Museum Politics Research Articles

The Landscape of Historical Memory: The Politics of Museums and Memorial Culture in Post-Martial Law Taiwan

The Landscape of Historical Memory: The Politics of Museums and Memorial Culture in Post-Martial Law Taiwan

Kirk A. Denton, The Landscape of Historical Memory: The Politics of Museums and Memorial Culture in Post-Martial Law Taiwan

Kirk A. Denton, The Landscape of Historical Memory: The Politics of Museums and Memorial Culture in Post-Martial Law Taiwan

The Landscape of Historical Memory: The Politics of Museums and Memorial Culture in Post-martial Law Taiwan, written by Kirk A. Denton

The Landscape of Historical Memory: The Politics of Museums and Memorial Culture in Post-martial Law Taiwan, written by Kirk A. Denton

The Landscape of Historical Memory: The Politics of Museums and Memorial Culture in Post-Martial Law Taiwan, Kirk A. Denton (2021)

Review of: The Landscape of Historical Memory: The Politics of Museums and Memorial Culture in Post-Martial Law Taiwan, Kirk A. Denton (2021) Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 284 pp., ISBN 978-9-88852-8-578, h/bk, HKD 620.00

Introduction: the issue of duplicates.

The permanent preservation of objects in global custodianship is a captivating ideal that informs countless museums' corporate identities and governs collection guidelines as well as politics. Recent research has challenged the alleged perpetuity of collections and collected items, revealing their coherence as fragile and dependent on historically, politically and culturally specific conditions. Duplicates offer an instructive point of entry to explore the idea of collection permanence, museum politics, and the mobility of museum objects. The history of duplicates, moreover, comprises a constellation of practises, concepts and debates that can be found in various forms throughout the intertwined histories of natural-scientific, ethnographic and artistic collections. This history, however, has rarely been questioned or explored. By introducing the issue of duplicates, this paper opens up a discussion that not only connects different forms of collections, but also situates the history of collecting institutions across the disciplinary spectrum within broader political, economic and epistemic frameworks.

Book Review: The Landscape of Historical Memory: The Politics of Museums and Memorial Culture in Post-Martial Law Taiwan by Kirk A. Denton

Book Review: <i>The Landscape of Historical Memory: The Politics of Museums and Memorial Culture in Post-Martial Law Taiwan</i> by Kirk A. Denton

The Landscape of Historical Memory: The Politics of Museums and Memorial Culture in Post–Martial Law Taiwan, by Kirk A. Denton. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2021. 284 pp. HK$620.00/US$79.00 (cloth).

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsThe Landscape of Historical Memory: The Politics of Museums and Memorial Culture in Post–Martial Law Taiwan, by Kirk A. Denton. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2021. 284 pp. HK$620.00/US$79.00 (cloth).Shu-Mei HuangShu-Mei HuangNational Taiwan University, Taipei Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The China Journal Volume 87January 2022 Published on behalf of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/716982 Views: 38Total views on this site For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

От кризиса до расцвета: современный музей в оценках специалистов

The article is devoted to conflicting assessments of the state of the museum in contemporary museum criticism: museums are experiencing either a protracted crisis or the Golden Age. The public is also criticized: people prefer to come to museums in order to be entertained with the help of new technologies and to achieve a scientific goal, and not in order to fulfill their civic duty (appreciating national treasure). In general, among the objectives of the museum (to form a “national imaginary”, to support a state ideology, to serve as a scientific and educational center, to entertain and give pleasure), the aesthetic is in the last place, but the current negative views about the state of a museum as a sociocultural institution are caused by the general suspicion that aesthetics has come to the fore as the most important factor. In order to correctly assess what is happening, modern approaches to the duties of the museum and the needs of the general public need to take the existing points of view on this subject in both Russian and international specialized literature into account. The analysis of the situation also involves data from Internet resources specializing in reporting on the modern art market, which is closely tied to museum politics. The article compares various approaches to the current situation: the goals and objectives historically attributed to the museum, a review of current exhibitions and of the technology used, a change in museum policy as a whole (in particular the fact that what was considered a profanation of a great idea 10 years ago has become a cultural norm today). Based on the results of the study, the following conclusion can be made: modern museums are indeed extremely commercialized. The most unexpected souvenirs are sold in museum stores. Para-museums openly parasitize on the tourist flow of large museums. More than that, nobody thinks twice about making a profit in any possible way, while simultaneously grumbling about the fall in cultural demands of the public. However, interest in museums among the general population remains unchanged, so asserting the widespread crisis of the modern museum is a very big stretch.

