{"title":"Working with Contested Ethnographic Collections to Change “Old Museum” Perspectives: Mutare Museum, Eastern Zimbabwe, 2015-2017","authors":"Njabulo Chipangura","doi":"10.57225/martor.2018.23.04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2018.23.04","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I will examine the history of collecting ethnographic objects at Mutare Museum, moving between the colonial and postcolonial periods in order to show how these time scales structured the ways in which exhibitions are presented. I argue that by removing ethnographic objects from their cultural setting and inserting them into the visual system of the museum, their dynamic web of physical and social meanings was broken. Whilst I acknowledge that Mutare Museum’s system of displaying its ethnographic collection was shaped by colonialism in a way that resulted in the marginalisation of certain communities, I will show how collections in one of the galleries—the Beit Gallery—were transformed to convey new postcolonial meanings. In part, the paper also looks at how the concept of object biography and ethnomuseology assisted in redesigning and changing old exhibitions in the Beit Gallery. This case in point will be illustrated by gleaning through the multi-layered histories of collecting at this museum. Next, I will argue that the particular, ‘old’ manner in which ethnographic objects were displayed conforms to the traditional practice of presenting exclusively for visual observation. Objects would be displayed on the floor in an almost derogatory way—presented as if they were strange and exotic and devoid of any social and historical significance. Yet, this type of scenography did not do justice to the social biography of the collection, which could not be understood in terms of a single unchanging identity, but rather by tracing the succession of meanings attached to the objects as they move through space and time. As a result, communities living around this museum used to periodically contest narratives that were appended on ethnographic collections on display in the Beit Gallery. Therefore, in this article, I will show how we reorganised this exhibition through a collaborative partnership with the source communities where the objects had originated from. The discussion in this paper is premised on the data derived from my involvement in redesigning displays in the Beit Gallery as a curator at Mutare Museum. Later on, I will also address public perceptions of the new installations and gauge whether the exhibition attained the desired effects.","PeriodicalId":324681,"journal":{"name":"Martor. The Museum of the Romanian Peasant Anthropology Review","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134225996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From Iconoclasm to Museum: Mussolini’s Villa in Rome as a Dictatorial Heritage Site","authors":"Flaminia Bartolini","doi":"10.57225/martor.2018.23.09","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2018.23.09","url":null,"abstract":"In the last couple of years, public attitudes towards Fascist material legacies in Italy have been at the centre of a heated debate in the academic world, which has by now grown to involve the press and social media. This paper will look specifically at how this is reflected in a museum display at a heritage site that was once Mussolini’s residence in Rome. The underlying question of this paper is what role museums as heritage sites play in the renegotiation of a problematic past, and whether they can also have an active role in either supporting or challenging the official narrative. As heritage is socially constructed and defined through present circumstances, the narratives of this particular museum reveal a conflicting past as mirrored by the national narrative. The paper also questions whether public perception of this site has changed over time and considers how the recent transformation into a museum signifies a shift from the post-war interpretation, which may or may not reflect a high-level political agenda.","PeriodicalId":324681,"journal":{"name":"Martor. The Museum of the Romanian Peasant Anthropology Review","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122129923","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Elephants, Cuckoos, Horses, and Me. A Different Exhibition About Toys","authors":"Irina Hasnaș Hubbard, Iuliana Iordan","doi":"10.57225/martor.2018.23.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2018.23.12","url":null,"abstract":"\"Elephants, Cuckoos, Horses, and Me (Elefanți, cuci, cai și eu) is an exhibit made in Romania in 2017 to draw attention to the absence of a children’s museum in the country. This article is a subjective account of the creation and development of this exhibition, written by two of its curators. It aims to give an example of curatorial and educational museum practices involving the young public’s interaction with artefacts in exhibitions or museums. The Iosif Herțea toy collection was donated recently to the Romanian non-governmental organization Asociația Da’ De Ce (I Wonder Why? Association). The result was an exhibition of original artefacts dedicated to children and their careers. The article traces the evolution of the exhibition concept: adapting the design and wayfinding to different locations; addressing different categories of public; and adding or subtracting artefacts and stories. The exhibition Elephants, Cuckoos, Horses, and Me was displayed in Romania in three different cultural spaces for six months in 2017 and visited by almost 4000 children and adults.