Museum Studies

Arseny Zhilyaev in conversation with Boris Groys: "Contemporary art is the theology of the museum". This recent conversation is part of the Center for Experimental Museology, a collaborative project between COLTA.RU and the V-A-C Foundation. The material was published on e-flux conversations for the first time in english.

The current museographical approach seems to go towards a form of interdisciplinarity, which leverages the encounter between visual and performing arts. From the Tate Gallery in London to the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, this dialogue not only gives rise to aesthetic experiences but also defines new forms of exhibitions: choreographed exhibitions. Within a migration from the black box to the white cube, the theatrical body becomes a work of art, through a process of objectivation. Likewise, the exhibition space turns into a hybrid place of creation. Through a kind of ontological negotiation between different art languages, the beholder is thus called into question: his participation is choreographed, as well as the very act of observation.

El texto presenta una introduccion a los debates sobre los museos etnologicos en la ultima decada, mostrando la evolucion de los modelos aparecidos en la nueva museologia en la actualidad. Analiza la evolucion de los museos al aire libre, de los ecomuseos, de los museos de sintesis y presenta renovaciones museologicas como la museologia critica, los museos de civilizacion, los economuseos y las polemicas sostenidas a raiz de la inauguracion del Museo Quai Branly y de los proyectos de Museo de la Civilizacion de Europa y la Mediterranea y el Museo des Confluences. El autor considera que despues de una cierta crisis de los museos etnologicos, los nuevos proyectos suponen un reto importante para el relanzamiento de los nuevos museos etnologicos, que forzosamente deberan reinventarse a traves de formulas innovadoras e interdisciplinarias.

This article traces a century of efforts to create a National Museum in Guatemala City. Political instability and natural disasters thwarted these efforts, which nevertheless, formed a significant chapter in the country’s museum history. The contents of the laws and decrees that ordered the formation of museums provide indications about their political context and aims, while travelers’ reports and museum publications provide a hint at the collections and exhibitions of the first and second national museums, which functioned at the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País (1866-1881) and the Palacio de La Reforma (1898-1917). In addition to local politics, the country’s participation in international expositions, and foreign involvement in archaeological research and collecting played a role in museum formation and demise. Special attention is given to the laws and initiatives of the 1920’s, which led to the opening of a National Museum in 1930, with a critique of previous work on this critical period of Guatemalan museum history.

Published by the Hunt Museum
Communities of Culture is a Hunt Museum programme exploring the different unique cultural experiences and heritages of each of Limerick’s regeneration areas – Southill, Ballinacurra Weston, Moyross and St. Mary’s Park.

In 1809, after killing two men aboard the schooner Three Sisters, Edward Jordan was tried and executed for piracy by the Admiralty Court in Halifax.  After execution, his body was gibbeted, or hanged in chains, in Point Pleasant Park.  It remained there for over three decades, slowly deteriorating until only the skull remained.  In 1844 the skull was collected from Point Pleasant Park and ultimately it was given to the Nova Scotia Museum (NSM).  Last year (2007) it was on display at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (MMA) as a part of their Pirates: Myth vs. Reality exhibit.

The research illustrates multiple experiences and strategies adopted in museums and in the world of cultural heritage in the field of digital storytelling to guide the future design of narrative digital solutions. Its aim is to provide as complete a picture as possible of the different solutions set in this specific sector of the field of cultural communication, their uses, and the accessibility of culture. It identifies and analyzes 14 types of digital storytelling: oral, written, video, visual, animated, interactive, Immersive, Social Media Storytelling, Participative, Generative, Geo–Storytelling, Multimedia Mobile Storytelling, Crossmedia and Transmedial storytelling. Finally, a new vision of the museum is proposed in which, beginning with the antiquarian and nineteenth–century vision of museum collections, develops into what should be defined as a connected museum or museum of connected narration.

