Eleventh International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

Nordiska museet was founded in 1873 according to the idea of National Romanticism to which the founder Arthur Hazelius was a follower. As the largest culture history museum in Sweden it has a collection of 1.5 million objects and the task of depicting life and work in Sweden and the Nordic countries from the sixteenth century until today. Despite its name, Nordiska museet is not an essential museum with objects only from the Nordic countries in its collections, even though they are in a majority. But objects with another cultural origin can be difficult to identify since they were by tradition written in to the museum narrative as just objects with no further description. No regard to the objects’ original context was taken, such as how they were ordered, made, used, and valued. As if their “lives” started with the acquisition to the museum. So for an example, an Anatolian carpet was just described as a carpet. This has changed during the last decades. Since I am interested in objects that originate from the Ottoman Empire, I have been able to identify a number of them in the museum collection, very sparsely described and not as Ottoman. All acquired in the early twentieth century. There is also an eternity deposition from 1937 hanging in one of the museum stairways, containing fourteen paintings depicting a procession in Constantinople 1656 with the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV and his entourage. So the question is whose cultural heritage do the Ottoman objects in the collection of Nordiska museet belong to? Who has the right to tell their story and from what point of view? Nordiska museet is a museum for everyone and up front when it comes to reevaluating its collections and exhibitions. From being objects in the shadow, these Ottoman objects are to be looked upon as assets and bridge builders. Today’s Sweden is a country of diversity, with many citizens originated from countries that once belonged to the Ottoman Empire. That means there is a new group of visitors to Nordiska museet who wants to know more about Sweden and the Nordic countries. As a curator it is my responsibility and joy to give an orientation in the cultural history of the Nordic countries as well as show the visitors the connection between our cultures and cultural heritages. In my paper I will give examples on how we work at the Nordiska museet and how we reevaluate objects in our collection, discussing how the objects become assets and bridge builders between people from different cultural backgrounds.