Global museum thinking
Door kunstvlo op October 29, 2009 02:12. 24 comments
Canada is a melting-pot of identities, that’s for sure. In Montréal everyone seems to be foreigner and at first sight that doesn’t seem to be a very big problem. On the contrary. There is an open-mindedness I really like: you can easily talk to people or people address you first. Also at the conference, the organizers do whatever they can to make it a pleasant experience for everyone.
Hurrah for globalization? I’m only staying for a couple of days so I am bound to be stuck with my impressions at first sight, but when I see how easily I can relate to Canadian people globalization is a fact.
Yet, at the conference Museality and intermediality. New Museum Paradigms it soon became clear that human relationships are something quite different than cultural traditions.
It is remarkable how we are all locked in by our own cultural traditions. Concerning museology there is a real rupture between Francophone and Anglosaxon traditions. Anglosaxon museum studies consider the museum as part of a social world and basically as a power institution. Change, transformation and dynamism are central concepts. In Francophone museology however the object seems to stay the key concept. Consequently, discourses on the meaning of the museum are quite different.
For me, a Flemish speaking Belgian citizen, this is all very interesting. Especially because it is not at all clear to me to which ‘cultural or museological tradition’ we belong. What a relief! It must be quite a burden carrying ‘a tradition’ around all the time.
I prefer to travel light, to have an open mind and to learn from all traditions along the way.