People don’t read in museums.
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To be fair, Benjamin H. D. Buchloch didn’t aim this flip dismissal toward the general museum-going public at Sunday’s U.S. premiere of The Forgotten Space, Allan Sekula and Noël Burch’s documentary on the so-called containerization of global capitalism-at-sea. More precisely, his frustrated response was directed at the fact that Sekula, longtime photographer and documentarian of late capitalism, has yet to see a major exhibition of his work in a U.S. museum. Buchloh attributed this in part to the fact that well, yeah, people don’t read in museums and Sekula’s photographs are sometimes accompanied by long, didactic texts (i.e. they make actual, measurable demands of the viewer-reader’s time and intellect).
I won’t lie: sitting still in the Cooper Union auditorium for the film’s entire one-hundred-and-twelve minute run time (plus the attendant post-screening discussion with Buchloh, David Harvey, and Sekula, patched in via Skype) felt like nothing less than an actual, measurable demand of many things—mainly, the allergy attack that I actively battled for a good, solid ninety of those minutes.
Things that make demands—art, ideas, people—are hard to market, and Buchloh’s most obvious concern was that this film be seen at all, given Sekula’s demonstrated disdain for commercial culture. As Sekula noted his film’s rejection from the Sundance Film Festival, I leaned in toward my old friend Ben, a career academic and longtime writer on the artist’s work who regards my engagement with the Internet as a source of mild amusement. “I have the answer,” I whispered. “Tumblr.”
We locked eyes. His blues went blank. I was vindicated.
