DEN SIAMESISKE SAMLING I EBELTOFT

Abstract

Rasmus Havmøller did the Siamese
 Collection during the twenty years he was
 a forester in Siam. In 1940, after returning
 to his native Ebeltoft, Havmøller donated his
 collection to the local museum. The objects
 were displayed according to his wishes
 and remain in much the same arrangement
 today after a recent conservation of all 6-800
 items. The article argues that the collection’s
 musealogical interest is to be found in the
 character of the presentation of the objects. In
 three small rooms, filled to the brim, we meet
 objects gathered by one person according to
 his interests. Hunting trophies, specimens
 in spirits, utensils, ceramics, stone tools
 etc., mostly from Siam. The moment the
 gathered objects left Siam they obtained a
 quality of completion, became a whole, so to
 speak, with no additions possible. This was
 the number of statements or testimonies of
 a foreign reality that chance and personality
 had brought together: A true collection.
 Accordingly, all objects are presented as
 individuals of equal im-portance. Most are
 provided with a factual, very brief text:
 “Gold from Bang Sapan, northern Siam”,
 “536 Gecco. Very common in houses, living
 from insects. This specimen of medium
 size”, “Fruit from the rain forest”. One meets
 the objects as single and free individuals,
 which speak only of themselves. Wider
 contexts like Siam, or the ingenuity of the
 biological world, or the life of an employee
 during colonial times must be perceived
 by the visitors themselves. This way of
 presenting objects stands in great contrast to
 many present day exhibitions. These often
 consist of objects brought together from
 many different sources in order to represent
 an academic category which is common to
 them. Such constructions hold numerous
 rewards perhaps for communicating cultural
 history, but in disregarding the original
 context, setting, and aura of the participating
 exhibits, they leave out important primary
 information and remain useful, but artificial.
 The object and its original background thus
 may become a prisoner of the carefully lit and
 coloured showcase in which it is displayed,
 as well as becoming a hostage of the
 educational, lengthy text that accompanies it.
 To apply the simple, unconsciously adopted
 principles of the 1940-displays in Ebeltoft –
 one object, one text, simple appearance, no
 sermons – to a modern exhibition is possible
 of course, but it may meet with numerous
 difficulties. Major limits are omitting what
 is technically possible, and not narrating all
 that one knows, reserving this knowledge
 for the catalogue. Thus, the exhibit under
 discussion allows the objects to appear as
 they were while found, collected, and still
 around us as parts of a whole, but basically
 as particulars.