ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art, 09|17|2011 – 02|05|2012
 
Mirza/Butler
Karen Mirza, * 1969 (UK), Brad Butler, * 1973 (UK), work and live in London (UK)

Artist Statement

Our collaboration shifts across critical thought and direct action. In our art practice we site these “languages of resistance” within The Museum of non Participation, a concept that speaks about both the boundaries of art institutions and the sets of social relations of an artistic practice. This we describe as a process of self-decolonization, focusing a critical view not only on the institution of art but also on wider social and political realms of cultural hegemony. Thus as part of our fictional museum we have been thinking through “what a possible collection might be” for a Museum of non Participation: a museum interested in the archiving and production of gesture and action, a collecting of people around an action so that both the action and the gesture are what the museum collects.


The Museum of Non Participation

The Museum of Non Participation, 2008
courtesy Mirza/Butler