Ordinary Heritage
The "Family Album": An Exhibition of Fado Practitioners in the Museu do Fado in Lisbon, Portugal
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Pénélope Patrix
This paper analyses the exhibition "Álbum de Família" showed at the Museu do Fado in Lisbon in 2015. It displayed a selection of portraits of fado practitioners by Aurelio Vasques. It came with a catalogue containing the entire collection of photographs taken by the artist during the preparation of the exhibition. This work is an interesting example of innovative configurations created to display and promote a popular urban song like fado, in the scope of the principles of the Convention for the Safeguarding of ICH and the inclusive, collaborative, and people-centred turn of museums dedicated to living heritage. The exhibition drew on the domestic, vernacular tradition of family albums, where a visual account of a related group is given in a printed book, but also played with the aristocratic tradition of painted portraits of the successors of an important family, conveying prestige and promoting descent. It represented the fado community as an extended "family," exhibited on the walls of the museum, presented as "their" house. I analyse how this exhibition conveyed symbolic meanings regarding the ideas of community, domesticity, fado as "ordinary heritage," and the museum as an inclusive space centred on people rather than objects. I observe how it created a sense of belonging and familiarity among fado actors and visitors, but as a counterpart, feelings of exclusion among those not selected to be part of the "family." Thus, the tensions and social issues at stake in experimental, inclusive displays of ICH are examined.
Pictured Democracies: Cultural Alternatives in a Post-chavéz Period
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gerardo A. Zavarce, Andreina Fuentes
This paper explores the scope and possible meanings of an emergent cultural practice in the context of Venezuela's crisis in the post-Chávez period ( 2013-2018). We establish that a social movement finds, in emerging cultural practices, mechanisms to generate new forms of citizenship, and experiences of social renewal. This creates new spaces for culture development as a consequence. These practices represent a diverse agenda of civic demands aimed at strengthening the democratic space altered and threatened by totalitarian forms of power. We are interested in highlighting the role of artistic practices as a form of citizenship and active protest. It is imperative that we begin to notice as city and its public spaces - including the museum outside of the museum as "museotopia" - transform into common ground for democratic experiences.
The Concept of PlazaMuseum: Redefining Exhibition and Museum Roles Around Local Treasures and People
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Árpád Bebes
PlazaMuseum (Piazza) refers to a communal exhibition space, which encourages simple leisure time in the everyday separating itself from the general information-focused museum trends of dialog, ideologies, and teaching. It helps connect the local community by intriguing them, thus creating a more appealing museum sphere for a wider audience. We ask: Is it necessary to guide visitors, or actively teach them? How can scientific museums become attractive to locals and/or for the disinterested audience? The basic attribute of PlazaMuseum is, that its exhibitions can function as an everyday space, where one can enter without the need for discourse and seeking knowledge, purely for the sake of spending leisure time and it is enjoyable with minimal interaction. This exhibit area rejects the idea that the museum and museologists must present its own ideologies, and teach its audience. It does not try to have a dialog with the visitor, or ask for their opinion, rather it creates an opportunity, a place (’plaza’) for the audience to learn relying on human curiosity and its need for exploration. In this study, I explore a theory, which focuses on the more passive strolling type of visitors and local communities and their connection to local treasures.