\"","PeriodicalId":324681,"journal":{"name":"Martor. The Museum of the Romanian Peasant Anthropology Review","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124882284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Antidote Museum in practice: an artist and an ethnologist's iew on the Romanian Peasant Museum","authors":"F. Fouché, Mare Mesnil","doi":"10.57225/martor.2018.23.06","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2018.23.06","url":null,"abstract":"During an interview from Autumn 2017, in Bucharest, Marianne Mesnil (ethnologist) and Florian Fouché (artist) talk about their experience at the Romanian Peasant Museum in Bucharest. They are discussing about the museum display experienced by Irina Nicolau (1946-2002) and Horia Bernea (1938-2000): the exhibition hall “The Plague”, the curtains from “Village School”, the manifest “The Antidote Museum”, or the concepts of “father-museums” and “mother-museums”, the exhibition hall “Time”. Starting with their reflections on the Peasant Museum, the discussion turns to the exhibition that Florian Fouché had about the museum, entitled “The Antidote Museum” (Centre d’art Passerelle, Brest,2014), but also to the exhibitions that Irina Nicolau had set up in France, Un village dans une malle (Paris, 1991), and another one in Belgium, Roumanie en miroir, mémoires de tiroir (Treignes, 1997). The article is accompanied by photos taken by Florian Fouché of his exhibition.","PeriodicalId":324681,"journal":{"name":"Martor. The Museum of the Romanian Peasant Anthropology Review","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122385162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Revolutionary Curating, Curating the Revolution: Socialist Museology in Yugoslav Croatia","authors":"Joel Palhegyi","doi":"10.57225/martor.2018.23.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2018.23.02","url":null,"abstract":"The communist period for Yugoslav Croatia brought about dramatic changes in museum practice and theory between the early 1950s and late 1970s. Driven by questions concerning how to properly develop socialist museums, Croatian museum professionals sought to transform the bourgeois history museum into a truly popular institution that would make Croatia’s cultural legacy accessible to the masses and allow visitors to understand their place in the socialist Yugoslav imaginary. To this end, museum professionals developed two new museum models, the Revolutionary Museum and the Native Place Museum. Revolutionary Museums were charged with memorializing the founding myths of socialist Yugoslavia, chief among them the anti-fascist, communist revolution during World War Two, and the postwar building of socialism. Native Place Museums similarly reinforced the Yugoslav state by exhibiting local history and culture within the larger trajectory of socialist Yugoslavism. Furthermore, these two models were front and center for new museological experimentation intended to create a distinctly socialist museum space that would engage the everyday working-class visitor. Analyzing contemporary museological journals and museum planning documents, I argue that these museum models were successful in implementing much of the new museological theory, but in doing so moved away from one of the fundamental principles of museum practice: the exhibition and explanation of authentic material culture to the museum visitor.","PeriodicalId":324681,"journal":{"name":"Martor. The Museum of the Romanian Peasant Anthropology Review","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122304933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Objects + Things = Stuff. A Visitor’s Guide to Berlin’s Museum der Dinge","authors":"Jasmina Al-Qaisi","doi":"10.57225/martor.2018.23.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2018.23.11","url":null,"abstract":"Museology has shifted its focus in some places of the world: artefacts and historical objects are being repatriated, returned as permanent loans, institutions are questioning the ownership of indigenous objects, selections are made by kids, and texts are being written by visitors. The following case study discusses the reprioritization of a dynamic imagination around a museum’s purpose in a jejune way, from the perspective of an independent cultural worker, trained in visual communication and schooled in visual ethnography. The text, a non-linear narrative of the visitor's experience, is interspersed with excerpts from a recorded conversation between two visitors of the Werkbundarchiv – Museum der Dinge, Berlin. The Museum of Things does more than try to find a place for the Werkbund “stuff,” it opens up a continuous material dialogue that includes different perspectives on the history of design in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Founded in Munich, in 1907, the Deutscher Werkbund or the German Association of Craftsmen was the organisation of artists, artisans and architects that strove to ensure good design and craftsmanship in times of mass-production of goods and architecture. The Made in Germany label is commonly associated with durable products and viable design precisely due to the work of the Deutscher Werkbund, which made efforts to create those associations linked today with German architecture or industrial, commercial, and household German products. A visit to this museum can last forever due to the extra satirical layer, combining ethnographic methods with personal narratives. This text is a sample of a specific visitor experience in an unusual educational institution that, using almost exclusively analogue methods, reaches remarkable levels of interactivity.","PeriodicalId":324681,"journal":{"name":"Martor. The Museum of the Romanian Peasant Anthropology Review","volume":"378 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115535751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dakar’s Museum of Black Civilisations: Towards a New Imaginary of a Post-ethnographic Museum","authors":"Charline Kopf","doi":"10.57225/martor.2018.23.03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2018.23.03","url":null,"abstract":"How are postcolonial identities curated in non-Western art institutions? How do the latter engage with the question of the restitution