MONA

Our first stop on Australian land was Hobart, in Tasmania. Our timing was quite good it seems, as the city came alive this weekend for the MOFO festival of the Museum of Old and new Art (known as MONA). My day started with two meditation sessions to the sound of live experimental music, followed by a visit to the actual museum.

Do you see the word "Flat"?

While the meditations were enchanting, I was just plain impressed with the actual museum. I can say without a doubt that it is among the best museums I had a chance to visit. This museum is privately owned and it really showed. Some of the themes are tackled in a very novel way I have yet to see anywhere else. And I’m really not sure some of the displays could ever make it to a state funded museum, as they were very provoking.

Among the pieces that really made an impression on me was a statue made of discarded fabric representing a woman in labor. Somehow the creator has managed to really make the pain and the effort come alive. There was also the tiny carpet made out of a kitty fur. I’m used to seeing bears made into rugs, but there was just something boggling about a kitty made into a carpet, complete with head.

Then there was the fat car. A nice red sporty Ferrari, redone with many love handles. While it was strange to see a Ferrari this way, the car was quite cute and reminded me of cartoons.

There was also two handles you could hold on to in order to light a bulb to the rhythm of your heartbeat. You then walked in another room with countless light bulbs that pulsated to previous visitor’s heartbeat.

There was another exhibit that illustrated war, slavery and invasion in a fairytale sort of way. An army of wasps stood suspended in the action of launching an attack on a possum at the command of a fairy contingent. The piece was enchanting in a way.

Another piece that really spoke to me was a room full of lazy boy facing individual television sets which replayed over and over the same message. This particular piece evoked two idea in my mind : the brainwashing and manipulation of populations through different medias and how people are somehow linked to each other on their side of the monitor. 

Then there was the room fulled of blank book. This speaks for itself.

The last exhibit that made an impression on me was the Ash Buddha. A statue of Buddha entirely made out of incense ash. The statue degrades with time, when I saw it the head was gone and the shoulders had started to crumble.

In the end though, I think that what I liked the most about this museum is the fact that explanations were very rare. As I walked along the labyrinth that is the museum, I actually had to think about what the concept behind each exhibit might be.