POLICY OF CULTURE AND POLICY OF DISPLAY: THE OCTOBER SALON

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This paper is about perfomative effects of cultural policies in two socio-political systems differing in concept, forms, establishment and maintenance of continuity but also in initiating transformations of the nationally significant cultural institution/event – the October Salon. Initially started as an exhibition of the best art accomplishments and soon a place to display modern trends in applied arts, the October Salon has been conceptually consistent, and almost resistant to change, for almost three decades. For the last two decades, however, the October Salon has been embracing changes, some of which have even been radical (like switching from national to international). Usually, these transformations were observed as a change of paradigms in modern art: mostly vertical (old/new) and rarely or quite frequently horisontal (contemporary differences). The impacts of ideological matrices on the deliberation, continuation and alternations of the October Salon and the micro-politics of the local art community were not considered or analysed.

SPACE INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION – TRAN(SPO)SITIONS

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This text presents some of the characteristics of space interactive installation, which can be recognized as elements of otherwise dense networks necessary for the existence of an interactive project. Production of spatial interactive installations in various non/commercial versions directly depends on the economic and other strenghts of the society, its technical and technological standards, structures of cultural and media policy, artistical patterns, etc. The attitude of the society towards a public, individual or joint action is also important. Interaction of these factors gives rise to a question for the creators, artists, audiences and participants as to how they perceive their position in the interactive process. Tran(spo)sitions will occur anyway in this area, regardless of how are defined “spaces” of our personal and/or shared existence.

POLITICITY OF CONTEMPORARY INSTALLATIONS

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The author considers politicity of installations and their topology. An installation, as much as any work of art in general, has its own exteriority, its interiority and its outside. The outside is determined as a virtual plane of immanence that grounds the categories of exteriority and interiority. The virtual is ground for the affectivity of an installation, which leads to consideration of the relation of virtual singularities and actualized state of affairs, the molecular and the molar. The politicity of installations lies in the cross section of the virtual and the actual, the molecular and the molar, the outside and the exteriority/interiority, the affect and the axiomatic of capitalism, and it offers potentially new ways of imagining different politics of the body and the subject.

EDITOR’S NOTE

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DEVELOPMENT OF THE OLYMPIC MUSEUM IN THE LIGHT OF THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF OLYMPISM IN SERBIA

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The 2010 centennial celebration of the Olympic Movement in Serbia was the reason for re-raising the issue of setting up a permanent Olympic Museum exhibition and also reconsidering the legacy exhibits related to the history of Serbian sports. This paper provides an analysis of the development of the Belgrade Olympic Museum since setting up of the first collection in 1947 at the old DIF (State Institute of Physical Culture), through formation of a permanent exhibition at the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education in 1979, on to the last exhibition in London during the 2012 Olympics. Moreover, it highlights the problem of constantly increasing collection deposits, as well as the methods for its long-term solution. Special attention is given to the promotion of the Olympic Museum through the presentation of exhibitions in-house and abroad, as well as the possibility for their presentation to a broad audience through the concept of new museology.

BALANCING CONSERVATION FOR THE NEW MUSEUM

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The paper deals with redefinition of the role of conservation in museological system, in accordance with the changes in this field in the last two decades and with the emergence of new museological theory and practice. The author begins discussion with terminological distinction of the basic terms in conservation, considering them as limitations of great importance for the development of the field, and continues with defining the position of conservation and its relation with other functions within the museological system. Among existing models of museum functions, the author opts for CC model of Dutch Reinwardt Academie and uses it as the basis of a museum model proposal that takes the complex of conservation and documentation as the key function of the museological system, if the system is based on the possession of collections. This is tested by comparison of the changes that happened in the museum conservation practice and the consequences of proclaiming new museology. This comparison reveals to what measure the conservation, in theory and practice, adapted to the new museum, while keeping its significance because of the fact that collections remained the principal museum resource, even with new museological phenomena using different means of communication and different approaches to users.

