An Alien Look at Contemporary Art

LONDON—For those who think contemporary art is already out there, an upcoming show at the Barbican will take it farther: The gallery will explain contemporary artworks as if aliens were seeing them for the first time, the Guardian reports. "Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art," on view March 16 through May 18, is inspired by the book Kant After Duchamp by Belgian art historian Thierry de Duve, in which an anthropologist from another world attempts to inventory "all that is called art by humans"—similar to how Western anthropologists first studied non-Western cultures. With such pieces as Bruce Nauman's neon sculpture My Name As Though It Were Written on the Surface of the Moon (in which his name is spelled "bbbbbbrrrrrruuuuuucccccceeeeee") and Sherrie Levine's bronze urinal, the Barbican hopes the exhibition will bring new interpretations of contemporary art.