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Images of Exile and the Greeks of Grenoble:a museum experience

Sarah Blowenniversityof theWestof ngland

IntroductionOn 25 March 1993, the Greek national holiday, the Dauphinoismuseum (Muse Dauphinois) in Grenoble, France, inaugurated anexhibition entitled 'Des Grecs'(The Greeks) aimed at presenting thelong-established Greek community of the town to their fellowgrenoblois. The exhibition was a success for the museum, but moresignificantly, itrepresenteda watershed for the Greeks themselves.Theircloseinvolvement withtheexhibitionprocess,fromconceptiontoinauguration and beyond,was toforce themtoexamine the functionofexile intheir understanding of theirsenseof identity and belonging.The narrative and object choices oftheexhibition provide a fascinatingstudy of the ways in which museum institutions can elicit concreteexpressionsofhum nexperience.Thispaper examines the motivationoftheMuse Dauphinois in programming such an exhibition, for ithas an interesting curatorial mission which needs to be understood.The stages oftheresearching and mounting of the exhibition will be

outlined, highlighting howtheGreek community was mobilised andhow imagesofexilesurfacedtobe integratedinto theprocess.Finally,theimpact of the exhibitionwillbe assessed,inpolitical, museologicaland community terms.Le Style Grenoblois the museum ssocial laboratoryFounded in1909 asa regional history and ethnographic museum,the Muse Dauphinois took on its present form and focus in 1971,with the appointment of Jean-Pierre Laurent as Director. Laurentinstigated major changes which affected not only the display, but,more cmcially, the ideology ofthemuseum, making it a pioneeringmember ofthe nowrapidly-expanding family of ' muses de socit'.

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This term is difficult to translate: history and folk-life museums,ethnographic and industrial collections, rural or urban site-museumsallfall under this banner. Recognisingthiscomplexgenealogy,EmiliaVaillant,of the French Museums Directorate, interprets it not as adefinition of type, but ratherasameansof bringing together a varietyof very different institutions which have a commonaim:'to study theevolution of humanity fromasocialandhistorical point of view, andto provide means and markers for the understanding of cultural andsocialdiversity'.' Thisapproachisbasedonthe radical museum ethicsdeveloped by Jean-Pierre Laurent in Grenoble. Laurent argued thatthe museum must collaborate with its visitors and the wider localcommunity it serves, to articulate collective and personal memories.Insodoing, these memories are restored to those who have no voiceof their own, with the museum acting as a kind of psychoanalyticaltool to explore contemporary society and community in the light ofpast and present experiences.2 This is 'engaged' museology; theexhibition becoming an act of restitution and empowerment. Giventhis,objects, the usual museumcurrency,are only important insofaras they highlight human experience. The narrative of the museumdisplayisthereforesocialrather than aesthetic. Such amodeof practicedemands highly active community participation: itistheir narrative,and theobjects whichhaveresonance for them, which become centralto the exhibition. In making the museum public a central element inthe definition of all policies and actions, the Muse Dauphinoiseffectively turned the original museum function on its head. It is no'museumasa temple of Knowledge' in the mould ofsomany throughoutEurope, forthemost part direct descendants ofthenineteenth-centuryencyclopedic national and municipal collections.3The museum as anatural home for cultural and socialdmocratisationis becoming anaccepted part of 'musedesocit' practice, and, as shown above, iseven adopted by the usually tradition-bound French MuseumsDirectorate. However the level of commitment to this code variesgreadyandit remains acontestedissuewithinthemuseum sector.