OUTCOMES OF NEW MUSEOLOGY OR HOW A NOVELIST BECAME A MUSEOLOGIST

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The paper covers the problem of museology as a scientific discipline and its relation to the concept of “new museology”. Starting cases are Museum of Innocence as a model of contemporary museum practice (opened in Istanbul in 2012), and the research of the Museums Association of Great Britain on the public opinion about museums (from 2013). In this respect, research problem described as “modern cultural fictions” arises. By “modern cultural fictions” we recognize imaginative content with cultural value in contemporary world, which can be related with museums or novels. In methodological terms “modern cultural fictions” are heritage of new museology. Thus, the goal of the paper is an interpretation this specific contribution of new museology to museology as a scientific discipline.

CREATOR, COLLABORATOR, CRITIQUE OR CONSUMER – FRAMEWORKS OF CITIZENS’ PARTICIPATION IN HERITAGE MAKING

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Even though discussions and practices around citizens’ participation in heritage were at their peak during last five years, the ideas about levels and ways of citizen participation through heritage making are by no means recent or unified. These distinctive ideas under the umbrella of “engagement” form a variety of possible, even contradictory frameworks through which the role, rights, privileges, and responsibilities of the citizen and the community are defined in relation to those of the national state, public memory institutions and heritage professionals. They range from those asserting the rights of citizens in dissent and critical thinking towards dominant institutionalized practices, to those advocating participation as an effective way of engaging citizens in consuming authorized heritage discourses. Participation is thus neither good nor bad in acheiving citizens’ rights to heritage, but is driven and influenced by the framework which utilizes it. The proposed paper aims to examine and structure the four key frameworks through which citizens’ participation in heritage making is asserted, in order to shed light on what we are thinking, talking and practicing around participation. The first framework is heritage without institutions tracing back from Marlaux’s imaginary museum performed by every individual, to the ways in which global civic communities perform practices around heritage that challenge dominant politics of heritage. The second relates to group of ideas arround community museums, in which heritage is participatory even in the decision making, but the process is being mediated and curated by the professionals. The third is participatory museum framework in which citizens participate within an institutionalized environment to become more emersed in it, but could (possibly) challenge and shape it by forming their own meanings around musealization. The fourth group is related to critical, discursive museum, derived from critical heritage studies in which professionals are creating civic forums for citizens, thus fostering critical thinking around heritage-making.

HERITAGE AND THEORETICAL COMPREHENSION MODELS: THE WEALTH OF ACCUMULATION – THE POWER OF IMAGINATION

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This paper is a reminder of the hermeneutical problem in heritology which spans from comprehension to interpretation of heritage. The question of perception of the manifestational world, and further the possibility of a dialogue of diverse sciences in contemplating heritage leads to creating a “dialogue” of the modern man with the heritage. By learning about the content of the structure of a cultural asset, the analogue theoretical model is clarified. A special attention is given to the model of the Moebius strip, taken from the mathematical discourse. With its characteristics, unorientability and onesidedness that is tested by imprints on a “single” side of the strip, it responds a stable, material and changeable semantics of the item of heritage, realised in motion through time. This model can offer better understanding and interpretation of the manifestational reality and of the heritage as accumulated past.

NEW STANDING EXHIBITIONS IN THE FUNCTION OF TRANSFORMATION OF SERBIAN MUSEUMS

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This paper presents an attempt at theoretical and critical contemplation of the phenomenon of standing exhibitions in Serbian museums at the start of the 21st century (the concept of the exhibition, conceptual methodology, future of the exhibition) as a raison d’être of the museums and a purpose of their exhistance. Also, the new standing exhibitions, if based on modern postulates, can initiate a process of transforming the Serbian museums from academic into contemporary, and influence the definition of a new role and a new place of the museum in the culture and society of our communities (as a place dedicated to gaining active knowledge and experience as well as a place of entertainment). In order for this to happen, it is necessary: to rethink both the professional actions and the museum materials; to develop a socially engaged museum; to (re)define the old/new missions, visions, purposes and objectives of the museum, its program policy, management, marketing and PR; to re-direct the museum outreach activities towards interpretation, communication and presentation; to observe the museums as “open systems” while drawing conclusions, creating identities, approximating different forms of art, merging heterogenous projects; to connect with the audience and with the non-audience; and to facilitate the reception of art production and exhibitted artefacts of cultural heritage. With their knowledge, expression and vision, the curators and authors (or artists) can equally impact the selection and the manner of presentation/interpretation, and also contribute to the implementation of diverse actions in the museums that can broaden the manner of adopting basic museum themes by turning passive observers into active participants, not only in the museum programs but in the local communities in general.