Cristina Lleras
Museum Studies, University of Leicester, UK/ Art and History Curator, Museo Nacional de Colombia, Colombia
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Published in: Comparing: National Museums; Territories; Nation-Building and Change. NaMu IV; Linköping University; Norrköping; Sweden 18-20 February 2008
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 30:21, p. 279-300
Published: 2008-05-20
ISBN:
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
The perpetual crisis of national museums is directly related to the character of the nation that has been considered – since the latter half of the 20th century – as elusive; fluid; constructed and difficult to grasp. How have national museums reacted; supported; resisted or rejected political changes of the nation? What were the privileged representations of the Nation-state? And what are the ways in which these institutions are trying to come to grips with multicultural and multiethnic societies? In an attempt to shed light on these questions; this essay is constructed around the tensions and challenges that face national museums as they aim to represent both a fragmented and united community with the pressures to overcompensate past exclusions.
In order to look at how national museums have responded to their contexts; and the role they are playing today; the paper will examine the case of the Museo Nacional de Colombia. This Latin American country has; in the last fifteen years; advanced greatly in terms of developing a legislation that recognizes the existence of multiple ethnicities and cultures in opposition of the well-known project of homogenization that characterized the Nation-state. Nevertheless; the reality of the communities is complex and though symbolically the 1991 Constitution has had great impact; there has been a backlash in terms of overcoming discrimination; poverty and improvement of the living conditions of marginalized groups. What then; is the role of the museum in this changed setting?
