Minnie’s cakes in MOCAD’s cafe?
Posted by Aeron Bergman
Today Alejandra and I continued our tour of Detroit’s historic sites of violence and civil disturbance. The violence seemed far away today: a clear winter sun lit up mundane, quiet, daily activities and made even burned out apartments look elegant. We bought cakes at Minni’s on Wyoming Avenue. Lamuriel, the proprietor and baker, was sweeter than her southern style pound cakes: she said “come back when we get a fresh coat of paint on!” and “we ship anywhere in the world!” She had a young guy loading up a van with deliveries, but it looked like business was a little slow. She has no neighbors, just a burnt storefront next door, and no pedestrians on the street to pop in.
Then we went to meet Marsha Miro and Gregory Tom, director and assistent director of Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. I forgot how professional, direct, yet informal Americans are: they got right to business, asking about our credentials, dissecting our portfolio and taking notes. A European curator would prefer to get to know us first. Miro was engaged and energetic: we heard her speak on the local public radio station while we were driving on the way over, and she was mingling with museum visitors in the museum cafe when we left.
MOCAD is a great big open space with a Palais de Tokyo mixture of industrial decay and high design. The show is a text centric group show of hip, smart, tastefully political artists such as Sam Durant. On the one hand, it is great to see international art, well selected and presented in this city in rebirth. But is acceptable, mild critique enough? In the middle of this situation so badly in need of heavy critique and radical change, does international contemporary art cut it? Their mission statement says “MOCAD is responsive to the cultural content of our time, fueling crucial dialogue, collaboration, and public engagement”. This is a very strong acknowlegement of their location, unlike the Detroit Institute of Arts which is more like a great marble fortress of industrial might, or a gated shopping mall. The community seems to have taken to the MOCAD too: it enjoys high attendance to events. I was disappointed not to see an immediately large black presence in the museum, reflecting an 82% black population in the city, but I am not going to judge the situation based on a 2 hour visit.
We suggested they start buying Minnie’s cakes for their new cafe.