Adam Milner is the first to admit that moving the furnishings of his modest bedroom to the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and living there for nearly four days is not exactly a new idea.
After all, in 1964, famed artist Lucas Samaras did almost exactly the same thing, shifting his bedroom, which doubled as a studio, from his parents’ New Jersey home to the Green Gallery in New York City.
But such an art-historical pedigree is not likely to matter much when it comes to Milner’s installation, “Another Room,” which runs round the clock today through 4 p.m. Saturday and then reopens for five additional hours on Sunday.
It is bound to spark controversy, with some people inevitably questioning whether it is art at all. And others are sure to dismiss the endeavor as nothing more than a sensationalist stunt.
Milner, 23, who earned his bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in May, and the museum’s leaders are quick to defend the undertaking as legitimate art, however provocative it might be.
But associate curator Petra Sertic doesn’t deny hoping the work will cause a stir. The museum has given it maximum visibility by placing it in a window-lined front room usually occupied by the museum’s bookstore.
“That’s something we would love — if somebody passed by the museum and saw something that would draw them in and they wanted to find out what it is all about — that’s a good thing,” Sertic said.
Earlier this week, Milner and a friend were moving in the artist’s bed, books, collection of owl statuettes and other possessions and doing what they could to make the space as homey, informal and inviting as possible.
It is the third permutation of the installation, which Milner previously set up in a hallway in CU’s Visual Arts Complex and at the school’s Norlin Library.
He has no set schedule as to what he will do during the four days, though he does intend to sleep in the space and get dressed there in the mornings. As for more intimate activities, such as sex, Milner demurred.
“No promises, I guess,” he said. “I don’t have any plans to.”
Any art put on view is a private expression made public. But Milner wants to take that dynamic even further, creating what he calls a “shared space” in which he can interact with viewers who double as co-participants.
“I want to treat this as my bedroom, even though in a lot of ways it’s not,” he said. “I want it to be a bedroom that anyone can feel comfortable in or spend time in, and my favorite thing is when someone else is using it.”
During previous manifestations of the installation, he returned to find people conversing, studying and even napping on the bed.
A big part of this work is voyeurism, a subject he has explored in other series, including one examining Chatroulette, a website in which people randomly encounter others online; and a series of photographs from his bedroom window of random passers-by.
“I’m really interested in that,” he said. “I like making it OK to be a voyeur. It’s just one of those walls I’m breaking down. I haven’t looked enough into the psychology of voyeurism to know why there is that appeal, but I love people- watching.”
“Another Room” continues the now well-established tradition of performance art. Though dating back to promotional events staged by the surrealists and dadists in the early 20th century, it did not become recognized as a distinctive art form until the 1960s and ’70s.
One of the most direct precedents to this undertaking came in 2002, when celebrated performance artist Marina Abramovic lived in the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York City on three elevated platforms that served as a bathroom, living room and bedroom.
“I don’t do this because I want to be super-unique or edgy,” Milner said. “I do this because I’m excited about those (shared) moments I was talking about. But I do think there is something happening culturally in merging public and private, and that’s why artists do this.”
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
“ANOTHER ROOM.”
Art. Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 1750 13th St. Performance artist Adam Milner, a May graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, has moved most of the contents of his bedroom into a front space at the museum, where he will live for nearly four days and interact spontaneously with museum visitors. Open continuously through 4 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Free. 303-443-2122 or .
