【聯合報／By DONALD OSBORNE／李京倫譯）】
Car Culture Claims a Place in Museums
Given all the reports of a groundswell of disdain for car culture among young people, it may seem that the motor vehicle is entering its twilight.
But instead of being relegated to dark corners as curious relics, cars are being celebrated around the world. In recent years, new museums dedicated to the car have opened, others have spent millions on renovations , and institutions once limited to displays of fine art have discovered the popular appeal of metal, rubber and chrome.
The Museo Naziona le dell’Automobile in Turin, Italy, completed a four-year, $40 million expansion in 2011 that could well be the archetype for the modern automotive museum.
The museum’s historical survey goes from a full-scale model of the “car” designed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1478 to the latest alternative fuel vehicles. Dioramas alternate with touch-screen displays, kiosks, an entire home interior made of auto components, an amusement park-type ride through an auto assembly line and more.
In Mulhouse, France, the Cité de l’Automobile, National Museum Collection Schlumpf was comprehensively reimagined in 2006 . More than 400 rare Bugattis and other exotic cars, collected by the textile industrialists Hans and Fritz Schlumpf, are displayed on polished floors or plinths with bold graphics behind them. There is also a restaurant and a small racetrack.
The trend for the display of vehicles in traditional fine art museums has to be considered a factor driving th e change in approach. The highly successful “Art of the Motorcycle” exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1998, which featured more than 100 motorcycles in a display designed by Frank Gehry, served notice that art museums could create new ways to appreciate the motor vehicle.
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts followed up with its 2005 show, “Speed, Style and Beauty: Cars of the Ralph Lauren Collection.”
“The opportunity to view a vintage automobile for its engineering and sculptural beauty is an intriguing experience,” said Peter Mullin, chairman of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Car exhibitions at American fine art museums like the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, Tennessee and the Phoenix Art Museum draw record crowds, he said.
But art museums did not influence the design of the new, imposing canal-side building, designed by Michael Graves, that the Netherlands’ Louwman car museum has occupied in The Hague since 2010.
“We did not look at them in our planning, because they are based on who the artist was, not why he made the picture,” said the owner, Evert Louwman. “That story — the love around why a car was made — is key to the message of a car museum.”
Aaron Betsky, director of the Cincinnati Art Museum in Ohio, says it is natural to show cars as art. “Automobiles, like other objects in our daily lives, can be examples of how art can be used to transform your life, an outgrowth of the Arts and Crafts movement.”
中譯
不少報導談到現今年輕人對汽車文化不來電已蔚然成風，令人不禁要興汽車似已美人遲暮之歎。
不過，汽車並未如古怪的歷史遺物般被棄置在黑暗的角落，反而在全世界各地廣受禮讚。近年來，有些專門展示汽車的新博物館開張了，另有些汽車博物館則斥資數百萬美元重新裝修，以往僅展示藝術作品的機構也發現了金屬、橡膠和鉻對大眾的吸引力。
義大利杜林市「國家汽車博物館」的擴建工程耗資4000萬美元，歷時四年，於2011年完成。擴建後的車博館足為現代汽車博物館的典範。
這間車博館帶我們回顧汽車歷史，從1478年達文西設計「汽車」的原尺寸模型，一直到最新的替代燃料車。你會看到實景模擬，會用到觸控螢幕或多媒體機台，還會看到全用汽車零件做成的房間內裝，或像在遊樂園一樣坐車經過一整條汽車生產線和更多場景。
在法國米路斯市，「許倫夫收藏品國家汽車博物館」2006年全面改裝。紡織企業家漢斯‧許倫夫與福里茲‧許倫夫兄弟收藏的400多輛罕見超跑Bugatti和其他奇特車款，不是在光亮的地板上展出，就是擺在台架上，後方用醒目的畫作襯托。館內還有一間餐廳和一條小型賽車跑道。
我們必須把傳統美術博物館展覽汽車的趨勢視為促成改變的因素之一。1998年紐約古根漢博物館舉辦「機車藝術展」極為成功，特色是展示100多輛機車，展出形式由美國知名建築師蓋瑞設計，這項展覽昭告世人，藝術博物館可以創造出欣賞機動車輛的新方式。波士頓美術館隨後跟進，在2005年舉辦「速度、風格與美：雷夫羅倫收藏車展」。
洛杉磯彼德森汽車博物館董事長穆林說：「有機會欣賞一款骨董車工藝和雕塑的美，是讓人著迷的經驗。」他說，美國美術館辦過的車展都吸引破紀錄的人潮，例如田納西州納許維爾的福瑞斯特視覺藝術中心、亞利桑納州鳳凰城美術館的車展。
不過，荷蘭海牙運河邊一棟嶄新、令人印象深刻的建築，設計上並未受到美術館影響。這棟建築由美國建築師葛瑞夫斯設計，2010年起由勞曼汽車博物館進駐。
博物館所有人勞曼說：「我們設計博物館時，沒有參考其他美術館，因為其他美術館根據藝術家的個人風格來設計，不是根據創作的動機。而那個故事，也就是製造汽車的熱情，才是汽車博物館要傳達的關鍵訊息。」
美國俄亥俄州辛辛那提美術館館長貝次基說，把汽車當成藝術品來展示很自然，「汽車就像日常生活中的其他東西，可以顯示藝術如何能用來改變你的生活，這是『藝術與工藝運動』發展的自然結果」。
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