Museum of Which Working Class, 2009

Project and exhibition at the Museum of Art and Crafts Zagreb (MUO)

(Picture No 3 - Museum of Which Working Class at Museum Ludwig, Budapest 2011)

The name of the project at MUO - Museum of High Working Class derives from the very procedure by which it is effectuated. In order to carry out the procedure of classifying the Museum of Arts and Crafts, that is, to determine which working class this institution deserves, we made a voting slip containing five possible classes. At the top, of course, was the top class of 5 stars, something like the highest de luxe category of hotel, and at the bottom the catastrophic “none whatsoever” class with a single star. In the description of each class, the conditions of work, the pay scales and the degree to which labour laws are respected were stated.
On October 16, 2009, we held a ballot, all the employees of the museum being invited to vote. We gave them a ballot slip each, and proposed that they should give the institution in which they worked a mark, that is, an appropriate number of stars. This was a secret ballot, and the employees put their slips into the ballot box. 42 people were present at the voting. After the voting, in the presence of MUO representatives, we inspected all the slips. Of the total number, 9 were invalid. An inspection of the valid slips revealed the following situation:
5-star marking: Top Working Class Museum, 4 slips
4-star marking: High Working Class Museum, 13 slips
3-star marking: Middle Working Class Museum, 14 slips
2-star marking: Low Working Class Museum, 2 slips
1-star marking: No Working Class Museum, 0 slips
By calculating the average mark, 3.57, we obtained the final score – 4 stars. On the basis of this result, the Museum of Arts and Crafts was classified as
Museum of High Working Class

The piece MUO - High Working Class Museum, like the whole of the exhibition MUORTINIS 2009 is the result of a forced alternation of thesis – instead of the museum showing the artist, the artist exhibits the museum. Do we need, before we exhibit it, to define what the museum is, or is it better to exhibit it and thus encourage its redefinition?