This 'style grenoblois' had its first major public outing in1981.Laurent mounted the exhibition'The StoryoftheGrenoblois',a grandfamily album of local life and issues. Hundreds of people weremobilised to uncover the complex social structure in the town from56

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the eighteenth centuryto thepresent.Audio-visual oraltestimoniesofmany inhabitants gave parallel commentaries in which a pictureemerged ofatown growingrichfrommmigrant labourandless fromits romanticised roleascapital of theAlps.Withitsovertly polemicalstance and theatrical presentation,theexhibition caughttheattentionof museum professionals world-wide, becoming a benchmark forinnovative practice.By the late 1980s, in less friendly political climes,4Laurent hadbeen replaced as Director and much of the continuation of thiscommunity-based work fell to the assistant director, Jean-ClaudeDuelos. Whilst working tothe samephilosophy.Dueloshas adaptedittoconcentrate on sectors of the community in tum , 'show-casing'various private strands of multi-cultural Grenoblois life in the publicspace of the museum, building on the links created by 'The Story ofthe Grenoblois'. Pride at seeing their likenesses on the walls ledseveralof the city's immigrantgroups -notablyItaUansand Armenians- to wantto telltheir story,leading toa series of successful exhibitions.So how did the Greeks come to enter the museum and what is theirstory?TheMuseum Experience of the Greek Community of Grenoblefinding narrativeTodayroughlyfivehousand people of Greek nationality or descentlive inGrenoble, forming one of the longest-established communitiesin France. Their life revolves around the OrthodoxChurch,built withfunds and labour provided by the members themselves in the1950s,and their presence, by their own admission, is discrete. Some cross-cultural links have been established: the Association Franco-Hellnique de Grenoble being one. In 1990, this associationapproached theMuseDauphinois. On a recent visittoGreece, someFrench members had seen a stunning collection of traditional Greekcostumes in the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation. Would it bepossible to exhibit them? Jean-Claude Duelos welcomed thissuggestion as a logical extension of the 'style grenoblois', with themuseum public viewing the institution as their space. However, thecostumes by themselves were neutral objects, and, following the'muse de socit' philosophy, some accompanying human element

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was needed to give them resonance.Duelos' sketchy idea was toproduce a temporary exhibitionandan accompanyingbook,elaboratedinclose collaboration withthecommunityitself.He statesthat 'usingthefact thatwe were tohost this exhibition [of costumes]asawayofbringingtolifethestory of the Greek community of Grenoble seemeda perfectly natural course of action'.sThisdecisionwasgiven weightby the fact that initial research highlighted thatnoscientific accountof Greek communities in France existed. Any collaboration with theGrenoblois Greeks would thereforebeof national importance.

Integral to the 'style grenoblois' is the creation of a steeringcommittee for every exhibition. Its members focus the museumnarrative which will ultimately shape the presentation. Besides theoriginal contacts from the Franco-Hellenic association,Duelosco-opted members of the Greek Orthodox Church,theOrpheus culturalassociation and other Hellenic clubs to create a twenty-strongcommittee to guide the reflections and coordinate the collection ofobjects and oraltestimonies. The project would needtounearthobjectsand a narrative( story )detailing the Greek presence on French soilandthe museum was reliantonthe community for loansanddonations.This would also allow Duelos to see what the community membersthemselves deemedtobe significant, rather than imposing a curatorialrationale uponthesubject. Intheview of new museum Director JeanGuibal, the curator's role on any such committee is forty per centscientific and professionalassistance,but sixty per cent 'social work',handing overthe'product' to the memberssothat they 'own' it.6

Thecommittee met monthly for the next eighteen months. At firstthe members were doubtful of being able to provide very much ofinterest and could not quite see why their story should interest themuseum.7 But they played the game, and soon realised that theypossessed a unique story. Committee discussions ranged over thegeographical roots of the community, the evolution of daily life forthe settlers, and the important components of ex-patriate life. Oncethe committee set about mobilisingfriendsand familiestoshare theirmemories in ordertoconstruct a narrative, andtosuggest objectsanddocuments which could featureinthe exhibition, it became apparentthat the process would become a psychoanalytical tool for thecommunity.58

