Aleksandra N. BALASHSt. Petersburg State Institute of Culture
Palace Embankment, 2, St. Petersburg, Russia, 191186
Professor of the Department of Museology and Cultural Heritage
Doctor in Cultural Studies
Associate Professor
e-mail: alexandrabalash@gmail.com
ORCID: 0000-0002-7947-0376
The Representation in a Performative MuseumAbstract: The article discusses how the analysis of display in interdisciplinary studies of culture changes museum research on the problems of museum representation. It is shown that the analysis of the specifics of modern museum representation clarifies the understanding of the museum as a phenomenon of modern culture and its status as a social institution, its influence on the development of modern society. The model of a presentist/non-presentist museum (R. Krauss, K. Bishop) was chosen as a working hypothesis. This model emphasizes the functions of representation not only in relation to the politics of spectatorship, but also to museum collections. It also presents contemporary art as a media for the modernization of museum space and its temporality. This approach makes it possible to designate the value-based absence/presence of a museum collection in the practices of museum representation.
The non-presentist model is interpreted as a manifestation of performativity in the museum. In this case, remediation becomes the leading form of representation. Remediation as a translation and intensive interaction through new and experimental media has become one of the leading channels for the transmission and preservation of information and cultural codes in the era of media culture. In museums, remediation practices are implemented mainly in interdisciplinary research and contemporary art projects. Remediation in relation to heritage and museum collections is opposed to the practices of appropriation that dominated art and curatorial practices of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Remediation in the museum is based on the desire for authenticity of individual or collective interaction with cultural artifacts and their meanings. Diversification of museum display practices is possible through the development of performative forms of representation. This position is confirmed by the analysis of the concept of the "metabolic museum" (С. Delisse), based on the principles of remediation and the new museum ethics in the display and accessibility of museum collections.
Key words: museum, museum collection, museum representation, criticism of representation, museum experience, re-mediation, authenticity, performative museum.
References:
- Casey, V. (2003). The Museum Effect: Gazing from object to performance in the contemporary cultural-history museum. Ecole du Louvre.
- Krauss R. (2021). Kul’turnaya logika pozdnekapitalisticheskogo muzeya [The Cultural Logic of the Late Capitalist Museum], Hudozhestvennyj Zhurnal, 117. 34–47. (In Russian).
- Grojs B. (2021). Kogda zhivopis’ stanovitsya veshch’yu [When painting becomes a thing], Hudozhestvennyj Zhurnal, 117. 49–57. (In Russian).
- Bishop C. (2014). Radikal’naya muzeologiya, ili Tak li uzh «sovremenny» muzei sovremennogo iskusstva? [Radical Museology, or, What’s “Contemporary” in Museums of Contemporery Art?]. Ad Marginem Press, 2014. (In Russian).
- Bishop C. (2018). Iskusstvennyj ad. Participatornoe iskusstvo i politiki zritel’stva. [Artficial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship]. V-A-C press, 2018. (In Russian).
- Bolter, J.D., Grusin, R. (1999). Remediation: Understanding New Media. MIT Press.
- Erll, A., Rigney, A. (2009). Introduction: Cultural Memory and its Dynamics. In A. Erll, A. Rigney (Ed.), Mediation, Remediation, and the Dynamics of Cultural Memory. De Gruyter. 1–14.
- Garoian C.R. (2020). Performativnyj muzej [Performing the museum], The Garage Journal: issledovaniya v oblasti iskusstva, muzeev i kul’tury, 1. 28–47. (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.35074/GJ.2020.1.1.004
- Van Mensh P., Meijer-Van Mensh L. (2021). Novye trendy v muzeologii. [New Trends in Museology]. Perspektiva, 2021. (In Russian).
- Deliss C. (2021). Metabolicheskij muzej. [The Metabolic Museum]. Garage, 2021. (In Russian).
- Deliss, C., Keck, F. (2016). Remediation, and some problems post-ethnographic museums face, Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, V. 6, 1. 386–390.
- Deliss, C. Exhibition and Empire: decolonizing museums requires a new “Metabolic” Architecture. https://032c.com/exhibition-and-empire-curator-clementine-deliss-calls-for-a-decolonial-museum-architecture(Retrieved January 25, 2022).
- Suarez, P. (2016). Climate Risks, Art and Red Cross Action: Towards a Humanitarian Role for Museums? In Ecologising Museums. L’internationale books. 110–119.
For Citation: Balash, A. (2022) The Representation in a Performative Museum. International Journal of Cultural Research, 1 (46). 6–27. DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2022_1_6
DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2022_1_6
