The Contemporary Museum: Shaping Museums for the Global Now

259 Pages·2018·34.703 MB·English

by  Simon Knell (editor)

The ConTemporary
museum
The Contemporary Museum issues a challenge to those who view the museum as an arte-
fact of history, constrained in its outlook as much by professional, institutional and
disciplinary creed, as by the collections it accumulated in the distant past. Denying that
the museum can locate its purpose in the pursuit of tradition or in idealistic speculation
about the future, the book asserts that this can only be found through an ongoing and
proactive negotiation with the present: the contemporary.
This volume is not concerned with any present, but with the peculiar circumstances
of what it refers to as the ‘global contemporary’ – the sense of living in a globally con-
nected world that is preoccupied with the contemporary. To situate the museum in this
world of real and immediate need and action, beyond the reach of history, the book
argues, is to empower it to challenge existing dogmas and inequalities and sweep aside
old hierarchies. as a result, fundamental questions need to be asked about such things as
the museum’s relationship to global time and space, to systems and technologies of
knowing, to ‘the life well lived’, to the movement and rights of people, and to the
psychology, permanence and organisation of culture.
Incorporating diverse viewpoints from around the world, The Contemporary Museum
is a follow-up volume to Museum Revolutions and, as such, should be essential reading
for students in the fields of museum and heritage studies, cultural studies, communica-
tion and media studies, art history and social policy. academics and museum profes-
sionals will also find this book a source of inspiration.
Simon Knell is professor of museum studies and the senior academic in the school of
museum studies at the university of Leicester. he has also acted as head of Depart-
ment and Dean of arts.