of colonial looted artefacts during this turning point where Western museums seem increasingly willing to address claims of repatriation? Focusing on the unfolding debates on restitution and heritage around the new Museum of Black Civilisations (MCN) in Senegal, the article investigates how curatorial approaches aimed at challenging Eurocentrism address questions of identity, authenticity and discourses on the Other. It finds that, contrary to decolonial museum exhibitions in the West, the MCN avoids engaging in claims of restitution as this would reproduce Europe’s key role in defining “authentic” and “traditional” African art. At the same time, this paper shows that the underlying logic aimed to subvert exoticising representations and reconfigure Self-Other relations can uphold an internal dichotomy of cultures that risks lapsing into the same essentialism that is criticised. This is furthermore complicated by the tension between an imaginary of pan-African Black Civilisations and the criticism directed towards the management of artefacts in postcolonial states where nation-building is an ongoing process. In teasing out the challenges of formulating a reconfigured postcolonial future without drawing on culturalist discourses and reinforcing a dichotomy between modernity and tradition, this article adds a radically different perspective to the literature on heritage and museums in relation to colonialism and is also of relevance to those looking at curatorial practices, identity politics and international relations.","PeriodicalId":324681,"journal":{"name":"Martor. The Museum of the Romanian Peasant Anthropology Review","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126838362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Curating Change in the Museum: Introduction to the Volume","authors":"G. Bădescu, S. Bădică, Damiana Oțoiu","doi":"10.57225/martor.2018.23.01","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2018.23.01","url":null,"abstract":"Museums are places of conservation but they do not necessarily have to be conservative places. On the contrary, museums are sometimes at the vanguard of cultural innovation, changing the world rather than keeping up with the way the world changes. This thematic issue brings together texts and case-studies of museums challenging the status-quo, opening up instead of closing in, daring instead of being cautious, all the while keeping up the standards of preserving and exhibiting the precious collections in their care.","PeriodicalId":324681,"journal":{"name":"Martor. The Museum of the Romanian Peasant Anthropology Review","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127722008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cracks and Light: Observing the Resilience of the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina","authors":"S. Harrington, B. Dimitrijević, Ashraf M. Salama","doi":"10.57225/martor.2018.23.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2018.23.08","url":null,"abstract":"Among the seven national institutions of the former socialist Yugoslav period that appear to have been assigned to the category of ‘contested’ and ‘unwanted’ heritage, the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina stands out. Originally built as a Museum of Revolution, it bears a legacy of a specific identity and cultural narrative developed in the socialist period, which has been projected in the architecture displaying the hallmarks of early Modernism. Even though the Museum was listed as a national monument by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments in 2012, the building is in an alarmingly advanced state of disrepair, with little indication that such trend will be reversed any time soon.The paper firstly discusses the Museum in the context of current international developments and the aspects related to museum architecture. Secondly, the Museum is observed through a critical heritage lens and within phenomena of a deliberate destruction of heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 2003 the Museum has a permanent exhibition The Besieged Sarajevo, illustrating the practical modes of survival during the 1990s war, consisting of artefacts donated by citizens. Other exhibition themes, ranging from the labour movement traditions, the legacy of World War I, life in former Yugoslavia, the Dayton Peace Agreement mapping, and The Obliteration of Cultural Heritage project, posit critical questions for and about the contemporary society in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This work combines two disciplinary fields, architecture and public history, to inquire into selected contemporary activities of the Museum. Its resilience is viewed as representative, symbolic, and symptomatic of an over-reaching cultural, political, and economic condition in the country.","PeriodicalId":324681,"journal":{"name":"Martor. The Museum of the Romanian Peasant Anthropology Review","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132817676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Connecting Communities: “From Near to Far. Visual Cartographies of the Spaces 2 Mai and Vama Veche”","authors":"Ruxandra Petrinca","doi":"10.57225/martor.2021.26.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.57225/martor.2021.26.08","url":null,"abstract":"The Visual Cartographies of the Spaces 2 Mai and Vama Veche exhibit brings together works of visual art in multiple forms, from different artists, spaces, and historical periods. Artefacts from established artists and villagers are displayed together to explore the connection between two seemingly different communities and the enduring charm of Romania’s poshest summer destination.","PeriodicalId":324681,"journal":{"name":"Martor. The Museum of the Romanian Peasant Anthropology Review","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124617751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}