POLITICAL UNDERTONE OF THE NEW ICOM MUSEUM DEFINITION, OR MANEUVERING A TRANSATLANTIC AMONG ICEBERGS

Abstract

The museum definition is of systemic importance for ICOM, since it demarcates the area of activity of this international non-governmental organization grouping museum curators. The answer to the question whether the new museum definition presented at the ICOM General Conference in Kyoto on 1–7 September 2019 reveal a political undertone is sought. The majority of the attendees did not support the put-forth proposal, opting to postpone the vote on its acceptance. What I mean by the ‘political undertone of the new museum definition’ is that the definiens takes into account the fact that museums are institutions tangled up in exerting power and applying symbolic violence. According to the Kyoto definition museums are identified with critical museums, treated as space for public debate directed at the future. This vision did not convince the majority, since it excluded many institutions until now regarded to be museums from the museum category. As such, the Kyoto definition turned out not to be a definition, but a political manifesto of a group of museum curators. Additionally, not being coherent, it proved useless for phrasing legislative acts.