Dockers' Museum, 2010
Installation, variable dimensions.
Photo: MHKA
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. BRAS_08).
The Dockers’ Museum is a collection of minor artefacts that create an understanding of how the fundamental position of seafarers and port workers can be thought. They live between land and sea, one location and the whole world. This is also a prime example of Sekula’s ‘thinking-together’; objects, images and documents – and his critical ‘thinking together’ with viewers. M HKA owns the objects, Allan Sekula the thinking. These collected «objects of interest» are not to be understood as artworks, but they contextualize Sekula’s photography, while these in turn contextualize Sekula’s ongoing activity of collecting these items. Sekula finds his «objects of interest» at online auction houses, contrasting the mystical «speed of light» of the Internet with the slow movement of cargo, of which 90 per cent is moved by sea.
'In a certain way the key factor of the museum is the sarceness, or its limits, that's the critical element, it is lapidary quality and the specificity of that lapidarity' - Allan Sekula, 2011
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Media
>'Objects of Interest', Elements from Allan Sekula, The Dockers Museum (2010-2013) Dock-Worker Cup (Portugal) Burlap Bags of Unroasted Coffee (Santos) [title given by Allan Sekula], ceramics and burlap bags with coffe beans, producers and production dates unknown (probably circa 2010), cup: 11 x 8 x 7 cm, 7 bags: 18 x 10 x 5 cm. Purchased by Allan Sekula through eBay on 29 March 2010 (cup) and 30 April 2010 (bags).
>Elements from Allan Sekula, The Dockers Museum (2010-2013), exhibition view, Museum in Motion, 2022, M HKA
>Elements from Allan Sekula's, The Dockers Museum: atomic bomb section + diamond section (2010-2013), exhibition view, Museum in Motion, 2022, M HKA
Artist
> Allan Sekula.
Exhibitions & Ensembles
> Exhibition: The Dockers' Museum. La Criée Centre d’Art Contemporain de Rennes, Rennes, 06 April 2012 - 20 May 2012.
> Exhibition: The collection XXXIII – The Collection as a Character. M HKA, Antwerpen, 07 June 2013 - 22 September 2013.
> Exhibition: 29th Bienal de Sao Paulo - There is always a cup of sea to sail in . Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, Parque Ibirapuera - Portão 3 - Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo, Sao Paulo, 25 September 2010 - 12 December 2010.
> Exhibition: Allan Sekula – Ship of Fools. Fotomuseum, Antwerpen, 28 May 2010 - 05 September 2010.
> Exhibition: Ship of Fools. Stills - Scotland's Centre for Photography , Edinburgh, 21 January 2012 - 18 March 2012.
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> Exhibition: Museum in Motion - Allan Sekula. M HKA, Antwerp, 16 September 2022 - 08 January 2023.
> Exhibition: Museum in Motion. M HKA, Antwerp, 16 September 2022 - 08 January 2023.
> Ensemble: ALLAN SEKULA.
> Ensemble: NUCLEUS.
Related Items
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>Mutiny (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 46).Print, sticker.
>Commemorative Medaillon (Antwerp) (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 36).Object, metal, Ø 8 cm.
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>Constantin Meunier, From the Sculpture by Constantin Meunier, An Antwerp dock-hand (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 11).Print, ink, paper, 24,8 x 17,5 cm.
>Unknown, "Antwerp Europe's Fastest Ship Port" Advert (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 20), 1955.Print, ink, paper, 207 x 305 mm.
>Gerard Gaudaen, Ex-libris print of baby being deliverd on the docks (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 9), 1980.Print, ink, paper, 22 x 10,7 cm.
>Unknown, Santos Harbour (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 34), 1891.Print, ink, paper, 18 x 26,9 cm.
>Frans Masereel, Untitled (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 16), 1930.Print, ink, paper, 25,4 x 20 cm.
>Unknown, Untitled (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 5), 1998.Object, chalkware (painted plastic), each 21,7 x 14,4 x 7,6 cm.
>Unknown, Navy Patch (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 7).Object, textile, 7.1 x 5.4 cm.
>Unknown, Antwerp House of the Hansa (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 12), 1930.Print, ink, paper, 9 x 13,8 cm.
>Unknown, Chinese Coolies Coaling Steamer Ship in Hong Kong (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 33), 1878-1885.Print, ink, paper, 35,8 x 49 cm.
>Unknown, Sea lion in the Antwerp Zoo (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 13).Print, ink, paper, 9 x 14 cm.
>Loading Bananas on Ship in Harbor, Santos, Brazil (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 4), 1892-1933.Photography, ink, paper, 8.7 x 17.4 cm.
>Fan for container ship model.Object, plastic, electric motor, 18.5 x 24 x 11 cm.
>"Wooden Ship Model, Electric Fan, and Flags of Convenience" (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 37), 2010.Object, mixed media, variable dimensions.
>Unknown, Bobblehead Dockworker (Designed California, Manufactured China) (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 35).Object, plastic, 2 x (18 x 8 x 6 cm).
>Unknown, Dock-Worker Cup (Portugal), Burlap Bags of Unroasted Coffee (Santos) (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 38).Object, sackcloth, coffee beans, ceramics, 7 x (18 x 10 x 5 cm), 11 x 8 x 7 cm.
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>Unknown, Loading Coffee, Santos (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 30).Print, ink, paper, 8,8 x 13,8 cm.
>"N"Scale Handmade Container Ship Model (27 L").Object.
>Postage Stamp of the Twentieth Universal Esperanto Congress, Antwerp (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 32), 1928.Print, ink, paper, 4,8 x 3,2 cm.
>Unknown, Les bassins d'Anvers avant l'agrandissement (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 31), 1877.Print, ink, paper, 24 x 20 cm.
>Pelé Signed Football (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 42).Object, leather, Ø 22 cm.
>Unknown, Two Items from the Same Seller (Australia) (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 43).Object, wood, metal, 11 x 8 x 7 cm and 18 x 10 x 5 cm.
>Ceramic Dockworker Bookends (Quimper) and Faux-Books Dia-Positive File Boxes (Germany) (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 44).Object, faience de quimper, 19,5 x 17,7 x 10,7 cm and 22,7 x 21,5 x 5,6 cm.
>Unknown, Chiropractor's Life-Size Model of a Human Vertebrae (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 41).Object, plastic, 82.5 x 32.5 x 25 cm.
>Constantin Meunier, Débardeur du port d'Anvers (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 40), 1890.Object, bronze, 48.5 x 18 x 22 cm.
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>Albrecht Dürer Sketching the Panorama of Antwerp in 1520 (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 1), 1874.Print, ink, paper, 40.1 x 52.1 cm.
>Chains and Slavery, Antwerp (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 2), 1877.Print, ink, paper, 29,4 x 39,9 cm.
>Mermaid Honeymoon (The Frenzi of Ferenczi) (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 45).Print, sticker.
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>WARNING. I'm the longshoreman your mother warned you about (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 8).Print, ink, paper, 20,3 x 30,6 cm.
>Old Hansa House of Antwerp (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 3).Print, ink, paper, 31,3 x 38,1 cm.
>Unknown, [Homer] Van Pelt, Production Still of the Film-Musical "The Thrill of Brazil" (1946) (The Dockers' Museum, object nr. 10), 1946.Print, ink, paper, 20,5 x 25,5 cm.