Building on tropes of " Americanist abstract-art " and " improvisational African-American-art " that emerged as systems of quilt evaluation in the 1970s, this book promotes recognition of a distinctive vernacular cross-racial-group quilt aesthetic. Author-collector Roderick Kiracofe presents about one hundred forty five quilts and quilt-tops chosen not for traits that suggest a maker who had extensive time, money, and needlework skill, but for graphic designs that are " quirky " and " improvisational, " have " soul and self-expression, " are " bold " and " real, made to be used, " that " break the rules " and are " sculptural " (the latter referring to quilts that are held together with bits of string or yarn rather than quilting stitches) (12-14). Given that traits such as variable (scrap-friendly) color schemes and vernacular design and construction methods place most of these pieces in a thrift-and-necessity-oriented utility-quilt tradition, their makers probably would be surprised to see them cast here as art in fine photographs and eight scholarly essays. However, two autobiographical essays speak to the rural southern context that spawned many of the works. Most pieces are anonymous, but about one hundred thirty are listed with locations (often just a state name) where they were made or " found, " about forty are listed with the maker's name, and about fifteen are listed as having African American makers. There is no information on white maker ethnicity although improvisational quilt traits have been attributed to Anglo-Appalachian and Scots Irish American makers. Of the total pieces shown here, about ninety four (65 percent) are listed in southern states (about forty of them from Alabama), 37 in northern states, one as " possibly Canada, " and 13 unknown.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities have been collaborating on the Grand Egyptian Museum Joint Conservation Project (GEM-JC), and since 2016 this team carried out the scientific research of the ‘second state chariot’ (JE61990). In the course of the detailed  condition survey of the chariot, localized surface damage from where material had been anciently torn away from the corners and near the rear of the exterior sides of the chariot’s body was observed. Carter’s assistant Arthur Mace had noted this and assumed some metal elements had been wrenched off from these locations. Recently, the late Edwin C. Brock concluded that these remnants were fitting places of the four support poles of the canopy frame hitherto dubbed by Carter as Tutankhamun’s ‘travelling canopy’ (JE60705). Detailed measurements of both the chariot and canopy have now proved Brock’s hypothesis that the two items indeed made a canopied chariot. This paper also presents new discoveries and offers a tentative virtual reconstruction as support for the inclusion of virtual museum displays in galleries.

This paper reflects on the changing role of the guardian or keeper in museums and art collections from the seventeenth
century to the present. Starting from the lexical meaning of the Italian word ‘custode’, thanks to archival documentation, the research
reconstructs the use of this word in the historical lexicon of museums and their professions, in different geographical and cultural
contexts. Comparing the historical regulations of museums and art collections in different Italian regions, the paper argues that the
profound changes associated with the functions and the professional profile of the keepers transformed them from curators of collections
to mere guardians of rooms.

O artigo busca contribuir para o debate acerca dos museus, coleções e representações tendo como foco o caso do Museu de Arte Negra (MAN), organizado pelo ativista, escritor e pintor Abdias do Nascimento. Dessa maneira, apresenta uma perspectiva multidisciplinar, que envolve discussões que perpassam a história da arte, a antropologia e a sociologia, com objetivo de apresentar o impacto das relações raciais no campo da arte.

This chapter presents the important but not very well known
archival material relating to James Stewart’s
Vounous excavations kept in the archive of the
Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm. The Medelhavsmuseet
was founded in 1954 as a direct result of the Swedish
Cyprus Expedition in order to store the Swedish share
of the finds from the excavations. The archival material
from the Swedish Cyprus Expedition, including field
diaries, drawings, photographs, manuscripts and
correspondence, is kept in the archive of the museum.
Stewart’s excavations at Vounous were published by the
Swedish Institute in Rome in 1950 and Einar Gjerstad
invited Stewart to write about the Early Bronze Age in
Cyprus for Swedish Cyprus Expedition Volume IV, Part
1A (Stewart 1962). The good collaboration between
Stewart and Gjerstad prompted Stewart to donate
his field records to the Swedish Cyprus Expedition,
which thus duly came to the museum.

En restituant avec précision une période essentielle de l’histoire de la restauration de peinture, ce livre ouvre de nouvelles perspectives pour la recherche en histoire de l’art et souligne que les œuvres sont perpétuellement transformées et instables. Chaque modification invite à redéfinir ce qu’est un tableau, au gré des époques et des pays. L’activité de restauration s’apparente alors à une forme de réception mais aussi de recréation des peintures, dans laquelle le geste est inséparable de la pensée, et la pratique de la théorie.

