Kongospor, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo

Designer: Elisabeth Hatz
Visited July 2007

Method:
The exhibition starts on the repos on top of the staircase. A large black wall points in the direction of the exhibition, and gives us a map of Kongo and its position geographically in Africa.

Inside the first room there are showcases along the walls, on one side mainly large b/w pictures in hooks on the wall flanked by a smaller showcase containing objects. Each hook has a headline. On the other wall there are mainly showcases with lit texpanels.

At the far end of the room there is a large round ball onto which film of a street scene is projected. The giant round ball makes for a pleasant place to rest your eyes. It's always fun looking at people and traffic moving through their day.

There is also film projected on the wall above the showcases. Interesting clips, loops being quite long, which means there is always something new to see, but if you want to show something to your companion you will have to wait a long time.

The second room has text panels and glass showcases. On one of the text panels there are reproductions of the cataloguing cards used to register the objects. This is a nice touch bringing the backstage work of the museums into the galleries. There is also an modern artwork presented on one wall.

Narrative:
The first room is divided into topics like "On the river" and "Adventure and discovery".
The theme of the second room seems unrelated to the first, maybe they are not related at all? The topic in this room is the way the "west", or the colonizers, have looked at African art and traditional objects. The discussion is very interesting and a huge step in the right direction in problematizing this relationship.

Design:
In the first room everything is painted black. Why? Because of the dark history of the subject? Because Kongo is in "blackest Africa"? To lift the objects out as objects of beauty and significance? The light is cold, mainly neon lights, and even the bright red carpet can not warm the room significantly. Do the designers feel that the relationship between Kongo and Scandinavia is a cold and dark one?

The second room has white walls and glass showcases. The discussions in the room are important and fresh, but the design echoes the classic art gallery. On purpose? Is it a conscious choice in order to problematize the way "western" eyes have looked at these objects throughout recent history?

Kystmuseet i Øygarden, Hordaland, Norway

Visited october 16, 2006
I like that the exhibition is so rich with objects, every space is filled. It is nicely clustered, and decently lit. Unfortunately it has five life-size mannequins placed about the exhibition helping support the notion that life in Øygarden used to be intolerable (for more on this see my text on puppets in exhibitions Obs! External link!).

It looks to me as if the exhibition is chronological. A text panel tells me it is based on the use of the natural resources of the area, the four elements. This might not be the most exciting way of organizing the information in our day and time. I find I have a preference for thematicly organized exhibitions. (This could probably be made into its own entry om thematic vs. chronological stories...)

Basically it is a lot of objects and I find it hard to relate to any of them, there is no interpretation of the objects; eg how they are made, how they were used etc.

Text
The text panels are way too many and way too long. Supposedly there are two levels of information, but I see at least three, the third being the printed labels describing objects.

Trying to read any of the three levels of information I fall asleep before the first paragraf is over. The language is heavy and complicated.

Conclusion
All in all I get the impression that this is a well made, if somewhat old-fashioned and quite boring exhibition. Its storytelling seems rooted in the philosophy of the 1970ies.

Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico DF, Mexico

(Denne teksten er hentet fra dagboks notater. )

Deretter drosje til Museo de Antropologia. – et monumentalbygg! fra 1964 tror jeg. de hadde 40 års jubileum i fjor – og bygget kan se slik ut. Det har tydeligvis også blitt renovert ca 2000. Utstillingene er flotte og vel gjennomført. Selvom noe av teknikken allerede er moden for utskifting fargeskjermer med forskjellig kallibrering og sånn… særlig første etasje er smakfullt og spennende designet. Mye mørke og dramatisk bruk av lys. Dramatiske skift i skala fra små figuriner til reproduksjoner av pyramidevegger. God bruk av materialer. Stein i alle montre f.eks. Veldig vakkert! I annen etage handlet det mer om indianske grupper av i dag. Her er det ikke fullt så gjennomført. Eller er det bare det at jeg er mer interessert i utstillinger som prøver å si noe om dagens samfunn? Jeg tror det er hovedsaklig et problem i det narrative (jmfr. min analyse modell!) fordi det hele er vakkert gjort, god lysetting, fine rom og områder, med gode installasjoner i montrene. Litt kjedelig med dioramaer nok en gang, men disse var ikke av de værste. Det var også fint at figurene av og til gikk ned fra plattingene og stod med ryggen til og betraktet et annet monter! Men det første som slo meg var: det virker som om de prøver å si noe om Mexicos indianere av idag – montrene inneholdt bl.a. colaflasker og sigaretter. Hvorfor er da alt fokus på det sermonielle og religiøse, hvorfor ikke også på dagligliv? På mixen av mennesker. Hvorfor bare indianere, hvorfor ikke også spanjoler og mestiser og hva det nå heter. De har vært her såpass lenge at det hadde vært mer interessant å se på møtepunkter og daglig samvær enn å drive en fortsatt oppramsing av typer indianere og ders respektive sermonier. Forskjellene mellom gruppene var mindre fremtredende enn likhetene. Kanskje var det noe en kunne spilt på? Hvordan de alle har påvirket hverandre.

Hackney Museum, London

Hackney Museum is a community Museum in the northern parts of London. London prides itself on its cultural diversity and nowhere is this diversity more evident than in Hackney. Over 92 languages are spoken in the borough and so Hackney is one of the most culturally diverse areas in Europe.

The museum is very aware of this and has extensive community co-operation and programmes. The main exhibition is designed by Real Studios and opened in 2002.

The new exhibitions reflects the variety of cultures represented in Hackney, and that it is not a new phenomenon that people has settled in there. The name of the exhibition is “The Reason why People have Immigrated and Settled in Hackney for the last 1000 years”.

Developing the exhibitions they worked closely with community groups. They were working with one group at a time and hence was able to learn from the experiences. They set up a “collection panel” with each group and gave them £150 to make a collection.