MUSEUMS IN THE WORLD WITHOUT THE FUTURE

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to museum’s commitment to struggling for climate and against climate change. Facing the key imperative conditioning museums’ operation whose sense is defined e.g., by the assumption that there will be ‘some’ future for whose sake it is worth while taking care of museum exhibits and other testimonies to the past and contemporary culture, the climate change we are witnessing makes museums face very special challenges. As institutions of social trust they continue to be regarded a credible source of knowledge, they engage increasingly more in activities aimed at preserving the environment. This can be clearly seen, for example in the exhibitions dedicated to the Anthropocene mounted in museums worldwide over the last decade. The engagement of museums in this respect and this engagement’s object are the topic of the paper. Furthermore, a critical view is presented not only of the people and the institutions they create, or more broadly cultures and civilisations, all of key importance for our planet’s future, but also of the fact that certain topics, as praxis has shown, have remained untouched by museums (e.g., responsibility of global corporations or the ideology of capitalist growth). In this very context questions are also asked to what degree and how much museums can change their practices affecting the climate, if only by renouncing or at least limiting their participation in global tourism and competition for public’s leisure time in the market game for attracting consumers’ attention.