Anja B. Nelle: Mapping museality in world heritage towns
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What is museality in the urban context?
A group around Wolfgang Zacharias in the 1980s used the word musealisation to give an active touch to the rather static word museum. Zacharias explains that musealisation has expanded to contexts outside the museum.10 Michael Müller writes: “It is no coincidence that musealisation of urban space conjures up associations with museums”. In his definition of musealisation he focuses on public space: “musealisation is a current strategy for transforming urban spaces and exerts significant influence on social, cultural and aesthetic efforts directed towards visible reconstruction of the past.”11 However, the characteristics of the phenomenon of musealisation in towns and how they can be influenced has not yet been thoroughly researched. Eva Sturm defines three characteristics of musealisation with a focus on objects: ‘Defunctioning’ or ‘a change of functions’, ‘a change of context’ and ‘a new relation between the subject (viewer) and the object, whereby the viewer takes on a posture of admiration’.12 The adaptation of Sturm’s characteristics for the urban context leads to museality – a scenario that describes the town as a museum. In the urban context of world heritage towns we can distinguish between two aspects of museality: ‘The loss of presence of local everyday life’ and ‘the transformation of the town into a consumer product’. The loss of presence of local everyday life occurs if reuse has led to abandonment of local facilities and services that satisfy the everyday requirements of residents. The social interaction amongst the local population in this area is thus reduced. The establishment of tourism facilities (museums, souvenir shops, cafés) that are linked to the appropriation of public space by tourists leads to a reduction of social interaction amongst the local population. The combination of ‘conservation’ and ‘reuse for tourism facilities’ are the two actions that generate museality in the sense of ‘the loss of presence of local everyday life’. The actions result from the desire to fulfil the function of remembrance and the function of utility. The transformation of the town into a consumer product is a result of all three functions. In a world heritage town the ‘historic image’ or the ‘journey into the past’ are the products that are marketed for consumption. The historic image has an ‘old-age value’. This does not necessarily mean that a particular epoch is rebuilt. Historic continuity (substance of different epochs until the present) and signs of contemporary life (billboards, street furniture, advertising, dress) are designed to look historical to blend in with the ‘image’. Authenticity and the link to contemporary life are neglected for the sake of ‘directing’ an historic atmosphere that satisfies the function of meaning. Graham, Ashworth and Tunbridge state that “...heritage places are places of consumption and are arranged to encourage consumption...”13 Jones and Varley write about Puebla
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Compare Zacharias (1990): 7; Zacharias uses the German word “Musealisierung”.
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Müller (1999): 361, Müller uses the word “musealisation” in the same sense that other authors use “museumification”.
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Compare Sturm (1990): 100 —101.
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Graham, Ashworth, Tunbridge (2000): 20.