H O M E

André Malraux revisited

From the musée imaginaire to the virtual museumby

Antonio M. Battro

X World Congress Friends of Museums

Sydney, September 1999

Le musée imaginaire

Malraux in his celebrated book Le musée imaginaire developed the idea that the world of reproductionsforms a "museum without walls". This notion has a long tradition in the arts. Engravings of canvases ofgreat masters, plaster casts of famous sculptures, reduced models of architectures and other kinds ofreproductions have extended the much restricted realm of the original pieces. Some of the reproductionsbecame, in turn, genuine masterworks. Goethe used to invite his friends to visit his "private gallery" ofreproductions of the classical masters, many generations of sculptors have studied at the large collectionsof casts of the Academias.

In particular, the introduction in the last century of photography as a new art made a revolution in the oldfield of reproductions. A new industry developed with enormous success. From the old black and whitepostcards of the Alinari collection in Italy to postwar fabulous colours of the Skira editions in Switzerlandand the further advances in printing and editing, the museum without walls has opened to visitors of allcountries thousands of galleries and exhibitions. We can now add the films, videos and CD-roms thathave such a strong presence in contemporary art. But the best reproduction is never a substitution for theoriginal.

The limits of scale

We all know that size is an essential component of every piece of art. A sculpture can loose its originalcolour or even a whole fragment of matter and still continue to be a work of art. But the size, instead, isintrinsic to the object of art and cannot be manipulated without a deep transformation of its aestheticvalue. This is why some artists have experimented with changes of scale. The enlarged bronze of César'sthumb is a good example. And the change of scale becomes a major problem when a reduction of size isimposed by the reproduction itself. This is perhaps the greatest disadvantage of the imaginary museum.The book format, the poster size, the TV screen, the computer monitor. all of them impose a very strongrestriction to Malraux's dream as far as scale is concerned.

Only the advanced digital technologies known as "virtual reality" or VR can offer a way out to thedilemma of scale in the visual arts. In fact, with the aid of special instruments, goggles and helmets, theobserver can have a total immersion in a virtual space as compelling as the real one. The success ofaircraft or surgery simulators proves how well our brain processes virtual reality as an entirely new field

of productive activities and genuine perception. The same results should be expected in the arts.

The virtual museum

Nobody can deny that one of the greatest revolutions of this century has been the computer and thetelecommunication networks. Their impact in every aspect of our life is a matter of awe, fear oradmiration, depending on the circumstances. In the arts we have definitively entered into "the digital era".Most museums of art nowadays have a site on the world wide web, they are "published" on Internet. Themuseums have "opened their walls" to the great public - following Malraux's wish - to millions of visitorsthat can now enjoy the major works of art of the whole world at the tip of their fingers, on the monitor oftheir computer or on the enlarged screen of a digital projector. The digital technologies in the arts are stillin their first stages as creative tools but as far as the museums are concerned the use of Internet hasalready produced a profound change.

The museum on the web is a different kind of museum. It is certainly not a substitution of the realmuseum, it is a new museum! To attain the highest possible quality, a state-of-the art Virtual Museum, anew approach to Malraux's ideas about the Imaginary Museum should be carefully considered. Theproblem is not only to "digitise" everything that is worthy of publication on the web but to produce newcontents, to propose new activities, to explore new links within the arts.

And last but not least, some Internet pages of celebrated museums are also becoming works of art inthemselves. A new goddess is born in the Museum, the House of the Muses. Her virtual name is Dactylia,she is certainly a most dear and gentle muse.

Email: Antonio M. Battro