THE MIRACLE OF OBLIVION
"Let's praise the miracle of oblivion" – sang Stanislaw Soyka, and later on Anna Maria Jopek. The miracle of oblivion would be admired as well by the objects stocked up in museum storerooms – devoid of their primary meaning, served merely as symbols, reminiscences. It'd be worth to think over, whether the passive gathering of artifacts in institutions other than museums of art is the sole method of retaining the past in our memory. I was induced to that kind of reflection after having read the article by Eulalia Domanowska Muzeów czar. Z perspektywy skandynawskiej (The Miracle of Museums. From a Scandinavian perspective), published in the latest issue of “Orońsko” [1 (66) 2007].
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry sent out his little hero for a journey between planets, but, I guess, he forgot to show him around the planet of Curator. The one of the most cluttered planets rolls lazily along dusty orbit, glaring out with the light reflected off thousands of glass-cases. One on top of another, the objects and equipments filled with the past clog the corridors, among which the Curator minces, being dusty as well. If the Little Prince asked him for what he collects all the stuff, the Curator would probably answer that he preserves the memory – he dusts it, he cares, keeps it under cloche, as the Little Prince with the rose did. However, how does it happen that human reminisces, precipitating on objects, deprive them simultaneously of functionality? He wouldn't be able to answer this question.
"The grown-ups are very strange" – the Little Prince would remark.
Eulalia Domanowska accompanies him in her article Muzeów czar. Z perspektywy skandynawskiej (The Miracle of Museums. From a Scandinavian perspective), threatening “with natural calamity caused by excessive accumulation of objects." Terrifying statistics, the curse of indecomposable plastic and dumping grounds towering over the Great Pyramid of Giza still don't seem to disturb our tendency for reification of memories.
Quite unusual example of such a process is given by Domanowska herself. The Swedish programme Samdok encourages to stock up the souvenirs of our times – with a view to future generations. This interesting from a sociological perspective phenomenon, unveiling the way we either perceive or would like to perceive ourselves, has also its flip side that, needless to say, consists in accumulation of rubbish. "Museum storerooms are being filled with plastic plates, mobile phones, furniture." It could be differently, though.
Paul Valéry wrote: "[after having entered the museum hall] I'm filled with consternation. My steps become hallowed. My voice alters – becomes little bit louder than in church, but still sounds more gentle than in everyday life." So that it would sound like that everyday, and museum wouldn't be associated with a dozens of bans and felt slippers, a new idea of nurturing the memory about the past arose in 60's in France – ecomuseums. "Etymologically the term ecomuseum stems from two Greek words: oikos that means home in a symbolic sense and museion as a collection (of scientific objects as well as the ones concerning the history of civilization) – and in this combination concerns the collection of the objects related to the place we come from or live in – to little homeland", explains Barbara Kazior, domestic coordinator of the programme Ecomuseums of Polish Environmental Partnership Foundation (Kropla 2/2004). The idea (despite the statement that can be found in Domanowska's article, it has been known in Poland for six years now) works out magnificently when it comes to preserving not only the past, but also the present. So called "no-walls-museum" preserves monuments in their natural surrounding, helps local societies to build up their own identity on the basis of an active protection of their own heritage. It's no longer needed to passively observe museum show-cases, but to manage fairs, workshops, trails; to be entirely aware of the richness of own past. Domanowska calls up here Burgundian Le Creusot, the first ecomuseum in the world. I would mention here some Polish examples: Lanckorona, Wambierzyce, Lubiąż.
The memory about the past can be kept by smaller, provisional actions. The project created by Monika Grochowska and Michał Sieczkowski – Retransmisja – let us teem into the stories that can't be found in books. Thanks to narrations, small talks while drinking water-ice and dancing in the shade of tenement houses in the Foksal street, the younger generation of Warsaw could discover the bound that ties them with older people. The past doesn't have to be covered with the patina of centuries, we can seek for it in our closest surrounding.
Such an active exploration of the past, not connected with dusty museum pieces, acquires one more meaning in the Domanowska's article. New museums become interactive, multimedia – something can be touched, moved, changed. More and more often they gain an Internet dimension. As far as museums of art cover the distance more quickly, while following the actions of artists, the rest is left behind. In Poland, there are some museums that belong to creditable exceptions: the Museum of The People's Republic of Poland and Museum of Non-existent Objects, however they exist solely in virtual world. However, that are private actions only, the centers working under the auspices of the government and usually possessing no website. Commercialization of culture compels us to accept the fact that nowadays museum are for the audience, not the other way; that's why we should welcome them with open arms, also in virtual world that has become Theatrum Mundi of our times.
Will the computer memory meet our need for reification of memories, no-one knows, however, it doesn’t build any danger for existence of museums, for sure. For, paraphrasing James Clifford, museum is a widely discredited idea, but in spite of everything we’re not able to do without it.
That’s just some of the reflections that may come into mind after reading Eulalia Domanowska’s article. The form of her text resembles rather some loose notes from a lecture, on which she rests as she admits herself, than a cohesive statement built up around some specific keynote. Apart from the question of accumulation, she develops the train of museum as a place where local or national identity is being created, describes in short the history of museums and their situation on the Scandinavian Peninsula. “Scandinavian perspective” mentioned in the title raises many doubts, as Domanowska writes in her article equally about Swedish or Norwich museums as well as about these from other parts of Europe. Also these will be disappointed who will let themselves be lured by the quote given at the beginning of the article (“Everything can be exposed as art”, André Desvalées) and may expect some description of museums of contemporary art, which are usually connected with mottos like that. Despite it I do believe that the article is worth recommending. So let’s turn a blind eye on its few flaws and take advantage of a number of useful information.
Aleksandra Kędziorek
Translated by Klaudia Brejecka
Discussed journals: Orońsko