vanabbemuseum.nl
Július Koller Society, Pribinova 25, SK-811 02, Bratislava, http://www.sjk.sk


L'Internationale is a new, long-term collaboration between four European museums and archives. The intention of this transinstitutional organisation is to use the collections and archives of the various organisations collectively to challenge the usual master narratives of art and investigate local to local comparisons and differences. In place of the global, hegemonic ambitions of the largest contemporary art institutions, L'internationale proposes collaboration between museums, each with its specific collection focus and history, as a way to instigate transnational, cultural narratives in plural.

The founding partners of L'Internationale are the Moderna galerija, Ljubljana; the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona; the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and the Július Koller Society, Bratislava. Each institution has shown through previous projects that they are repeatedly concerned to negotiate different forms of local knowledge and experience with the central art historical narrative written in one or two western political/economic capitals. This initiative will enable us more effectively to connect our own stories together in new rhizomatic ways and to reconsider internationalism and translocalism as more sensitive measures of art and its relation to society.

The concrete aims of L'Internationale are to develop common platforms and methodologies for presentation, education and research dealing with the full range of museological fields including collections, archives, publications, public mediation and conservation. The plan anticipates a long term cooperation that will concentrate on replacing the institutional spectacle with a sense of persistent presence and would offer our publics regular connections between each specific context.

At the press conference in Venice the representatives of the four partner organisations will introduce more about the background and plans of the project, including announcing the formats, subject and methodology of first, ambitious transinstitutional projects in 2010-11.