MAC/VAL's Political Function of a Contemporary Heritage

The MAC/VAL museum in Vitry-sur-Seine, France, redefines the political role of a contemporary art collection by challenging market-driven art valuation. Since its founding in 2005, the museum has curated a collection of nearly 2,000 works dating from 1982 onward, organized into rotating 'Parcours' that juxtapose historical and contemporary pieces. This approach, inspired by Walter Benjamin's idea of 'exploding the past into the present,' aims to profane the speculative fetish of art as commodity. The collection includes radical works by artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Jean Degottex, Pierre Soulages, Pierre Buraglio, Jacques Villeglé, Simon Hantaï, Raymond Hains, Daniel Pommereulle, César, Henri Michaux, and Gina Pane, reflecting a French tradition of critical art that merges aesthetic guerrilla with political engagement. In 2011, the museum commissioned Remy Bosquère to create a mobile mediation tribune, and hosted writer Jérôme Game's residency 'Under The Influence,' which used the collection as a platform for theoretical performance. The museum's programming, including works by Hugues Reip, Christian Jaccard, Felice Varini, and Mona Hatoum, transforms the collection into an 'encyclopedia in motion,' where art functions as critique rather than mere spectacle. The MAC/VAL's model counters the neoliberal turn in contemporary art, asserting that museums can serve as spaces for public emancipation and critical discourse.