Reading Day 1
Historical CollectionRM #essay, #challengethemuseumcollection, #beauty
Pristine marble shelves support dusted treasures, untouched, proud, significant. They accompany human history, eviden cing a consecutive tale of progress. A linear perception of time is useful. It is consequent. However, it leaves an echoing empty room of the untold; the once unspeakable. Historical collections are part of a testimony of the common ground, of that which builds an identity throughout communities, or nations. They are the voice however not of an absolute universal consensus but of an exclusionary authority confined in the enclosure of her times. The attempt to establish a collection that speaks with a global voice is hopeless. Instead, a museum could shape its collection to speak from singular voices who were once muted and subdued. Immediate assumptions of what an art object represents can potentially be used to the museum’s advantage. Re-locating the familiar association as a complement instead of as protagonist may be a good strategy to induce a new reading of history, supported by other art works and documentation. It is however fundamental to acknowledge that historical collections have a limited potential, restricted not by the amount of works they contain but by the subjectivity of their reading. The power, influence, and public presence among the largest museums in the world—despite their close resemblance to capitalism—are a good starting point of experimentation in how objects can be displayed to a public, thirsty for consumption. Ideally, the viewer should be presented with a challenge and be incited to begin an internal debate. What do
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