Uncertain Future

Uncertain Future

Cultural Heritage Law and Transitional Justice: The Law and Politics of Tragedy Corpses and Atrocity Museums

This paper discusses the relationships between (international) cultural heritage law and transitional justice (TJ) from the perspective of two major heritage domains: Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) and movable cultural heritage, seen from the perspective of museums, particularly human rights and atrocity museums. The paper connects the two domains through the experience of heritage law with human remains, here described alternately as tragedy or science corpses. These two categories receive very distinctive treatment under cultural heritage law, with only tragedy corpses (which align more closely with TJ) being endowed with dignity. The law’s role is to shape the types of heritage narratives and therefore identity that are possible through these corpses and museums, and whether they can function as mechanisms to serve TJ goals. The paper argues that, while these two domains hold great promise to serve TJ goals, they also fall short in reinforcing the interpretation of heritage in means that, instead of serving TJ and lasting peace, focus instead on nationalism and victimhood, effectively becoming in many respects obstacles to the intercultural dialogue that is key to promoting lasting peace through heritage.

Critical representations of Southern African inequality: Transcending outmoded exhibition and museum politics

ABSTRACTIllustrating inequality to a more general public – beyond those concerned purely with public policy and research – presents various challenges. Museums have often served a function of memorialising both the impressive steps forward and major barriers to social progress, as a form of remembrance and understanding, although the twentieth century format in South Africa was generally embedded within colonial and racist self-glorification. The potential to transcend outmoded exhibition and museum politics with a new approach based on dialogical not didactic presentation, arises with inequality. In this exploration of how such an approach might unfold in the world's most unequal major city (as judged by the Palma Ratio), Johannesburg, the concept of threshold is introduced. Physical and conceptual access through overcoming thresholds is explored through a specific site, the Old Post Office, and through two artifacts that reveal structural power that generates inequality: Durban's sanitation system and Eastern Zimbabwe's diamond fields.

Preliminary Notes towards a Soteriological Analysis of Museums

This article investigates the potentials of the concept of soteriology in museology. It is claimed that modern museum politics and policy can be analyzed as a soteriology built around the idea that culture is a means to promote peace, and that it can offer salvation from the inhumane horrors of World War II. The UN in general, and UNESCO in particular, played key roles as soteriological institutions after WWII, akin to that of the modern nation-state in the Westphalian order after the so-called Wars of Religion of the 17th century. The soteriological element in the nation-state is the nation, in UNESCO it is culture and heritage. Building on this as a premise the text explores the museological potentials of the concept of soteriology.

Illusionary equality? Museum politics, practice and immigrant heritage

ABSTRACTIncreased migration has prompted discussions regarding most of the prime functions of museums as societal institutions. When the population and potential users of museums become more heterogeneous and diverse, the idea of a shared common national history becomes contested. Immigrant cultures have an important function in history writing and in heritage production. Many museum officials are currently concerned about developing new means to enable museums to face the challenges arising from increased migration. Such societal changes effect both the larger, long established national institutions, and the smaller regional or local museums. Although their means and methods vary significantly, the degree of inventiveness, engagement and resourcefulness is not necessarily proportional to the institution’s age or size. In this article, we ask what are the means and approaches that Norwegian museums currently use to involve migrants in museum work and how do they include stories and experiences from modern migrants in their collections.

