MATTER(S) matter(s): Bridging Research in the Arts and Sciences

The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University Announces the Opening of MATTER(S) matter(s): Bridging Research in the Arts and Sciences, an Exhibition that Showcases the Work of MSU BRIDGE Artists-in-Residence

MATTER(S) matter(s): Bridging Research in the Arts and Sciences, on view from October 27, 2018–March 3, 2019 at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University (MSU Broad), is an exhibition that brings together new and recent projects by the artists- in-residence from the BRIDGE program at MSU. BRIDGE is a three-year-long initiative that connects international, cutting-edge artists with faculty, researchers, and students across campus. The artists and their collaborators have addressed a wide range of issues, and will present these findings at the MSU Broad as part of MATTER(S) matter(s). BRIDGE is a collaboration between MSU’s Department of
Art, Art History, and Design, College of Arts and Letters, Lyman Briggs College, Abrams
Planetarium, and the MSU Broad.

Featured artists include Art Orienté Objet (Marion Laval-Jeantet and Benoît Mangin), Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand, Tagny Duff, HeHe (Helen Evens and Heiko Hansen), Zbigniew Oksiuta, Kuai Shen, Stelarc, and Sissel Tolaas.

Today, the laboratory has extended beyond its container to encompass the entire planet, from genetic engineering to climate engineering. To generate awareness regarding the invisibility of the microscopic and the incomprehensibility of the macroscopic, the artists appropriate techno-scientific methods and give special attention to nonhuman entities and perspectives.

With their shared interests in materiality and topical issues—the dual “matters” invoked in the exhibition title—the artists in the exhibition thus reveal an “epistemological turn” in the arts and sciences, focusing on how knowledge is produced and how the process of production inflects meaning and interpretation. This major presentation highlights the incredible resources the university has to offer, and how artists and scientists work together to imagine the future, today.

Furthering Michigan State University’s mission to foster creative, interdisciplinary research— connecting seemingly distinct disciplines in innovative ways—MATTER(S) matter(s) exemplifies the ways in which the MSU Broad functions as a laboratory for the new and a space for experimentation across different fields of knowledge. For this exhibition, the artists have interacted with faculty members, researchers, and students in different fields across the university’s many colleges, including the physical and biological sciences, ecology, critical design, architecture, engineering, climate science, microbiome studies, artificial evolution, water quality research, epistemology, science and technology studies, and more.

A collaborative educational program will accompany the exhibition to further contribute to the cross-disciplinary approaches employed by the exhibiting artists. Opening weekend events include:

● Friday, October 26, 1–5pm: BRIDGE: An Art and Science Symposium
MSU Broad Art Lab (565 E Grand River Ave., East Lansing, MI 48823)
Participants from the BRIDGE Artist-in-Residence program and MSU faculty will discuss the materials and technologies that shapes our worldview at the MSU Broad Art Lab. This half- day symposium will provide insight into the exhibition opening that night, across the street at the museum.

● Friday, October 26, 6–8pm: MATTER(S) matter(s) Exhibition Opening
MSU Broad (547 E Circle Dr., East Lansing, MI 48824)
Celebrate the opening of the exhibition, which will span the entire second level of the museum. Visitors can interact with several of the artists, faculty, and curators, who will be on hand.

● Saturday, October 27, 1:30–3pm: The Intersection with Sissel Tolaas
Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (4454 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48201)
How can scent unlock histories long forgotten or expose futures to be created? Join Science Gallery Lab Detroit for a film screening and conversation between BRIDGE artist Sissel Tolaas and Gareth Doherty, assistant professor of landscape architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, as they uncover the layers of urbanity and dissect human influence on environments. The Intersection is a series developed in partnership with MOCAD, dedicated to navigating the connectivity of science and art.

MATTER(S) matter(s): Bridging Research in the Arts and Sciences is co-curated by Steven L. Bridges, Associate Curator, and Jens Hauser, Guest Curator and MSU Distinguished Affiliated Faculty. Support for this exhibition is provided by the MSU College of Arts and Letters; MSU BRIDGE Artist-in-Residency Program, directed by Adam Brown, Associate Professor; Science Gallery Lab Detroit; Goethe-Institut Chicago; and the Eli and Edythe Broad endowed exhibitions fund.

Steven L. Bridges is Associate Curator at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University. Most recently, Bridges co-curated the major exhibitions Michel Parmentier and Michigan Stories: Mike Kelley and Jim Shaw. Previously, Bridges was the Curatorial Assistant at the MCA Chicago, where he curated solo exhibitions of the work of artists Faheem Majeed and Jason Lazarus. He also assisted the major retrospective exhibition of the work of Doris Salcedo, which traveled to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Pérez Art Museum Miami. From 2011–15, Bridges co-curated the annual Rapid Pulse International Performance Art Festival in Chicago. His essays and articles have been published in numerous journals and in exhibition catalogues and other online and print media. In 2017 he was named a curatorial fellow of the FACE Foundation.

Jens Hauser is a Paris and Copenhagen-based art curator and writer. As a media studies scholar, he is focusing on the interactions between art and technology. Besides his role as a distinguished affiliated faculty member of MSU’s Department of Art, Art History, and Design, he holds a dual research position at both the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies and Medical Museion/Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. His curated exhibitions include L’Art Biotech (Nantes, 2003), Still, Living (Perth, 2007), sk-interfaces (Liverpool, 2008/Luxembourg, 2009), the Article Biennale (Stavanger, 2008), Transbiotics (Riga, 2010), Fingerprints… (Berlin, 2011/Munich, 2012), synth-ethic (Vienna, 2011), assemble | standard | minimal (Berlin, 2015), and Wetware (LA, 2016). Hauser is also a founding collaborator of the European culture channel ARTE and has produced numerous reportages and radio features.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum (MSU Broad) opened on November 10, 2012, on the Michigan State University campus. The dynamic 46,000-square-foot museum serves as both a teaching laboratory and a cultural gateway for East Lansing and the region. The MSU Broad conducts a program of original and traveling exhibitions, initiatives with living artists, performances, and educational offerings for students, faculty, and the community make the museum a center for questioning and understanding the modern world. With a collection containing 7,500 objects, The MSU Broad is uniquely able to contextualize the wide range of contemporary art practices within a firm historical context.

Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 150 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

Image: HeHe, Green Desert, 2018. Courtesy the artists.

Media Contact:
Madeline Rosemurgy Communications Coordinator, MSU Broad
(517) 884-0659
rosemur2@msu.edu
broadmuseum.msu.edu

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