En restituant avec précision une période essentielle de l’histoire de la restauration de peinture, ce livre ouvre de nouvelles perspectives pour la recherche en histoire de l’art et souligne que les œuvres sont perpétuellement transformées et instables. Chaque modification invite à redéfinir ce qu’est un tableau, au gré des époques et des pays. L’activité de restauration s’apparente alors à une forme de réception mais aussi de recréation des peintures, dans laquelle le geste est inséparable de la pensée, et la pratique de la théorie.

En restituant avec précision une période essentielle de l’histoire de la restauration de peinture, ce livre ouvre de nouvelles perspectives pour la recherche en histoire de l’art et souligne que les œuvres sont perpétuellement transformées et instables. Chaque modification invite à redéfinir ce qu’est un tableau, au gré des époques et des pays. L’activité de restauration s’apparente alors à une forme de réception mais aussi de recréation des peintures, dans laquelle le geste est inséparable de la pensée, et la pratique de la théorie.

L’aumento dei canali di contatto e di comunicazione ha, per un museo, effetti anche di natura strettamente commerciale: l’aumento dell’utenza potenziale e, dunque, della domanda potenziale, può rendere il museo un ‘prodotto’ commercialmente più appetibile dal punto di vista degli investimenti o delle sponsorizzazioni, una ulteriore occasione per i finanziatori di pubblicizzare il proprio marchio o la propria azienda. Attraverso un'analisi 'empirica' dell'utenza remota di alcuni siti web museali italiani e stranieri a confronto, si analizzano criticità e potenzialità dell'uso del web per queste istituzioni museali.

The Importance of Being Anachronistic: Contemporary Aboriginal Art and Museum Reparations focuses on the role of time in contemporary art and introduces anachrony as a method for subverting the colonial archive. This publication takes as its subject Trawlwoolway artist Julie Gough’s The Lost World (Part 2) exhibition and intervention
in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology
and Anthropology.
The Importance of Being Anachronistic is a peer-reviewed publication, and a collaboration between the journals Discipline and Third Text.

Recent decades have witnessed concerns over representation, inclusion, and social justice move from the margins to the centre of museum practice. While a growing number of institutions seek to reflect the diversity of their communities in exhibition-making, gaps remain in understanding applied approaches and practices. This book presents the inclusion of new voices and perspectives into the museum via “inclusive curating,” a facilitated process empowering a wide demographic of people to become curators. Grounded in a case study, this book offers guidance in putting inclusive curating into action alongside a range of practical resources and key debates. Curating is often considered an exclusive job for a privileged few. But, by breaking it down using methods demonstrated throughout this book, not only does curating become more usable for more people, it also contributes to understanding the process and practices by which our cultural spaces can become democratized.

- Diligenza e prestezza.è uno studio sulla tecnica della pittura attraverso l’analisi incrociata dei testi letterari e delle opere d’arte. Dopo aver ripercorsa la fortuna critica dei testi dei principali autori – Leonardo, Vasari, Armenini, Borghini, Lomazzo – ne vengono messe a confronto le informazioni sul disegno e sulla pittura, analizzandone il lessico specifico e individuando i materiali e i procedimenti esecutivi. Al tempo stesso alcuni temi centrali del dibattito teorico – il disegno l’invenzione, il paragone tra le arti – sono esaminati alla luce del loro rapporto con la tecnica. Infine alcuni dipinti del museo di Capodimonte, scelti come casi esemplificativi, sono stati analizzati sulla base degli studi scientifici e delle fonti.

This Forum discussion aims to explore the topic of repatriation from a variety of viewpoints considering twenty-first century realities in the region. The contributions
fall into three main categories addressing general background matters, presenting case studies and offering future directions. We hop  that the differing perspectives assembled in this issue of JEMAHS will contribute to the ongoing debate regarding repatriation, curation and ownership of artifacts, some now housed far from their places of origin.