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Veryrapidly,long-sublimated memories surfaced. Centraltothesewas the notion of exile. Most earlysetders had come notfrommainlandGreecebut the significant Greek colonyinAsiaMinor,forced to fleeviaSmyrna/Izmirin August1922attheheight of the Greco-Turkishwar. One and a half million Greeks left, and the burning of Smymarem ains one of the rootcausesof contemporaryGreek-T\itkishconflict.Oral testimony revealed a strength of feeling surrounding these events('genocide', 'catastrophe' being common terms of reference in theinterviews), even on the part of thosewhohad not livedthem.Someinterviewees remembered fleeingas children with their families, onFrench boats sailing forMarseilles.Theemigrants,mostly educatedand skilled, were attracted to Grenoble by its reputation as anexpanding and prosperoustown.Having created lives for themselvesin Asia Minor, they simply began the process again in France,attempting to exercise their own trades or to work in the developingconstmction,cement, tannery or confectionery industries.

These Greeks were anxious to assimilate and were generallysuccessful, especially when comparedtoother immigrant groups. Thiswas a source of pride fortheinterviewees, but assimilationiswon atacost:the past has to be carefully packedaway.Now this past wasresurfacing as a focus of theinterviewsthrough the image of the burningsea-front buildings of Smyma - the last view of home, so painfullydisfigured.8Asthe committee discussedthisevent,the image appearedas a defining one forthe wholecommunity:as a lived experience forthose who had fled as children; as a painful sense of lost roots fortheir descendants. Forthose havingarrivedinGrenoblelater,perhapsat the time of the Colonels' regime or as economic immigrants, the'Catastrophe de Smyme' had become a founding community mythwhichthey had to some extent takenupas their own. Translated throughthe generations,thisimage emergedasan unspoken community emblemof exile. Significantly, the sense of loss was heightened by theimpossibility of retum - the area now forms part of Turkey.

Exile also defined the selection of objects anddocuments.With ahighly visual cultural inheritance,theGreek community had carefullykept photographs of 'over there'andhad continuedto keepa detailedphotographic record of their new life in Grenoble. The mass ofphotographic evidence pointed to a community totally reconciled to

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by a simple collection of cabin trunks on a stylised ship's deck, ametaphor for monumental change. Crossing this space, the visitormoved on from the history of Greece and daily life in Asia Minor,shifting from the ancient to the modem, the exotic to the familiar.Loaned objects and photographs reflected the new working life inGrenoble. Juxtaposed withthiswas the 'secret' life of the home andchurch,including a model of the Orthodoxaltar.Accompanying textualpanels, written up from the oral testimomes byDuelosand M arie-Claire Vanneuville, gave the personal tales which lay behind theseimages.Variouscommunitymemberstold their own stories via audiorecordings. All emotions found their place: pain andjoy,pride andregretThe Community as MuseumObject:reactionsThe exhibition ran from March 1993 to January 1994. Thecommunity was thrilled with the curators' work. Even those on thecommittee were 'surprised [...] itwasvery, very moving, to see whatthey had managed to do with our words and objects'. The symbolicpower of the cabin trunkswasimmediately apparenttothem all. Butnow the Greeks were no longer anonymous - they had made theirprivate collective and individual pasts part of the public domain, andtherefore open to criticism. How would they be judged as 'museumobjects'?

Nationally, the exhibition was very favourably received and wasreviewed inLe Monde Locally, it was a popular exhibition: manyvisitors came out of neighbourly curiosity. They admired the modelof the Orthodox Church, a part ofthetown's landscape since 1956.This all thrilled the Greeks, for they felt an increased sense ofbelonging to the family history of Grenoble, and they provided toursof the church during and after the exhibition. Grenoblois werefascinatedto seefamiliar streets and workplaces picturedaspart of adisplay which began in ancient Greece. Stressing difference andsimilarity in the same exhibition has an undeniable pedagogic valuein fostering tolerance, as picked up by this local visitor: 'thank you[...] for showing [...] that Grenobleismadefromso many brave menand women frommany origins,whohave made such a great efforttointegrate local life, whilst preserving their own values and their love