The ConTemporary
museum
shaping museums for the Global now
Edited by Simon Knell
First published 2019
by routledge
2 park square, milton park, abingdon, oxon oX14 4rn
and by routledge
711 Third avenue, new york, ny 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 selection and editorial matter, simon Knell; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of simon Knell to be identified as the author of the editorial matter,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and patents
act 1988.
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a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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a catalog record has been requested for this book
IsBn: 978-0-815-36492-4 (hbk)
IsBn: 978-0-815-36493-1 (pbk)
IsBn: 978-0-815-36494-8 (ebk)
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ConTenTs
List of figures vii
List of plates viii
Notes on contributors ix
Preface xi
InTroDuCTIon
The museum in the global contemporary 1
Simon Knell
part I
a WorLD oF equaLs 11
1
moDernIsms
Curating art’s past in the global present 13
Simon Knell
2
InDIGenIsaTIon
reconceptualising museology 37
Conal McCarthy
3
IsLam
Islamic art, the Islamic world – and museums 55
John Reeve
4
XenophoBIa
museums, refugees and fear of the other 74
Andrea Witcomb
5
DIpLomaCy
museums and international exhibitions 88
Da Kong
v
ConTenTs
part II
presenT pasTs 103
6
TransIenCe
Curating ephemeral art 105
Stacy Boldrick
7
perFormanCes
Contemporary encounters in historic spaces 128
Romina Delia
8
TranshIsTorICIsm
using the past to critique the present 142
Annette Loeseke
9
pasTs
authoring national histories in the contemporary city 152
Cintia Velázquez Marroni
part III
Who We are 167
10
DIsaBILITy
museums and our understandings of difference 169
Richard Sandell
11
ConTaCT
Framing prostitution in a city museum 185
Annemarie de Wildt
12
smaLL WIns
Tactics for the contemporary museum 201
Viviane Gosselin
13
anXIeTy
unease in the museum 215
Jennifer Walklate
Index 233
vi
FIGures
3.1 east London Three Faiths Forum visit to the hajj exhibition, British
museum, February 2012 65
6.1 Lara almarcegui, Construction Materials of the Spanish Pavilion, Venice
Biennale, 2013 106
6.2 Walead Beshty, FedEx® Kraft Boxes ©2005 FEDEX 330504 10/05
SSCC..., 2008–. Installation view, biennial exhibition, 2008,
Whitney museum of amer ican art, new york 111
6.3 michael Landy, Breaking News, 2015. Installation view, michael
Landy studio, 2015 114
6.4 Lucy skaer, The Good Ship Blank and Ballast, 2010. Installation view,
K21, Düsseldorf 119
10.1 The Blind Men of Jericho, a copy of a painting by nicholas poussin,
1650–1700 176
11.1 posters of Love for Sale (2002) and The Hoerengracht (2010) 188
11.2 one of the participants of the museumLab in the installation Red
Light by marieken Verheyen, 2016 189
12.1 portrait of collector of ethical taxidermy Gabrielle Whiteley featured
in All Together Now: Vancouver Collectors and Their Worlds at moV (2016) 208
12.2 The Bovines (1982). hydrangea’s costumes (first left) were donated
to moV in 2016 209
12.3 City on Edge: A Century of Vancouver Activism at moV (2017).
Central projection is on Indigenous activism 211
vii
pLaTes
1 Islamic middle east gallery at the ashmolean museum, oxford
2 The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army at the British museum
3 phyllida Barlow, set, 2015. Installation view, The Fruitmarket Gallery, edinburgh
4 Lucy skaer, Force Justify (Part 1), 2012. Installation view, Tulips & roses, Brussels
5 mat Fraser explores the medical collections at the science museum, London
6 The rubberbodies Collective, Lore of the Sea, malta maritime museum,
Birgu, 2011
7 Deaf men Dancing perform ‘Let us tell you a story’ for Exceptional and
Extraordinary: Unruly Bodies and Minds in the Medical Museum
8 matje Blaak’s bed in the entrance to Liefde te Koop (Love for Sale),
amsterdam museum 2002
9 The Hoerengracht at the amsterdam museum, 2010
10 photomontage imagining a wilder Vancouver with the imminent
return of grizzly bears in the provocation section of Rewilding Vancouver (2014)
11 Kwiaahwah Jones, Guest Curator of Haida Now showing the
Indigenous northwest Coast collection at moV to haida culinary chef
Brodie swanson, and partner Jaylene Jones (2017)
viii
ConTrIBuTors
Stacy Boldrick is Lecturer in art museum and Gallery studies at the university of
Leicester where she writes about contemporary and medieval art and iconoclasm.
her curatorial collaborations include Wonder: Painted Sculpture from Medieval Eng-
land (henry moore Institute, 2002) and Art under Attack: Histories of British Iconoclasm
(Tate Britain, 2013). her books include Striking Images: Iconoclasms Past and Present
(ashgate, 2013).
Romina Delia manages the international portfolio at arts Council malta. In 2017 she
coordinated and managed the return of the malta pavilion to the Venice Biennale and
was a member of the team leading the Cultural affairs Committee in Brussels during
malta’s presidency of the Council of the eu. her research investigates the role of con-
ceptual art and contemporary theatre in historic spaces, particularly in the uK and malta.
Viviane Gosselin is Curator of Contemporary Culture and Director of Collections
and exhibitions at the museum of Vancouver. she is a member of the research
group Thinking historically for Canada’s Future. she co- edited Museums and the
Past: Constructing Historical Consciousness (uBC press, 2016) and is currently working
with a team of city staff, architects and designers on the development of sustainable
exhibition design practices.
Simon Knell is professor of museum studies at the university of Leicester. he is a
member of the school of museum studies’ Collective for research into the Insti-
tutions of art, CrÍa. he has published more than fifteen books on museums and
disciplinary cultures, his most recent being National Galleries: The Art of Making
Nations (routledge, 2016). he is currently working on a new monograph on the
geographies of modernism.
Da Kong is Lecturer in museum studies at Fudan university in shanghai. her research
focuses on international exchanges between museums, looking particularly at China’s
loan exhibitions and the country’s soft power and cultural diplomacy. she is leading
two municipal projects in shanghai on this subject and also preparing a monograph
on the role of international loan exhibitions in constructing China’s image abroad.
Annette Loeseke is Lecturer in museum studies at new york university’s Berlin
campus and external lecturer in Visitor studies at the reinwardt academy, amster-
dam university of the arts. at the Technical university Berlin, she co- organised
the conference Rethinking Museums Politically in may 2017. she recently contributed
ix