ASIAN COLLECTING IN CHILE: THE CONDITION OF ITS OBJECT OF STUDY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE MUSEUM

Abstract

This article focuses on the study of the terms “collecting” or “collection”— particularly of the Asian type—in Chile, through the lens of the following working thesis: the term “collecting”, which involves both an acquisition practice and a particular relationship with its elements, has been fundamentally studied as an extension of, or in dependence to, the domain of the museum. This cardinal tenet involves, on the one hand, the decidability adopted by the phenomenon of collecting that is determined by its power to be registered or interpreted based on the enunciative dynamics of the museum field; on the other hand, I shall argue that this stems from its failure to constitute itself as an object which can exist outside the museum’s jurisdiction. Regarding this dependence or analogy of Asian Collecting on the area of influence of the museum, this investigation will describe the rules of formation which inform said dependence. By rules of formation, I shall refer to the possibility of a “language”, or special enunciation, dominion of the Museum over its objects, articulations, and its reproducible and verifiable scope areas. Specifically, two laws of museality will be developed in the present article, the museum’s heterotopia and the taxonomy of what is real. The Museum’s domain shall constitute, or rather, express, the positivity which is englobed in the concept of museality in reference to Michel Foucault’s definition. As such, this article focuses on the description of norms and rules which make up museality, and the manner in which Asian Collecting is subsumed to and made visible by the concept. For this article, catalogues of Asian collections—once belonging to private Chilean collectors—available in Chile will be used.