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of their homeland. It isveryimportantto stress thispoint at the presenttime, when some sectors of society believe that immigration leads toso-called insurmountable problems' .10Not all reactions were so unequivocally positive. Despite beingplaced in the final rooms allocated to the exhibition, traditionallyreserved for the 'picedersistance'in a linear exhibition discourse,thePeleponesiancostumes, the original catalyst for the exhibition,were obscured by the fact that the exhibition was articulated aroundthe central display of the moment of exile. Some Franco-Hellenicassociation members, whilst being 'profoundly moved'bythe imagesof the burning of Smyma, regretted thatallmedia attention had beenturned upon the 'integration angle' of the exhibition, which theyqualifiedas apolitical discourse.11This bringsusbackto thefunctionof museums, now the subject of vast professional and theoreticaldebate. Traditional museum displays - the museum as a temple ofknowledge -weregenerally thoughttobe neutral presentations devoidof any dominant discourse.But aswith literary discourse,thisapparentobjectivity has been revealed to hide vested power interests. The

museological aim of the Muse Dauphinois is to provide a space fortheexpression of subjective (hi)stories, inviting dialogue and raisingquestions. Allowing parallel narratives oftenplaces the wayin whichevents arerememberedonahigher plane than the events themselves.Inevitably this does become a political act, and so the museum mustacknowledge which 'voice' is framinghenarrative of the exhibition.If the traditional 'objective' museum display masks the politics ofpower,thisapproach exemplarises the politics of empowerment Withitssubjective presentation ofthe burningofSmyma,aTurkish reactionto the exhibition was inevitable. In June 1993, the Turkish ConsulGnralin Lyonwrote tothemuseum, pointing to 'historical errors'and lack of 'impartial [...] scientific research'. Casting the Turkishpeopleand governmentin abad lightcould,hesuggested,give risetoa 'political controversy' between the two countries, leading to'hostility and lack of understanding'.,2Duelos'replyclearly expresses

the museum's motivationtoempower:Collecting and restoring memory, a continuouselement of the work ofaregional museum such as ours,

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involves an element of risk which we acknowledgeand try to assess. For this reason, we have taken theprecaution [...] of pointing out the framework of ourundertaking in the publication which expands on theexhibition [...]. The suffering oftheGreek families w hohad to leav e Izmir and Le Pont in 1922 was [...] all tooreal. Should we just silently pass over this, since it is afundamental reason for the presence of these familiesin Grenoble? To acknowledge this is also part of thegrieving process which , once com plete, will allowfor a more serene acceptance of the present We felt,in other words, that it is necessary to give expressionto this memory in order that a real discussion may takeplace.13

The point was powerful and the matter was dropped.Identity ssuesRaised bytheExhibitionOnce the exhibition was over, how were the Greeks to arrive at aserene acceptance ofthepresent? The belonging-exile continuum hadbeen so strongly expressed byDuelosin the exhibition halls: howwas this tobeunderstoodinhumanterms? Theanswer was providedbynoneother than M elina Mercouri. Immensely proud of their efforts,the Greek community contacted the Greek CultureMinister,asking ifshecouldattend.She declined, but sent words of encouragement:

A people always on the move; through choice ornecessity. A nation of travellers since its name firstappeared on the map. A people happy to travel butalways homesick. The Greeks.Since the beginning of time they have spread all overthe world. They have lived in the furthest comers ofthe globe. They also came to Grenoble; with their fewscant belongings. Forced to leave, for the most part,their beloved Asia Minor, but willing to startall overagain amongst the inhabitants of Grenoble.Nevertheless, they remain Greeks at heart, and thisexhibition proves it.14

Mercouri's romantic prose summed up the duality felt by thecommunity. This had also been sensed byDueloswho, by breaking63

