Michael Darling: Head Curator of Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art
Interview by Paul Klein and Art Letter (published with permission)
Michael Darling - Head Curator, MCA Chicago
On the job just a month, Michael Darling is the new Head Curator of Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. Chosen by Director Madeleine Grynsztejn, Darling's appointment confirms the museum's shifted direction since Grynsztejn's arrival. What used to be a "We'll bring art to the Hinterlands attitude," has bloomed into a "We respect what's going on here; let's have a dialog" mentality. Look for it as you read the interview.
Paul Klein: Let's start with the basics. What is a curator?
Michael Darling: I think it's somebody that is, in a way, a filter for the public. It's somebody that's out there, looking at art constantly, seeing art from all periods, all areas, and is hopefully sifting through it, looking for the most exciting, most relevant material, and then bringing that to the public - usually in the form of a museum, or a gallery or, I suppose more and more, online in some way. But I think it would be that - almost an "editor" of all this material out there in the world.
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HE name of this exhibit is, “Innocence is Questionable,” about which, the brochure says, “Ultimately, what each of these artists question is whether or not the folly of the world is the responsibility of man?”
“The Secret Life of Salvador Dali,” published in 1942 against the backdrop of spectacular world events including World War II, the Sino-Japanese War, the Wannsee conference in Berlin which opened the doors to the Holocaust - to name but a few, Dali wrote a manifesto of sorts aptly entitled “My Battle” which wasn’t fought with the Allies against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan but was fought against conformity in any spiritual, philosophical or aesthetic form. It was one man’s fight against the Nine Muses or any Muse for that matter that threatened to level the battle field to a match nul.
Somewhere in the annals of the Art as Authority archives, I remember having written that surrealist moments occur on a regular basis in our daily lives and go for the most part unnoticed, if you're not on the lookout for them. It's not so much that they happen, it is more important to recognize them when they do. This is part of the fun and the surprise. Case in point: the form letter from the Yellow Pages that I received the other day in the mail asking me to list my company name in their yellow book. 
It seems to me “Breaking News” to interrupt our favorite TV show or clutter the banner on our default homepage should be changed to something like “Instant News” or “Flash News” as it appears nothing is breaking anymore as much as disseminated in the time it takes you to do a Google search on that very same headline news. Sliced, diced and packaged in easy to understand sound bytes from news agencies from around the globe to the personal blog and back out again, the news du jour will be emblazoned with personal commentary and opinion – it’s really that fast. I’d hazard a guess and say anything newsworthy over several hours from being announced is considered old news and probably completely dead after 24. So, if there is any solace to be gained at least on my part, it would be not worrying about breaking news since it has already been broken to the masses – my happiness comes from sifting through the debris.
As summer is fast approaching, beaches being blanketed bodies (alive, hopefully!) car windows zapped down, more people outdoors, I am talking about 
Television space is fishbowl space. There's a world going on in there: that exclamation might be made by a child-person looking, from out of the large world he/she is in, into the small world behind either the aquarium-glass or the TV-screen. In the case of the TV, the world is on something, on-screen, not (as in the case of the aquarium) in something, in the bowl; but, unlike movies, the TV screen isn't all, there's something behind it, something underneath it all - the TV tube lies behind the screen. We know that the screen is only the facade of the box; even now that the screen can be drastically reduced in size - as in the two-inch "
For the film, Art School Confidential, you don't need a Picasso to decipher my blog title. Artists "under 60" should steer clear of movie theaters showing this current film. And if you didn't read this blog warning first, (before reaching into your billfold for movie money and viewing this sick but very real film about the artworld) you might want to change your life course. The movie does tell it like it is, but barely. I would like to know where Malkovich (or better, Clowes) got the statistic that "only one out of a hundred make a living as an artist". Try one out of two hundred or so, maybe. This movie is very cheesy with a lot of really stupid stereotypical students at a New York art school and very corny punchlines. The 3 male roommates, the "big headed" wanna be film maker, the fashion design student who FINALLY! realizes he is gay--come on, gimme a break! And lastly, the very naive and forlorn main character of the movie, Jerome, who is majoring in drawing and painting and wants to be "the best artist of the 21st century"! Where was his brain at? I wonder just how many art students out there think they could be the greatest? You really MUST have talent, know the right people (connections), be in the right place/city at the right time... and PRAY. OR you can do what Jerome did....STEAL (and I'm NOT telling you what, just in case you might have nothing else better to do than to see this film), end up in jail for a crime he didn't commit and then, because of all the publicity, becoming a celeb in the art world. So, is the moral of the film to "create a BIG stir" (does shock have value?) to get "known" or must we all hang up our brushes??? woof woof.
Video installation is the conjunction of opposites (or, to put it another way: video installation is like having your cake and eating it, too). On the one hand, "installation" places an art-work in a specific site, for a specific time ( a specific duration and also, possibly a specific historic time). On the other hand, "video" (with its consequences followed through: video broadcast on television) is placeless: at least, its place can't be determined --- there's no way of knowing the particular look of all those millions of homes that receive the TV broadcast.
Some facts for your viewing pleasure: This was a gallery invitation to an opening that I created, albeit a FAKE one, that I printed and (e)mailed to a number of galleries, newspapers, art magazines and critics in Belgium and abroad. Soustraction in French means subtraction and the asbl that follows the gallery's name stands for Association Sans But Lucratif - or what we call here in the States, Non-for-profit. The cast of characters listed on the invitation were all recognized artists, patrons of the arts or Ministers of Education and Culture. They were obviously known and respected public figures in Belgium, and perhaps a little less so in other parts of the world. Didier Vermeiren was and still is, a Belgian artist/sculptor. Viviane Reding was a member of the European Commission in charge of Education and Culture. S.E. Jean-Jaques Kasel was the Ambassador to Luxembourg. Corrine De Parmentier was the Mayor of Forest, an affluent neighborhood outside of Brussels. And finally, Claude Lorent was a critic for Le Palais des Beaux-arts magazine and La Libre Belgique newspaper.
