reproductions of the portraits of Gustav Klimt, Edvard Munch, Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh and Rembrandt, as well as works of contemporary art together in the Museum of Selfies of Los Angeles, Hollywood boulevard, a throne composed entirely of poles for selfie, a sports hall with magic mirrors, a bath in gold and a table with giant statues of sushi and broccoli. «It is a playground for adults,» says the Russian Kate Kutepova, director of this new establishment dedicated to the egoportraits or autophotos, as they say in Quebec.
visitors can take a selfie with broccoli giants. Mario Anzuoni/X90045
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«One day, critics will recognize selfies as an art in its own right, and collectors snap them home as arrays»
«You will come out with tons of great photos, but also a better understanding of the selfie», promise the co-founders of the museum, the american computer scientist Tommy Honton and comedian Armenian-Azerbaijani Tair Mamedov. The duo describes this museum as a place of creation, to 30 %. The rest of it? The attraction pure. The Luna Park of the selfie. «We had noticed that people were more interested in taking selfies with the art, rather than to watch it actually,» explains Honton. He only needed to see germinate the idea of this place of exposure, so symbolic of our time and his taste for narcissism.
According to its two creators, the selfies deserve the respect. «It is not only girls who make a duckface in a nightclub, explains Honton. The selfies can capture much more than a simple vanity.» Or even.
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«the relationship between The man and the art has changed,» says for its part Mamedov. Now, people do not want to simply be consumers silent, they want to be part of the item» It is also for him a way to study the new technologies which have changed the perceptions of the public. To examine the pure creation from a selfie of a macaque monkey, for example, causing a long court battle for the rights to the image between the owner of the camera and the animal advocates who have photographed the monkey.
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«The fine arts are a concept so complex!, exclaimed Tommy Honton. No matter the medium, everything can become a work of art One day, critics will recognize selfies as an art in its own right, and collectors snap at them like paintings.» A visionary, I tell you.
