Conference article

The One; the Many and the Other: Revisiting Cultural Diversity in Museums of Cultural History

Saphinaz-Amal Naguib
Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo, Norway

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Published in: National museums in a global world. NaMu III; Department of culture studies and oriental languages; University of Oslo; Norway; 19-21 November 2007

Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 31:1, p. 5-19

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Published: 2008-07-16

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ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)

Abstract

This article is about modes of exhibition in museums of cultural history in western Europe from the second half of the 20th century to today. I begin by considering some of the challenges national museums are facing today and then go briefly back in time to the evolutionary mode and what I call the didactic descriptive museology with its galleries of objects-witnesses and trophies that was prevalent until the end of the 1970s. Next; I discuss the polyphonic narrative turn and the museology of intersecting gazes that developed during the 1980s and which is still applied in European museums today. Thereafter; I probe the aesthetic mode which is a favourite strategy of display when treating themes pertaining to cultural diversity and otherness since the 1990s. To conclude; I present some thoughts about what I describe as the nomadic turn and the aesthetics of transience that have become the trend since the turn of our millennium. Before going on I want to emphasize that these different museological approaches do not follow a strict chronology. Their paths are often juxtaposed and overlapping.

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List of Illustrations

Photo 1: Palestinian dresses. Exhibition held at Museum of Cultural History of the University of Oslo. Copyright: Museum of Cultural History; University of Oslo.

Photo 2: Showcase with African headdresses (1999). Copyright: Museum of Cultural History; University of Oslo.

Photo 3: “La Mémoire du Congo.”; Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale; Tervuren (2005). Photograph: the autor.

Photo 4: Repères. Permanent exhibition; Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration; Paris (2007). Photograph: the author.

Photo 5: Climbing Down. Installation by Barthélémy Toguo. Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration; Paris (2007). Photograph: the author.

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