The Politics of Representation in South African Museums

Politics are an integral part of our museums, and, in light of the question of power this paper aims to unpack the politics of representation in South African museums in the post-apartheid era. I argue that the politics of the colonial era and apartheid era still prevail in South African museums today. In South African politics during apartheid, certain race groups had privileges over the others, and museums and public commemorations were affected. Museums represented the power holders, their concepts of museology, of public commemoration and society. In apartheid South Africa, the focus was on white control and Afrikaner Nationalism. Following the first democratic elections of 1994, the focus in representations in the heritage sector, thus in museums, shifted to reconciliation (as the country was divided in a way that certain groups were deprived of basic human rights) and nation building. There were major policy changes to enforce transformation. McGregor & Schumaker (2006) pointed out that state-led commemorations were selective, liable to elevate the ruling party ignoring the youth and women. Kratz (2011) placed emphasis on the importance of rhetorics of value in museums. Rhetorics of value invoke a range of experiences, deal with thematic content, thread throughout an exhibition or museum conveying ways objects are treated and presented, and are also related to visitors’ own identities, judgments and perceptions of worth (Kratz, 2011). There are a number of techniques that one can apply to study the politics of museums. I will use this concept to analyse the museums within eThekwini Municipality and unpack the politics of representation. This paper pays attention to the emphasis on representing settler histories and male leaders and questions how women and Africans are represented in museums.

Pulling the Past into the Present: Curating Islamic Art in a Changing World, a Perspective from Berlin

Abstract Demographic and social change presents museums with challenges at various levels. Islam has become a core referent in public discourse, which often also affects views of collective identity and personal political stances in fundamental ways. The dominant place of Islam in global debate does not stop at the doors of our museums. The main thesis of this article is that exhibitions of Islamic art are, whether we like it or not, sites of identity negotiation where relations to ‘me and my world’ are established. This article takes a closer look at the process of identity formation in regard to contemporary museum politics. It asks questions such as, ‘In what ways do the social dynamics surrounding the subject of Islam function, and how do these impact museum spaces?’; ‘What role do museums have in these emerging dynamics?’; and ‘How do curators respond to the shifting needs of visitors?’ The classical layout and communication strategies of Islamic art collections were often insufficiently framed to address these layered concerns, despite curators’ knowledge of the rich diversity of Islamicate histories. During the last few years, however, different curatorial teams have struggled to discover better techniques and narratives for this diversity. The Berlin Museum contains one such team, and the second part of this article outlines some of their new approaches.

Museum Politics in Turkey Under the Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP): the Case of the Istanbul Museum of the History of Science and Technology in Islam

Under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish State and society at large have been subject to significant changes. Besides the recent increasing authoritarianism of the government, Islam made its way through politics like never before, and a new national ideology promoted by the AKP, Turkish Muslim Nationalism, laid the cultural foundations for a new Turkey and new Turks. In this paper, I put forward the claim that new national museums play a relevant role in shaping this new Turkey. In particular, they function as performative cabinets exhibiting the national ideology of the ruling party. I have looked into one of these museums, the Istanbul Museum of the Science and Technology in Islam, researching the links between the AKP, which promotes Turkish Muslim nationalism, and new museums, which exhibit it. The outcome of this study suggests that the IMSTI functioned as the resource and the host of national symbols manufactured by and within the ruling class to be supplied to the masses. The political class, represented here by the AKP, commissioned the museum, whereas cultural agents that shared the party’s political ideology were appointed to make it. This collaboration benefited both parts, so much so that profit seems to have been a crucial ingredient in the making of this museum.

Schomburgk’s Chook: the entangled South Australian collections of a German naturalist

ABSTRACTFocusing on the politics of museums, collections and the untold stories of the scientific ‘specimens’ that travelled between Germany and Australia, this article reconstructs the historical, interpersonal and geopolitical contexts that made it possible for the stuffed skin of an Australian malleefowl to become part of the collections of Berlin’s Museum für Naturkunde. The author enquires into the kinds of contexts that are habitually considered irrelevant when a specimen of natural history is treated as an object of taxonomic information only. In case of this particular specimen human and non-human history become entangled in ways that link the fate of this one small Australian bird to the German revolutionary generation of 1848, to Germany’s nineteenth-century colonial aspirations, to settler–Indigenous relations, to the cruel realities that underpinned the production of scientific knowledge in colonial Australia, and to a present-day interest in reconstructing Indigenous knowledges.

The Politics and Poetics of the Museum in Ulysses

The Politics and Poetics of the Museum in Ulysses

Book Review: Clive Gray, The Politics of Museums

Book Review: Clive Gray, <i>The Politics of Museums</i>

Re-Imagine

Re-Imagine