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theexhibitionintohere/there, exposed/secretlives,faithfully reflectedthe sentiments forthcoming in the collection process.In hiskey analysisof exile, Algerian sociologist Abdelmalek Sayad shows how it mustbequalifiedas a place and astate of mind constructed uponduality.Itis neither here nor there, it is both here AND there. It is the presentandthepast,it isthe active and the imaginedlife.Onlyafull integrationoftheseopposites can allowanexiled communityto moveforward.15By casting them as part of a Greek diaspora, central to Greekconsciousness, Mercouri gave the community avital dynamicfunction.Linked intimeand spacetoOdysseus and Pythagoras, they featuredin an invented traditional mythology where the Greeks are meant totravel, fanning the flame of Greek civilisation throughouttheworld.16So their presenceinGrenoble made them importanttotheir homeland.Thefinalextension ofthis process wasthe publicationofa mmoired une communaut grecque by three members of the steeringcommittee.17Their celebration of precisely this duality and role isremarkablein itsclarity of expression, based largely upontheimagesinwords andpictures containedinthe exhibition. Although structuredby professional curators, the narratives have been adopted as thecommunity's own, being a most extreme example of 'the museumgiving a voice to the unvoiced'. These are articulate people, whononetheless needed a mirror held up to their experiences to shapetheirtermsof reference, as in any good process of analysis.ConclusionsThe exhibition was a 'muse de socit' curator's dream. Theclose subject participation led to a display of quality and integritywhich prompted a dialogue with the wider community - responsesranged from local to national, personal to political. The usualquantifiable measures of exhibition success - visitor numbers andmerchandising possibilities - mattered little in this process. Themuseum succeeded in transcendingitsaesthetic functionto become acommunity facility where empowerment of a humansubjectreplacedthe power often articulated by curatorial choice. The Greeks wereindeed empowered by the experience, fortheyunderstood how theircontribution had shaped contemporary Grenoble, heightening theirsense of belonging. Basile Zembalas spoke for the whole community:64

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'Itwas [...]ahugesa tisfaction,arealboost[...], [theexhibition]gaveusthe opportunityto showwho weare.Wereallyhad been toodiscrete[...]. It was a great source of pride'. To a large extent it was theaffirmation of their global and historical role which allowed them tobelong to their adoptive home: 'I was at last able to say to myancestors, We didn 't leave for nothing. We are your worthysuccessors' . HlneFaure-Georgopoulos'comment confirms that,in sociological terms, the consultation process was as revelatory asthe resultant exhibition.18 The creation of this 'safe space' for theexploration of human experience asaparallel to the exhibition relieson a curator-participant relationship based on trust and lengthyconsultation.Thisemphasisisgaining groundinmuseums,butis nowimperilledbyshrinkingculturalbudgets:imesmoney. The authoritieswho fund cultural institutions at times attempttoinfluence the discourseof politically sensitive manifestations, yet the museum received nointerference over the presentation of the Greco-Turkish conflict. It isinteresting to speculate that the geo-political and temporal distanceof the conflict allowed ittoescape censure.Museumsare increasinglyattempting the presentation of 'difficult' subjects, yet the similar taleofbelonging,exile and no-retum ofthePied Noir population of Algeriafor example, is still surrounded byaparticular French amnesia.All toooften, exhibitions are deconstracted without referencetothe museological stance orthehands and minds which have shapedthem.Yet these seemingly intangible elements must be sought ou t Asthisparticular museum experienceshows,such an exercisewillmisstheverysignificance of the display, andwillbe making purely aestheticjudgments of what amountsto an actof restitution.

NOTES^Emilia Vaillant, 'Les Muses de Socit en France: chronologie etdfinition'.Muses et Socits(Paris, Ministrede laCulture, 1993),p.37.AUtranslationsfromhe French are by theauthor.^Interview with Jean-Pierre Laurent,19 May 1995.

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