THE UPSIDE-DOWN MUSEUM

In defiant response to the mechanisms, habits, and status of the museum, artist Aldo Giannotti''s concepts and props, initially conceived in sketchbooks, transform into tangible institutional realities, reshaping the museum''s social and spatial arch
itecture and sometimes literally breaking its walls. This realignment establishes accountability, on the spot and without holding back, to meet real needs. Through dialogue with the museum staff, guards, and visitors, Giannotti develops an inclusive
engagement with the institution and its underlying purpose. This is a practice-based institutional critique based in ongoing, in-person practice, working up from the actual floor. This book surveys numerous cases and obstacles that threaten the susta
inability of long-standing habits in high culture. It emphasizes working on the ground rather than from office spaces, focusing on accountability in the very spaces where the museum functions. It presents a challenge to the art world, offers insight
to those who passively endorse the existing order of public art, and serves as a mediator between current art workers and outdated art systems.