Cultural memory in the museum and its dialogue with collective and individual memory

Abstract

This article analyses the forms of cultural memory (storage and functio- nal memory) relying on the work of Aleida Assmann and the German cultural memory school (Assmann, 1999; 2004), and their changes in memory institutions in connection with the institution’s dialogue with individual and collective memory. Assmann’s theory is supplemented with museological communication schemes (Hooper-Grenhill, 1996) and a definition of the medium of collective memory (Erll, 2004). The aim of this article is to discuss the effect of functional memory in the context of the mediation work of a modern museum. The article will deal more thoroughly with the functionalizing process of cultural memory in the museum based on a specific pedagogical programme at the Estonian Open Air Museum.