Collection

Jimmie Durham’s installation was created in homage to the Spanish director and scriptwriter Luis Buñuel. It is a house with no walls or ceiling, full of oddities, handicrafts, and everyday objects. These objects include animal skulls, old books, tractor tyres, oil drums, a tree trunk and car parts, yet their significance is unclear. Durham conveys the surrealistic spirit of Buñuel’s early works by creating an enigmatic constellation of objects in a more folkish, rustic version of “a chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella”. The artist’s installation refers us to the concept of “global art”, i.e. art that originates in numerous modern local traditions, and replaces the former vision of universal contemporary art, often an instrument of cultural colonisation.