WHAT'S IN THE NAME



  • Temple of the Truth or Forum for Identities?
      On the one hand, blockbuster shows at major museums like the Museum of Modern Art or the Metropolitan constantly reshape the cultural landscape by using their immense authority to elevate, redefine, or ignore artists and movements. On the other, historical and ethnological museums (and art museums too) are on the front lines of the culture wars, balancing the claims of specific communities for justice (Native Americans demanding new respect for their sacred objects; veterans demanding control over how World War II is depicted) against the need to serve a wider public or a broader concept of the "truth."

  • Changes of the field of Museums
      "Museums", said David Ross, director of the Whitney Museum, New York, "are directly challenged by the World Wide Web, in the way that they should be. Artist should always challenge museums, to redefine themselves in what their role is in relationship to the presentation of works of art. On a certain level, the artist doesn't need us. The artist can go directly to the audience, the artist and the audience merge, their relationship is very integral to the web, the interchange of authorship is very important for the web. The idea that authority is fluid is very important to the web. Well, museums, like television stations, understand authority in a very different way. In my museum I am the director, I am the authority, right? Well, what does that mean in the relationship with this medium? Nothing. As soon as you enter this medium, authority is erased as we knew it. So we have to very carefully think through what this means." (from: an interview on the Dutch 3 Chanel, the program Laat op de avond na een korte wandeling...# 025

  • Museum Discussion
      Museum professionals in a very high-level series of discussions and debates). MUSEUM-L@UNMVMA.BITNET


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