O olhar do visitante e suas experiências com o acervo de arte contemporânea e botânica do Instituto Inhotim

Abstract

The museums, constantly, alter the organization of exhibitions and the ways of providing information to the visitor. These efforts are motivated by the main purpose of intensifying the visitor's engagement. Therefore, this research is defined by the search for an answer to the question: how to broaden the experience of visitors? To reach the answer, an analysis was made from the experiences of the visitors on the work of art Narcissus Garden Inhotim (2009) of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama with installation at the Instituto Inhotim. It is a study that aims to explore the meanings of each visitor's perceptions and to elaborate a new understanding of the individual's perception. Since each individual involved in the study lives in society and has values, style and culture that are inherent to it, some of these aspects are revealed and, thus, we approach the core of the lived experience. With an investigative approach interested in the sense of visitor experience, it was applied the data collection method called Grounded Theory (GT). Through the use of filming and recording, followed by interviews in self-confrontation with visitors, it was possible to construct and develop the analysis structured by the theory of the Course of Action. Everything from the point of view of the individual marked by the meanings of his own experience. Supported by some concepts of the phenomenology of the perception of the philosopher Merleau-Ponty and the concepts of expertise and the acquisition of skills, defended by Hubert Dreyfus and Stuart Dreyfus, we show their discussions in contrast to some cognitive definitions. With the phenomenology of the perception, we deal with notions of the body, engagement and requests of the individual embedded in the world. With the expertise and acquisition of skills, we deal with notions of experience, from a appreciation of the author regarding the discussion of the levels of experience compared with life experiences. From the analysis of visitation, allows to consider the research complex due to the several physical factors of the work of art and nature and the different modes of action of the actors involved. Moreover, the bodily manifestations, perceptions and meanings reaffirm such complexity of the situation lived. Finally, the results reveal that the visitor's experience in an open-air contemporary art exhibition can be enhanced to the way it is done today. At the moment when the visitor has the possibility of experiencing the characteristics of his "life forms" within the museum, he feels closer, more engaged with the place. Therefore, the relationship between the visitor, the work of art and nature should not be classified as effective or ineffective, because there is no right or wrong way to visit, they are only different and countless way to do it.