ICOM International Council of Museums - International Institute for ...

of the limit to the human behavior. Moreover: the royalty to the Other as “limit” or “goal“must guide everyone that –directly or indirectly- take part in the production of themuseum’s discurses.The manipulation or alienation is the opposit of a loyal behavior and it is carried out byindividuals. For this reason we deal in this paper with the role of the mentioned subject/sender of the triad:- Museum/Subject/sender- Object (exposition)- Subject/receptorThe mentioned subject/ sender is multiple, is a man of flesh and blood, and is generallyinvisible. This characteristics make it more dangerous.Some theorists say that the manipulation is inherent of the museum. We, on the otherhand, go farther: our theme is the alienation through the museum. The museum, forexample, in the Nazi-Germany and in Russian under Stalin, became an alineate space.So the apparentely harmless “temple of Muses” will be -and worst, they could be atevery moment- into Pandora’s boxes and their specialists, benefactors, etc. intoFlautists of Hamelin.The manipulation/alienation became in the course of time more and more important,first because the museum has the task to educate the population. In fact it became aspace of no-formal education and in a depositary of the memory as well ascomunicator of the cultural heritage and therefore in participator in the “construcción deprocesos simbólicos que contribuyen a configurar nuestra identidad (Fontal Merillas,2003)”. And second because the museum was included into the market’s circuit: itsvisitants are clients (demand) and its activities services (supply).Our paper has as specific objectives:1) To analyze the museum as a space and as a medium of communication;2) To determine, based in a communication’s modell -sender, mesagge, receptor,situation, context- the persons and the entities that participate in the messages andtherefore in the manipulation and alienation;3) To present some conflicts among the diverses entities and persons;4) To characterize the historical investigation into the museum’s frame.-Aquí tienes una gloria.- No sé qué quiere decir usted con una gloria –dijo Alicia.-Por supuesto que no lo sabes…, a menos que yo te lo diga.He querido decir ‘Aquí tienes un argumento bienapabullante’.-¡Pero gloria no significa ‘argumento bien apabullante’!-Cuando yo uso una palabra, esa palabra significaexactamente lo que yo decido que signifique..., ni más nimenos…La cuestión es, simplemente, quien manda aquí.(Lewis Carrol - “Alicia en el país de las maravillas”)Postulamos que los museos son potenciales “Cajas de Pandora” y sus especialistas,gestores y benefactores potenciales “Flautistas de Hámelin”. Partiendo de estapremisa, pretendemos en este trabajo reflexionar sobre los peligros de la manipulacióny la enajenación de los públicos por parte de los museos sobre todo: I. Dado que seles asignó la tarea de educar a la población transformándose en lugares de educaciónno formal y en depositarios de la memoria así como en transmisores del patrimoniocultural y por ende en partícipes de la “construcción de procesos simbólicos quecontribuyen a configurar nuestra identidad (Fontal Merillas, 2003)" y II. Dada la215