Seventeenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum

Abstract

This paper outlines and explores the collaborative process among Museu Nacional da Música (MNM), musicians, and luthiers/restorers, which I have been mediating during my PhD in Ethnomusicology at Aveiro University. This collaboration aimed to integrate different specialized knowledge in the cataloguing and description of musical instruments and their social lives that are part of the museum collections, with a focus on plucked chordophones identified as ‘Portuguese traditional instruments’. This strategy is based on the criticism by Lavine and Karp (1991) in favour of including the narratives of the communities of origin and practice in museological curation. The authors suggest a disengagement from museological practices that valorised museums as ‘temples’ of artifacts legitimized by supposed ethnographic authority, often reflecting the current political power. Instead, they propose the notion of the museum as a ‘forum’ for dynamic interaction promoting diversity of perspectives and acting as an agent of change. The relocation of MNM to the Palácio Nacional de Mafra in 2024 is providing an opportunity to reformulate its exhibition discourses through dynamic interaction with different actors (musicians, luthiers/restorers, origin communities). This dynamic is expanding the knowledge of each musical instrument, previously confined to organology and territorial demarcation, to include: (i) performance techniques, performance contexts, construction techniques, and repertoire, in order to enhance the museum’s educational dimension; (ii) the stories of musician performers and musical groups related to these instruments, to contribute to the social memory of the represented communities; and (iii) discussions on other curatorial narratives.