Art Activism: Now as Then

Artist and activist Filip Noterdaeme sent out hundreds of flyers to protest the "absurdity of commerce infiltrating an art museum" in response to the Louis Vuitton store at the center of the

© MURAKAMI exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. The Louis Vuitton handbags are the result of a collaboration between Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and Louis Vuitton creative director, Marc Jacobs. Filip, the director of HoMu (the Homeless Museum of Art) added his own thumbprint, embedding the Brooklyn Museum's logo and the HOMU logo (in the form of a howling coyote) in the design of his flyers.

No word as to whether anyone actually walked into the store to demand their discount.

Shortly after I saw Filip's flyer I went to see the brilliant documentary on Louise Bourgeois called The Spider, The Mistress and The Tangerine . In it, their is an interview with the gorilla suited Guerrilla Girls, artists who began to protest in 1985 when the Museum of Modern Art in New York opened an exhibition titled "An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture." It was supposed to be an up-to-the minute summary of the most significant contemporary art in the world. Out of 169 artists, only 13 were women. All the artists were white, either from Europe or the US. See their hilarious poster (above) called The Advantages of Being a Women Artist.

Healing the Art World

Filip Noterdaeme, my art lecturer, who is also the artist, activist, educator and director of HoMu, the Homeless Museum of Art, took me for tea to Bouley Bakery in Tribeca this past Wednesday. We bought our coffees and our mini pastries (although we eyed those illegal Ispahans that Bouley still carries despite being accused of copying them from some other baker-genius) and were forced to go downstairs and take them in between a raw fish counter and a wine cellar. It was a most bizarre place.
Filip told me about his upcoming performance art project (although he assures me that this is not a performance, "I'm serious about it," he says): "I want to heal the art world one person at a time -- weather permitting."
Filip will take to the streets of Manhattan this Spring with his booth that resembles the one that Lucy uses in Charlie Brown. It is labeled "The Homeless Museum of Art -- The Director is IN" and indeed you will find Noterdaeme there to give counseling sessions to the willing.
Filip told me that he was at his least creative when he was doing yoga and therapy, but he didn't discount therapy the way Rilke does. He says it's about controlled madness. For more info go to www.homu.com