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MoMa’s acquisition: The @ symbol

The @ symbol is being honored by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

New York’s Museum of Modern Art has added today the “@” symbol to its permanent art collection. It is today officially part of the MoMA’s elite collection, represented in a variety of typefaces and sizes.
The MoMa has honored the “at” by adding the concept to its architecture and design collection; but it does not own it; it remains in the public realm.
The @ symbol, says Paola Antonelli, senior curator of the department of Architecture and Design, has become part of the fabric of life around the world.
"The acquisition of @ takes one more step," Antonelli writes in a blog post on MoMA's website. "It relies on the assumption that physical possession of an object as a requirement for an acquisition is no longer necessary, and therefore it sets curators free to tag the world and acknowledge things that "cannot be had"--because they are too big (buildings, Boeing 747's, satellites), or because they are in the air and belong to everybody and to no one, like the @--as art objects befitting MoMA's collection."

Published 22.03.2010

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