Experiences with studying materials from Un Museo para Mí in Colombia
What are ‘pocket museums’ and the way do they relate to our private and collective reminiscences? On this article, we discover the thought of ‘pocket museums’ as a software for creation and dialogue throughout the context of the mission Reminiscence, Victims and Illustration of the Colombian Battle, in addition to in that of the creation of the Museo Afro de Colombia.
Fig. 1. Instructional materials Un Museo Para Mí, Liverpool 2022.
Many people may first suppose, on listening to the phrase ‘museum’, of silence and contemplation, of trying however not touching, of painstakingly organized locations the place every object, after being totally researched and curated, is preserved in a glass case. However there are additionally ‘pocket museums’. That is the idea we’ve got used within the framework of Un Museo para Mí (A Museum for Me), a mission aiming at establishing a dialogue and fostering creation.
What’s a ‘pocket museum’, it’s possible you’ll ask… Defining it’s not straightforward: a ‘pocket museum’ might embody the images we hold in our wallets or retailer in our cell telephones, or a notice or a dried flower we treasure inside a ebook or an envelope, and even the aroma of a home-cooked meal… There are as many ‘pocket museums’ as there are individuals. ‘Pocket museums’ are flashes of the reminiscences we go to throughout our conversations and chats with family and friends. ‘Pocket museums’ exist in our minds, in our purses, or after we go to our grandparents’ houses. They’re the illustration of our reminiscences and our private heritage.
The mission Reminiscence, Victims and Illustration of the Colombian Battle
The worldwide interdisciplinary analysis group ― led by Prof. Claire Taylor and Dr. Lucia Brandi from the College of Liverpool (UK) along with museologist Camilo Sánchez, throughout the framework of the mission Reminiscence, Victims and Illustration of the Colombian Battle, funded by the Arts and Humanities Analysis Council (AHRC) and the UKRI World Influence Accelerator ― makes use of the ‘pocket museum’ metaphor to discover the narratives of the Colombian battle by the use of studying supplies.
These supplies are didactic sources used within the instructing and studying processes. Their goal is to facilitate the understanding of a theme or to create a software for dialogue or exploration within the framework of an exhibition or within the academic plan of a museum. By permitting guests to have a ludic expertise, they encourage creativity and creativeness. Within the mission A Museum for Me, the fabric in query acquires a particular high quality, because it was created with the target of creating seen the tales of victims and survivors of the Colombian armed battle.
This materials is a equipment printed on paper designed to be minimize out and assembled to create a mannequin of an exhibition corridor. It features a set of sheets of paper containing components equivalent to partitions, flooring, ceilings, doorways and home windows, in addition to objects which can be often a part of exhibitions, equivalent to work and stands for sculptures. The equipment permits customers to create a miniature exhibition that tells collective or private tales.
This equipment was used for the primary time in workshops with girls who had been victims of the Colombian battle within the areas of Boyacá, Santander and Bogotá. The intention was to create instruments they may use to relate their tales from the attitude of fact, justice, reparation and non-repetition.
Our reminiscences form us, they permit us to know how we perceive the world. The idea of ‘museum’ turns into a metaphor for dialogue and therapeutic, because the establishment — by the creation of small paper museums produced from the didactic materials that’s A Museum for Me — turns into a software to discover the maze that’s the reminiscence of a rustic, filled with layers, of many varieties of violence and of many untold tales.
A Museum for Me – The Exhibition
The exhibition A Museum for Me opened in 2020 on the Museo Nacional de Colombia, in Bogotá, reworking one of many museum’s halls into a spot considered an area the place the general public can meet and create. The private museums created by the ladies taking part within the mission Reminiscence, Victims and Illustration of the Colombian Battle established a dialogue with different private museums which had been created by guests of the exhibition. The corridor turned an area for workshops the place kids and adults mirrored on the position of museums within the twenty first century and on the connection between illustration, the gaps therein and the hegemony of nationwide narratives in Colombia’s historic museums. This experiment allowed the museum to exhibit historic artefacts in addition to the objects created by guests: the ensuing small museums had been made with the contents of the guests’ pockets.
Fig. 2. Exhibition of the mission Reminiscence, victims and illustration of the Colombian battle in dialogue with museums made by guests on the Nationwide Museum of Colombia in March 2021.
