MUSING ON CULTURE: Museums: new churches?

MUSING ON CULTURE: Museums: new churches?

Contrary to churches, says Alain de Botton, museums are notoriously incapable of establishing a connection between the objects they hold and the needs of our soul. They present them in an academic way that fails to engage with the real potential of art, which is to change us for the better. Instead of neutral labels, they should put beneath each picture a set of commands telling us “look at this image and remember to be patient” or “use this sculpture to mediate on what you could do to bring about a fairer world”. And he concludes: “Curators should co-opt works of art to the direct task of helping us to live: to achieve self-knowledge, to remember forgiveness and love and stay sensitive to the pains suffered by our ever troubled species and its urgently imperilled planet. Only then will museums be able to claim that they have properly fulfilled the noble, but still elusive, ambition of becoming our new churches.


Това принципно е интересна идея и елементи от нравоучение може да бъдат включени в музейното образование, т.е. комуникацията на музейните педагози (образователи) с посетителите, като методът на задаване въпроси може да е също приложен в някакво даване на насока... Или това да бъде една от целите на тази комуникация?



Обаче не бива да бъде акцент, защото все пак това в музеите са факти, които могат да бъдат тълкувани по много начини и погледнати от различни ъгли в зависимост от възгледите, вярванията, личността, културния бекграунд и пр. на всеки посетител. Всички тези неща са ценни сами по сесбе си. Мисионерството трябва да е много ограничено и тук, общо взето до 10-те Божи заповеди... или общите Божи заповеди от мнозинството религии... Ако са извлечени такива. Иначе би било индоктринация и догматизъм, би стеснявало критичността, свободата на мисълта, нестандартното мислене...



Alain de Botton is right about one thing: probably the majority of museums don´t know how to tell a story... But there are already many - many indeed - those that understand the importance of interpretation for the general public. Those that recognize that not everybody knows or is supposed to know everything. Nevertheless, they are not aiming at telling me what I should or should not feel, what I should or should not think. This is between me, the visitor, and the work of art / the object. This is not up to any curator or museum educator. This is not a forced or directed relationship. And it´s even legitimate that a relationship doesn´t come to exist at all.

... The most intelligent mediators, those who know how to do their job best, are not the ones giving us the answers. They are those who know how to help us look for them.

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