TOOLS FOR THE FUTURE
Workshop 3
The Formation and Development of New Art Markets

Art in Emerging Markets: The Case of India

India’s art market is not new (as there is a long tradition of collecting), but certainly an emerging one: Art Tactic’s recent report recorded a 7.7% increase in the South Asian art market and an increase in gallery sales of 9.1%. Along with the growth the art infrastructure is being built gradually: new biennales (Kochi-Muziris, Chennai Photo Biennale) and – with the lack of government support – new private and corporate museums (Piramal Museum of Art, Museum of Art and Photography, etc.) are being established, as well as new models of philanthropy (e.g. crowdfunding) are being adopted within the last 5 to 10 years.
The ongoing research project aims to investigate the distinctive characteristics of the Indian art market, and to understand the dynamics behind its current, rapid evolution – with special regards to the role of education (a new generation of professionals to contribute to the arts ecosystem and of collectors); the increasing importance of the so-called social media influencers, as well as the interior designers as tastemakers; and the challenges of entering the international market.
The empirical context of the research is the India Art Fair 2019, the biggest and most significant platform of the primary market for modern and contemporary art in the South Asian region. In-depth interviews have been conducted with 12 professionals working at the Indian art scene, such as gallerists, artists, museum directors, and private collectors. Based on this preliminary research a questionnaire has been constructed and sent out to the 75 exhibitors of the fair: modern and contemporary, Indian and international galleries, as well as non-profit institutions. The data collected will be subject to further analysis.

Actas de las XIII Jornadas Museológicas Chilenas realizadas en Valdivia en el año 2016.
Organizadores: ICOM-Chile y Dirección Museológica de la Universidad Austral de Chile.
Coordinador general: Simón Urbina.
Comité editorial: Luis Alegría, Gabriela Alt, Marcelo Godoy, Leonardo Mellado, Ricardo Mendoza, Simón Urbina, Valeria Vera, Fernando Vergara y Karin Weil.
Edición: César Altermatt.
Diseño: Milka Marinov.
Maquetación: Alejandra Rosas.
Traducción de conferencias magistrales: Valentina Pires A. / VPA Communications.

Με ποιους τρόπους μπορούν τα περιφερειακά μουσεία τεχνών να ανταποκριθούν στις νέες παγκόσμιες προκλήσεις και κοινωνικές ανάγκες για μάθηση και αναψυχή; Πώς αξιοποιούν τις νέες τάσεις στην πολιτιστική επικοινωνία και τα ψηφιακά ��έσα; Πώς μπορούν να εμπνεύσουν τον επισκέπτη και να τον κάνουν συμμέτοχο στην αποστολή, τις αξίες και τις δράσεις τους; Ποιος είναι ο ρόλος τους στην περιφερειακή ανάπτυξη και πώς αλληλεπιδρούν με τις τοπικές κοινότητες και ομάδες ενδιαφέροντος για την αξιοποίηση και προβολή του πολιτιστικού κεφαλαίου τους;
Η παρούσα εργασία εξετάζει τα παραπάνω ζητήματα σε σχέση με την ανάπτυξη, προβολή και ανταγωνιστικότητα των δημόσιων μουσείων τεχνών της ελληνικής περιφέρειας. Προσεγγίζονται ζητήματα όπως η ολιστική στρατηγική επικοινωνίας, οι συμβατικές και ψηφιακές «αφηγήσεις» και η συμμετοχή των κοινών, η βιωματική μάθηση και τα ψηφιακά ερμηνευτικά μέσα, το μάρκετινγκ εμπειρίας, ο κοινωνικός ρόλος της τέχνης και η αποαποικιοποίηση. Επίσης, αναλύονται θέματα όπως η πολιτιστική πολιτική, η νησιωτικότητα, η περιφερειακή βιωσιμότητα και η πολιτισμοκεντρική ανάπτυξη.
Για να διερευνηθούν εμπειρικά οι θεωρητικές διατυπώσεις χρησιμοποιείται η μελέτη περίπτωσης του Μουσείου Νεοελληνικής Τέχνης Δήμου Ρόδου με τις πολύτιμες συλλογές τέχνης του 20ου αιώνα. Η ποιοτική έρευνα συγκεντρώνει πρωτογενή και δευτερογενή στοιχεία από τη σημερινή επικοινωνιακή πολιτική και διαχείριση του μουσείου, συνεντεύξεις από εκπροσώπους ομάδων ενδιαφέροντος, επιτόπια και συμμετοχική παρατήρηση και συγκριτικά ευρήματα από ομοειδείς οργανισμούς της χώρας.
Εξάγεται το γενικό συμπέρασμα ότι το μουσείο εμφανίζει σημαντικές ανεπάρκειες στην επικοινωνιακή του διαχείριση, δεν έχει αναπτύξει στρατηγική για την ανάδειξη των συλλογών του, δεν παράγει καινοτόμες εικαστικές δράσεις και δεν προσφέρει στην υποκειμενική/κοινωνική δόμηση της μουσειακής εμπειρίας τόσο στο φυσικό όσο και στο ψηφιακό πεδίο.
Προτείνονται επικοινωνιακοί τρόποι με τους οποίους το μουσείο μπορεί να οικοδομήσει μια νέα εικόνα ορατότητας, διείσδυσης στην πολιτιστική «αγορά» και δέσμευσης με τα κοινά του, ικανοποιώντας τις ανάγκες και επιθυμίες των επισκεπτών του και συνεισφέροντας στην τοπική πολιτισμική ανάπτυξη και την εγχώρια οικονομία του πολιτισμού.

