Eleventh International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

In recent years, old paradigms of museums as knowledge makers and cultural creators have been replaced by the new ideology of museums as agents of social change. Aware of the fact that all museums signify specific moral stances, this paper will argue against museum positionality, be it a presumed neutrality or a reformist agenda. Instead it will consider how art can be used effectively in the museum space to express social issues in a more subtle way, one that is more open to different types of interpretations. The philosophical underpinning for this approach comes from Russian thinker Mikhail Bakhtin who argues for the creation of aesthetic events to upset the hegemonic discourse. In the aesthetic event, Bakhtin argues, there is an asymmetry between artist and receiver that undermines the notion of sameness, or the presumed fusion of self and other. Significantly, this observation is a corrective for recent theories of empathy that dominate museology and heritage studies. According to some authors, empathy is crucial for transmitting social memory and therefore, has the potential to foster shared visions. Although empathy is indeed a force against selfishness and indifference the problem lies with its agenda to dissolving the boundaries between one person and another. In contrast, the asymmetry found in the aesthetic event aims at dialogue, understood as a creative understanding of the differences between the self and other.