ProjectAdaptation Throughout COVID-19
The coronavirus disaster in 2020 led to the closure of museums in Colombia and around the globe, and the exhibition A Museum for Me was tailored to the brand new actuality. It turned a web based model that ensured that the digital guests of the Museo Nacional de Colombia might nonetheless actively take part. In parallel, in 2021, the mission launched into a journey to 22 museums in Colombia. The printed studying supplies of A Museum for Me had been despatched to totally different artwork, historical past, and reminiscence museums with the target of supporting their academic areas within the creation of workshops to dialogue with their audiences about lockdown experiences and the transformation of society in the course of the pandemic.
Thus, A Museum for Me made it potential to construct new routes and take a look at methodologies for post-pandemic reopening. Some examples comply with: the actions carried out by the Casa Museo Rafael Núñez in Cartagena, Bolívar, the place hybrid workshops had been held with on- and off-site contributors for an exercise entitled Un museo colectivo (A collective museum) that streamed on Fb. One other exercise that stood out was the Museo Picnic (Museo Picnic) organized by the Casa Museo Antonio Nariño in Villa de Leyva, Boyacá, the place attendees explored the museum’s vegetable backyard to create exhibitions primarily based on this expertise. All these actions used the bodily supplies offered.
The Museo Afro de Colombia and Pocket Museums
2021 was declared the Yr of Freedom in celebration of the a hundred and seventieth anniversary of the proclamation of the Regulation for the Abolition of Slavery in Colombia. The Yr of Freedom was, above all, a chance to underscore that Black, Afro-Colombian, Raizal and Palenquero communities have created data and heritage. Because of this, the Museo Nacional de Colombia launched the Museo Afro de Colombia mission, an initiative led by the Ministry of Tradition in collaboration with the Metropolis Corridor of Cali and the Governor’s Workplace of Valle del Cauca. The Museo Afro de Colombia will likely be positioned within the metropolis of Cali; conceptual and curatorial planning actions and mission growth are at present underway. The methodology is that of co-creation laboratories, a method developed by prototypes and academic actions.
The target is to foster dialog, creation, debates and exchanges of concepts concerning the intentionality of the Museo Afro as a residing place the place the communities set up the narratives from the attitude of decolonisation and participation. On this course of, the instructing materials of A Museum for Me turns into a museological software to dialogue with the communities so as to tackle the which means and performance of the Museo Afro within the twenty first century. It helps a mission that’s the results of touring across the nation, speaking with smart women and men, leaders, kids and teachers, touring ‘pocket museums’ filled with tales and views concerning the goal of the museum that will likely be primarily based within the metropolis of Cali. This materials queries how its assortment is to be constructed – it’ll want a dialogue with neighborhood initiatives and the remainder of the Colombian territory.
Fig. 3. Museum developed by younger ladies within the municipality of San Basilio de Palenque (the primary free city in colonial America) with the didactic materials within the framework of the co-creation laboratory of the Afro-Colombian Museum in March 2022.
Conclusion: ‘Pocket Museums’ and Reminiscence
‘Pocket museums’ are a method of understanding private and collective reminiscence as a metaphor for the museum. The mission Reminiscence, Victims and Illustration of the Colombian Battle and the Museo Afro de Colombia use the training supplies of A Museum for Me to dialogue with communities concerning the illustration, data and intelligence that museums ought to have from a decolonial and participatory perspective. This software is an invite to create, to suppose, to construct the museum as a residing area that’s open to the tales of all individuals. In a world the place silence and ache are each day occurrences, the idea of the ‘pocket museum’ can rework museum areas into protected locations, havens of dialogue and creation.
The mission A Museum for Me is a dialog, it’s a motive to create, and it’s a ‘pocket museum’ insofar because it is stuffed with fragments of reminiscences, of odds and ends discovered on the backside of wallets, of the aroma of a favourite dessert or the perfume of somebody who’s not amongst us. It’s a reliquary of tears and laughter, it’s private and collective. It’s a ebook open to creation and creativeness, and a way for use by all.
Fig. 4. Exercise with the Guagua Basis that introduced collectively college students from the Universidad del Valle and relations of victims of kidnapping, Might 2022.