Statistical data and photographic portraits are two techniques of explanation frequently used to narrate both the magnitude and the specificity of mass death. Numbers offer a census of the dead while photographic portraits promise an intimate glimpse into the specificity of lives lost. This paper analyzes the use of photographic portraits
in an installation in the so-called Central Camp Sauna building at the
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (ABSM). I analyze the portraits as
objects whose meaning and uses have been structured by their history
of material transformations, including their material condition in
the ABSM installation. I argue that the material relations between the
portraits and the other aesthetic elements of the installation tether
the evidentiary function of the photographs to the symbolic task of
representing absent – and thus abstract – others. This tethering of
faces and narratives makes visible a tension between the one and the
many, documenting the specificity of individual victims as well as symbolizing both the broader losses of community and the collectivizing
character of mass violence.

On the recent events at Macba.
(This essay is part of series of texts that aim to reflect upon recent events at MACBA and the wider politics of art institutions that will be published here over the coming weeks.)
In this age of global neo-liberal redeployment, a redeployment that impacts on everything, including museums and schools, a much more refined analysis of institutions is required than the obsolete critical apparatus, inherited from the "institutional critique" of the 1970s. And that begins with an analysis of the institutional process itself which has always been postponed by previous generations, certain as they were that legal matters
could only be a transparent mask of these same power relations ...

This essay explores the bodily nature of Michel Foucault’s heterotopias as a means of delving into the complexities of access to and representation in museums today. Informed by contemporary debates around postcoloniality and museum histories and practices, this essay is situated at the ambiguous intersection of embodied experience, spatial theory, and physical museum spaces. Predominately considered in relation to spatial difference up until now, adding a corporeal element to the analysis of the heterotopia both connects the theory to Foucault’s accompanying lecture, “The Utopian Body,” and provides a bridge between this concept and pertinent issues of memory, identity, agency, and the plurality of voices that orbit museum collections. In this respect heterotopia is a space of possibility as well as a reminder of boundaries, borders, and limitations. To get to the intimate vantage point of the mobile and multifaceted individual, this essay proposes viewing the heterotopia via distinct, yet simultaneous and intertwined levels of scale. Providing a flexible structure, these levels enable the analysis of spatial difference as emerging from and embedded within broad social landscapes, internal spatial ordering, and individual encounters. Within this frame, material, conceptual, and interactive discourse is made manifest in the “other space” of the museum. Neither structure nor static archive, the museum is a potential forum or nexus, a threshold, and the starting point for conversations that expand far beyond its doors.

Queering Australian Museums addresses the problem of how queer or LGBTIQ communities can be further included in Australian museums on their own terms. It looks at four areas of museums—management, collections, exhibitions, and connections with audiences and communities—to consider barriers and enablers of queer inclusion in these often heteronormative institutions. Case studies of queer-inclusive efforts in public Australian museums are interpreted from institutional and community perspectives drawn from 25 interviews. The interviews are put into critical conversation with archival material and literature from museum studies and the emerging field of queer museology.

