The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at MSU will host the debut exhibition by Marc-Olivier Wahler, director of the museum, through Oct. 22. “The Transported Man” will feature more than 40 emerging artists whose work relies on the notion of belief.
This exhibit, which opened on April 29 is the biggest exhibition on view since the museum’s opening in 2012.
The exhibition title is inspired by a magic trick depicted in the novel “The Prestige” by Christopher Priest. “The Transported Man” exemplifies the three phases of a magic trick wherein a magician appears onstage (the Pledge), disappears through a door (the Turn) and reappears immediately from another door located a few yards away (the Prestige).
A table, an elephant, a bug zapper, a bar of soap, a mirror, a thunderclap, a cat, a vending machine and fireflies are some of the objects encountered at the exhibit.
“The Transported Man” will also feature a film by Georges Méliès from 1904 believed to have been lost. Titled “Match de Prestidigitation” (A Wager Between Two Magicians), this film has not been seen in more than 100 years and features Méliès himself as the protagonist. The film was recently recovered at the National Film Archive in Prague, arriving as part of an anonymous gift that included a reel with three films glued together.
“The Transported Man examines the power of interpretation and the systems of belief at stake when facing objects,” Wahler said. “How can they be transported between various states without being stuck in given categories?”.The exhibition also presents a fantastic opportunity to collaborate across disciplines with the resources of MSU to provide alternate access points to contemporary art. I believe this interdisciplinary approach is the cornerstone of how we think about the future of art museums.”
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