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

The resultant position of power of the museum should not be underestimatedespecially because – unlike in academia – the world views are anonymous and arepresented in a context which lends authority. In addition, and much more so in nonpluralisticsystems, there is the risk of the museum being misused for extraneouspurposes which are incompatible with its tasks. Let us just think of the hijacking ofhistory under national socialism and communism. And the anecdote that puts into themouth of the leader of a new African country the statement that he needs – in this order– a powerful army, a functioning radio station and a national museum is, if perhaps nottrue, at any rate a very telling invention. Also, in times of political disorder, nationalhistory museums are rarely occupied, although they are often closed and laterremodelled. Finally, the wars of succession in the former Yugoslavia with theirdeliberate destruction of national heritage sites are an extremely distressing spectacle.Regrettably, such subjects are rarely thematized (in terms of exhibitions).Ethical principles demand responsibility-conscious attention to the past. Museums arepart of the collective memory and are hence also partly responsible for transmittedviews of history. There is not one correct, so-to-say official version of history, but manydifferent interpretations. What national, regional or local history museum dares to showthem? “The victor writes history” is unfortunately still the rule. And, it might of course beadded: the person who pays! Still, there are some welcome tendencies, above all intemporary exhibitions, to portray the dark sides of the past. But even with good will,such an undertaking can founder on the simple fact that there are no objects left. Aftera (political) upheaval, nobody wanted anything more to do with the hated past andliterally threw it out.Let me cite two striking examples to the contrary in the great context of the fall ofcommunism. In many cities, statues of Lenin and Stalin were pulled down assuperfluous and usually discarded. But luckily, not everywhere! In Narva (Estonia)Lenin was taken out of the city directly to the Hermanns-Feste on the eponymousborder river (in other words right on the new external boundary of the European Union),not without a certain irony gazing eastwards with raised fist. And in Cēsis (Latvia), siteof an old German city, Lenin was taken from the main square to a boarded-off partitionin the Order castle where he can now be viewed – recumbent – as in an open grave.Next to it is a panel with photographs documenting the transportation. Here, an unlovedpast is not simply thrown out but is exhibited at a critical distance and without fear ofhistory.In connection with the portrayal of history – both glorified and unloved – the question ofrepresentativity arises. Are the national heroes celebrated in museums really so heroicfor the entire population? Does everyone really want to forget the withheld past? Iplead for a history museum that gathers together and documents all witnesses of thepast. And if the time is not yet ripe for the portrayal of the dark sides as well, theobjects are available for future, less freighted generations. Historical exhibitions shouldstrive to be as objective as possible in portraying the periods dealt with – while notforgetting that objectivity is impossible for the reasons mentioned earlier.Precisely because history is always a construct of the present, diverse and relativizingportrayals of the past are to be desired. It seems to me absolutely necessary to getaway from the absolute, lecturing attitude – in “safe” exhibition themes as well ascontroversial subjects. How many European museums, for instance, show Romantimes in an uncritical, affirmative and absolute manner! Our town in Roman times,that’s exactly what it was like, no ifs and buts! Does the museum lose credibility if wesay that the present view of history has a high degree of probability on the basis of theknown objects, the written documents and, naturally, the stringent application ofmethods of historical science? Or if it also shows a different interpretation in anexhibition that is just as well founded?“Relativization” seems to me to be a key concept here. The Alimentarium FoodMuseum in Vevey (Switzerland) attempted this with respect to the representationalpossibilities of the exhibition medium and using different exhibition languages in 1991.38