Boite en Valise
Marcel Duchamp
The idea of a gallery in a suitcase is not a new one, as evidenced by Marcel Duchamp’s Box in a Suitcase (1935-1940), a portable miniature monograph including sixty-nine reproductions of the artist’s own work. Over the last few weeks, I have been working on a boite en valise of my own, based on an interpretation of a passage from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. While the initial idea was to curate a series of discrete objects into a box that represents the city; my background in art, with a strong penchant toward visual media has taken over, and it is morphing into more of a diorama (just much less figurative). Though really, who doesn’t love a good diorama?
But suddenly these curious cabinets are turning up everywhere! Just last week, at the White Box gallery in Portland, there appeared some fantastic shipping crates carefully designed to unfold in marvelous ways. The traveling exhibit is called 4 Salvaged Boxes, designed by wHY Architecture, from materials salvaged during the construction of the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Upon opening, the boxes unfold to reveal their contents, materials and information about sustainable design.
wHY Architecture