London, March 2008

Antenna Audio produces the first audio guide by Extra-Terrestrials at the Martian Museum of Art!

Antenna Audio has produced the first audio guide commissioned by alien curators from the Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, presenting contemporary art as if shown in a fictional museum conceived by and designed for extraterrestrials. This ambitious, playful and irreverent exhibition transforms the Barbican Art Gallery into an imaginary museum, with a mission to interpret and understand contemporary art. It features around 200 works — primarily sculpture as well as mixed media, video, photography and works on paper — by over 100 established and emerging artists, from the 1960s until now, including Joseph Beuys, Barbara Hepworth, Damien Hirst, and Andy Warhol. The out-if-this-world audio guide accompanying Earthling visitors to the exhibition is narrated by Dr. Klaatu, the Director of the Martian Museum and Martian expert. The exhibition will run unteil May 18th, 2008.

The project is in part inspired by the first chapter of Kant after Duchamp by Belgian art historian Thierry de Duve, in which an imaginary anthropologist from outer space sets out to inventory ‘all that is called art by humans’. Since Martians do not have art as a defined category in their culture, they classify and interpret their chosen objects without the ‘knowledge’ we know as art history. Instead, they treat works of art as artefacts: objects which serve a function, whether real or symbolic. 

The Martian perspective opens up contemporary art to fresh interpretations. It allows for its reassessment from an alien standpoint, thus mimicking the way that Western anthropologists historically interpreted non-Western cultures through foreign eyes. Looking at contemporary art as though from outer space offers the potential to make the familiar strange and to the turn the dominant Euro-American art tradition into the ‘other’. It also raises pertinent questions about the use and value of contemporary art in human culture.

Adopting a pseudo-anthropological approach, Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art employs eccentric taxonomies and surprising juxtapositions. Arranged according to how they function or are used by humans, objects are classified within a framework of four broad categories: Kinship and Descent; Magic and Belief; Ritual; and Communication. Within these larger themes, objects are grouped in subcategories such as Ancestor Worship, Relics and Spirits, Ceremonial Objects, and Cultural Contact and arranged on plinths, in vitrines and on the wall. While interpretive labels and Dr. Klaatu’s commentaries on audio guide enhance accessibility, and serve further to explicate the Martian’s understanding of the role and purpose of contemporary art, they also reveal humorous misunderstandings about the objects on view.

For further information:
www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery  Public information: 0845 120 7550

About Antenna Audio

Antenna Audio (www.antennaaudio.com) is the world’s leading provider of audio and multimedia tours, and is an innovator in mobile and cultural interpretation, including podcasts, mobile phone tours and downloadable walking tours.  Each year, more than 20 million visitors in 20 countries, experience Antenna Audio's award-winning multi-lingual productions at 450 of the world's most famous, fascinating, and frequented museums, galleries and visitor attractions. Acquired in April 2006 by Discovery Communications, Inc., Antenna Audio is now part of the leading real-world media brand on all platforms. Antenna Audio offers its museum partners unprecedented access to Discovery's expansive archives, marketing channels, and distribution networks.  For more information on Discovery Communications, please visit www.discovery.com.