Writing the museum

Anais do Museu Paulista: História e Cultura Material, 2013

The history of museums could get inspired on the procedures of material studies and of Anthropology in order to take a new stand and move away from the institutional approach and consider the approach of objects traditionally labelled as museum objects. The so-called "museum pieces" are supposed to have a number of characteristics, particularly some great historical and artistic qualities, sometimes an heritage quality, but above all the ability to make "friends" around the community or around the world. In all these respects, it is proposed here a number of research procedures that may supplement or enrich the directions usually assigned to the history of institutions.

Humanities research, 2009

Over the course of this discourse, I have outlined in brief certain significant challenges facing the museum of the 21st century. My predecessor, Ad de Jong, in 2009 queried when the next turning point in the museum domain would arrive. In my view, we still find ourselves on the turning point between modernism and postmodernism. Reflecting on now well-entrenched modernity is crucial, but also problematic when it comes to interpretation into museum praxis. The example of the clay seal with its likeness of Caesar makes clear that an entire world may lurk behind an apparently arbitrary object. The differing value systems of modernism and postmodernism exist alongside each other to a significant extent, but also regularly collide. How do we deal with this: do we want to go back to the past, do we cleave to what we have, or do we go with the times? I hope to have clarified that we constantly create our own past by whatever means, that we link that past to places and objects, and that this is inevitably and irrevocably bound up with collective memory. I have used Caesar’s clay seal as example. It reveals the different types of historical awareness and the difference in evaluation. That awareness is significant because it may be an ordering principle for museums. This chair concerns the study of objects and I have aimed to clarify that objects are the vehicle for our collective memory. Their meaning in terms of dynamic heritage is always in motion. I spoke about ‘going with the times’. That sounds so simple, but it means that we open ourselves to change, that we are curious about the other, sensitive to the biography and diversity locked up in the people and objects around us. We then arrive once more at the many-voiced and layered nature of our own identity. Our amnesia is irrevocable, and the things we do gather up or preserve seems arbitrary. When the temple archive in Edfu burnt down hundreds of documents were lost. The clay seals that remained and were preserved after the fire in my view symbolise the balance that we should strive for in heritage management. Here the three stations of past, present and future form a simple guideline. In the first place, the clay seal is an historical source, unlocking as an object different perspectives on Julius Caesar. At the same time it is important that we try to link this clay seal with the here and now. Just last year the seal was exhibited for the first time during the MuseumCamp at the Allard Pierson Museum. A publication is currently being prepared, and in the near future everyone will soon be able to make a 3D-print of it. This object will thereby provide inspiration for new generations, and new layers of meaning will grow. What is important is that we have to allow ourselves a reservoir. It took more than a century before the relevance and meaning of this clay seal were perceived. But here we confront another paradox: that of the digital storage of our recollections. The more we store digitally, the more vulnerable and evanescent our digital memory turns out to be. At the end of this lecture, I am afraid I have to confuse you a little. The clay seal with Caesar’s likeness has been the leitmotiv in my argument. But we do not know what Caesar really looked like by any means. Yes, we have coins depicting Caesar, but they are not uniform. And the likeness of sculpted portraits is still debated. Nevertheless, there is an image of Caesar in our collective memory, and so also in this museum object. In any event, this clay seal impression participates in our perception. And that is what I mean by the museum as medium of memory.

Cadernos De Sociomuseologia, 2010

Reviewed in 'Museum & Society', 2017

Museums: A History, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016, hardcover £.54.95, pp. v+304

1995

2014

Booklet with synopses from the international symposium arranged by Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation