delirious-01 prelims.fm Page i Thursday, July 5, 2007 10:11 AM The Delirious Museum delirious-01 prelims.fm Page ii Thursday, July 5, 2007 10:11 AM ‘The Delirious Museum brilliantly explores the idea of the museum as a place of disorder, a space for wandering and dreaming, from Baudelaire to the surrealists, from the situationists to the Centre Pompidou, from Carlo Scarpa to Sir John Soane.’ Charles Saumarez Smith ‘Importantly, Calum Storrie’s delirious museum allows for the museum to be a critical force for change. The Delirious Museum is thus a valuable contribution to museological and architectural studies. It will also be of value to those interested in the history of exhibition design. Befitting Storrie’s passion for his subject, the twelve chapters of the book are well-researched, intriguing, and frequently entertaining.’ Janice Baker, Museum and Society ‘Besides the leaps in imagination that give intellectual form to The Delirious Museum, Storrie’s achievement is bringing all of the cultural references to the party. The reader is free to reacquaint themselves with a familiar crowd or find new associations. Like a well-designed show, Storrie’s book is inclusive and illuminating. His observations gleam with a rare authority.’ Richard Hubert Smith, Blueprint ‘I am very enthusiastic about this book. It puts forward a very interesting view of the idea of the museum. It is fresh and original, and written with verve.’ Mel Gooding ‘Storrie offers excellent value to the armchair traveller.’ Timothy Mason, Museums Journal delirious-01 prelims.fm Page iii Thursday, July 5, 2007 10:11 AM The Delirious Museum: A JOURNEY FROM THE LOUVRE TO LAS VEGAS Calum Storrie delirious-01 prelims.fm Page iv Thursday, July 5, 2007 10:11 AM Reprinted as paperback in 2007 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com In the United States of America and Canada distributed by Palgrave Macmillan a division of St. Martin’s Press 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 Reprinted in 2006 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd First published in 2006 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd Copyright © Calum Storrie 2006 The right of Calum Storrie to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978 1 84511 509 8 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available Typeset in Gill Sans by JCS Publishing Services, www.jcs-publishing.co.uk Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt Ltd Calum Storrie is supported by delirious-01 prelims.fm Page v Thursday, July 5, 2007 10:11 AM CONTENTS List of Illustrations vi Acknowledgements vii Introduction 1 1 The Louvre: An Absence 7 2 The Endless Museum: A ‘House of Dreams’ 16 3 Beneath the Museum, the Street 34 4 The Totalmuseum: Exhibitions/Experiments 44 5 This is a not Museum 64 6 From Soane to Soane 86 7 The Mausoleum: Where Death Ends 109 8 Carlo Scarpa: The Labyrinth in Time 129 9 The Spiral in Ruins 147 10 After the Wall: Studio Libeskind 168 11 Los Angeles: The Hidden Museum 185 12 Las Vegas: The Past Sure is Tense 198 Notes 217 Bibliography 231 Picture Credits 241 Index 242 delirious-01 prelims.fm Page vi Thursday, July 5, 2007 10:11 AM LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1 The Delirious Museum x 2 The door onto the Visconti Courtyard 10 3 The space vacated by ‘Mona Lisa’ in the Salon Carré 11 4 Bill Brandt, At Charlie Brown’s 17 5 Passage de l’Opéra 27 6 Guy Debord with Asger Jorn, Naked City 38 7 Marcel Duchamp, Boîte-en-valise, closed 55 8 Marcel Duchamp, Boîte-en-valise, open 56 9 Department of Art, the Delirious Museum 65 10 Chris Burden, Samson 67 11 John Soane, design for the monument to Mrs Soane 88 12 Stills from Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail 96 13 Section through the Soane Museum from west to east 104 14 Dulwich Picture Gallery mausoleum, prior to Second World War damage 125 15 Dulwich Picture Gallery mausoleum, showing bomb damage 126 16 Dulwich Picture Gallery, coffin of Noel Desenfans 127 17 Carlo Scarpa, Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo 135 18 Carlo Scarpa, Gypsoteca Canova, Possagno 138 19 Carlo Scarpa, Castelvecchio Museum, Verona 143 20 Jiři Kolář, Guggenheim Museum, crumplage 148 21 Le Corbusier, Museum of Unlimited Growth 151 22 James Stirling, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart 160 23 Studio Libeskind, Jewish Museum, Berlin 173 24 Studio Libeskind, Imperial War Museum North 179 25 The Museum of Jurassic Technology 192 26 Hacienda Avenue, Las Vegas 202 27 Rem Koolhaas, Guggenheim Hermitage Museum 214 28 Found photograph album on fence, Glasgow 216 delirious-01 prelims.fm Page vii Thursday, July 5, 2007 10:11 AM ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The work that formed the basis of this book was financed by the Martin Jones Award, administered by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. My thanks are due to the Martin Jones Awards assessors and the RIAS. Martin Jones himself was also a source of inspiration to me so I am grateful to him on two counts. In the early stages of my research my employers at the former British Museum Design Office under Margaret Hall granted me time off for travel and encouraged the project. The British Museum itself haunts this book. Chapter 6 is an amended version of an article originally published in the journal Inventory, vol. 2, no. 2. I would also like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council who funded research travel through Kingston University. Many individuals have helped during my work: Murray Grigor and Richard Murphy both impressed on me the importance of Scarpa’s Palazzo Abatellis; Leslie Dick was my host and guide on two visits to Los Angeles; David and Diana Wilson who generously invited me to stay in one of the trailers at the Museum of Jurassic Technology and who spent more hours than was reasonable discussing the museum with me; all the staff at the Museum of Jurassic Technology who were so patient with me during my stay; my old friend Jon Cairns proved to be an expert guide to the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart on which he worked with James Stirling; Danielle Olsen, formerly of the Wellcome Trust, who suggested I should visit the Grant Museum of Zoology; Marketa Uhlirova who undertook picture research at short notice and hunted down images that seemed to be beyond reach; Jessica Cuthbert-Smith who copy-edited the book so expertly; and my editor, Philippa Brewster at I.B.Tauris, whose patience has been exemplary. I extend my gratitude to all of these people. Other colleagues and friends have read versions of the manuscript: Mel Gooding has read more than one draft and has been a source of delirious-01 prelims.fm Page viii Thursday, July 5, 2007 10:11 AM VIII • T H E D E L I R I O U S M U S E U M great encouragement to me; John Reeve, Joe Kerr and Peter Wollen also made useful suggestions and moved the project forward. In addition I would like to thank Dinah Casson, Jill Hughes, Andrea Easey, Neil Cummings, James Putnam, Jude Simmons and Bob Wilkinson. Fred Scott probably was not aware that he was helping with this book, but talking to him and teaching with him informed much of my treatment of architecture. I would also like to thank everyone who over more years than I care to think has asked me how the book was progressing; I hope my elaborate excuses for missing my deadlines at least provided some entertainment. Lastly, I want to thank Caroline Evans and our children Caitlin and Ivo who have brightened every day on which I was engaged on this work, no matter how far away I was. Without Caroline’s skills as a reader and critic this book would not have existed. Her belief in both the project and in me has made The Delirious Museum possible. delirious-01 prelims.fm Page ix Thursday, July 5, 2007 10:11 AM For my father, NORMAN STORRIE and in memory of my mother, MARY delirious-01 prelims.fm Page x Thursday, July 5, 2007 10:11 AM 1. The Delirious Museum