The study evaluates the visibility of the history, cultures, and identities of queer communities in Australian museums. It establishes that many public representations of queerness have been driven by the efforts of LGBTIQ communities, particularly through community-based heritage organisations. It also gathers and reflects upon examples of critical queer inclusion that have occurred in public museums. Using these exemplars, it argues that queer communities should be empowered to make decisions about their own heritage with the support of museums and their unique attributes; that individual and organisational leadership, involving queer individuals and allies, should be brought to bear on this task; and that effectively navigating the tensions between museums and queer communities requires mutual understanding and accommodation. Through the process of queering the museum, it is suggested, each party might be transformed, leading to LGBTIQ diversity being valued as an integral part of society.

The thesis addresses the gap in Australian museum studies literature on queer or LGBTIQ inclusion compared with Euro-American settings. It further contributes original case studies to the international field of queer museology, and to museum studies literature on including and empowering diverse communities. Both recognising the agency of queer communities and also engaging with the language and conventions of museums, it constructs a distinct account of how to navigate the historical tensions between the two. It thereby aims to enrich museum offerings for all audiences on the terms of those erstwhile excluded.

Troya Müzesi son yıllarda müzecilik konusunda gösterdiği başarılar ve aldığı ödüller ile kamuoyu nezdinde dikkat çekmiş ve
takdir toplamıştır. Müzenin başarıları söz konusu edildiğinde “genç müze” vurgusu, üzerinde adeta uzlaşılmış bir tespit olmuştur.
2018 yılında kapılarını ziyarete açan Troya Müzesi, yeni bir müze olsa dahi bu müzenin arkasında çalışan yapının yani Çanakkale
Müze Müdürlüğü’nün, onlarca yıla dayanan bir geçmişi olduğu çok az kişi tarafından bilinmektedir. İyi bir kurum yaratmanın
yollarından biri de kurumsal tarihin doğru bir şekilde ele alınmasından geçtiği bilinciyle Çanakkale Müze Müdürlüğü’nün
kurumsal tarihi konusunda tarafımızca çalışmalar yapılmaya başlanmıştır. Araştırmalar sırasında 1930, 1932 ve 1936 gibi
birbirinden farklı kuruluş tarihlerinin verildiğinin tespit edilmesi bu noktada bir hatanın olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Bunun
üzerine araştırmaya devlet arşivleri üzerinde devam edilmiştir. 19. yy’da Osmanlı İmparatorluğu toprakları üzerinde uygulanan
“Müze Şube” ve “Fahri Müze Memuru” uygulamaları ölçeğinde Çanakkale’de hayata geçen girişim anlaşılmaya çalışılmıştır. Bu
çalışma, belgelerle desteklenerek Çanakkale Müzesi’nin kuruluş tarihinin 1911 yılı olduğu ortaya konmuştur.

Abstract
The Troy Museum has recently attracted a great public attention and appreciation due to its institutional achievements and
the awards granted to it in the field museology. The achievements of the museum almost created an awareness of the concept of
“young museum”. Although the Troy Museum opened its doors to visitors only in 2018, only a few knew that the museum has a
decades-long background behind it. It is probably one way to establish a good institution by approaching its historical background
in a right way. For this reason, we have initiated a study on the institutional history of the Çanakkale Museum. The existence of
different dates such as 1930, 1932 and 1936 on the first foundation of the Çanakkale Museum made it necessary to conduct new
research on this inconsistency related to these foundation dates. Investigations were carried out in the states archives to shed new
light on this issue. The early attempt of founding a museum in Çanakkale was examined in relation to the use of such terms as
“museum branch” and “honorary museum officer”, which were frequently used in the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth
century. This work in this context demonstrates in the light of Ottoman archival sources that the foundation date of the Çanakkale
Museum could be 1911.

This essay offers a case study about the Wildwalk museum in Bristol, UK. Wildwalk, originally called Wildscreen, was the brainchild of the internationally renowned wildlife documentary producer Christopher Parsons. Parsons conceived of the attraction as a peripatetic version of wildlife TV; Wildwalk was, in effect, to bring together the best of wildlife films and natural history museums – but also zoos and even botanic gardens – in order to promote a better understanding of biodiversity. Despite some initial success, the museum, which opened in time for Britain's Millennium celebrations, was forced to close less than seven years after it opened. The chapter develops a genealogical inquiry, and employs social semiotic analyses to describe the museum's remarkable innovations, but also to explain its failure to bring to fruition a truly new genre of exhibition.