At the end and at the beginning - the carnival: Museology in transition

Abstract

The processes of transition within the socio-cultural surroundings of contemporary Serbia have inevitably found their way into the activities of the Ethnographic museum in Belgrade. As a significant participant and representative of cultural policy, immersed in the concept of conservation of intangible cultural heritage, the museum itself is at a turning point that should signify the overcoming of the dichotomies between the proclaimed and desired objectives and the achieved results. The frameworks that display standard, petrified representations of cultures, and, on the other hand, the acceptance of concepts of the new museology, have contributed to an improvement in the ingrained concepts, models and systems of museological thought and practice, which in turn signifies changes in the everyday life of museums. Based on this, as well as an analysis of key communication points and meanings within the exhibition project At the End and at the Beginning - the Carnival, which the museum realized as part of Museum Night - an important (in Serbia) museological manifestation, this paper deals with the possibilities and possible avenues as well as dead ends which contributed to the processes of theoretical and practical modernization of museology and Serbian museological practice.