MUSEUM BRANDS. HETEROTOPIC CROSSOVERS

arch. Anda-Ioana Sfinte

1. MUSEUMS BETWEEN LOCAL AND GLOBAL missions, aims, purposesMuseums had, from the beginning, a strong relationship with The other. As time passed, the relationship changed from displaying him as exotic to negotiating authority, identity, authenticity and acceptance. The institution is linked both with the place/identities displayed and the place/identities of the place where it is located, bringing into question different dualities.dualities

localglobal

continuitydiscontinuity

uniqueuniversal

inclusionexclusion

materialimmaterial

selfnessotherness

Nowadays museums promote culture and symbols at an international level, frequently through spectacular activities and iconic buildings. Architecture becomes as well a form through which local and global forces are being disputed and negotiated.Ordos MuseumNew museums like the one designed by MAD in Ordos, Mongolia, are more than a simple enclosure created to accommodate and expose valuable objects or ideas. The building itself makes a statement by interpreting a collective identity. Standing in the center of a new city, built in the Gobi Desert, the museum architecture is a reaction against the systematic plan of the city, which showed no consideration for the residents. The proposal a blob-like form wishes to integrate the new building into the surroundings through form and finishing (reflecting polished metal louvers) and to become an expression of local history and tradition. The heterotopic museum facade separates not only the inside from the outside but also an urban, discrepant reality from a timeless one.

2. THE PRIMARY IMPORTANCE OF VISITORS AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MUSEUM BRANDSold vs. new museology

elitist publicwider public

the simple display of objectsnarrative discourse

placing objects in a conceptual context

organization of knowledgequestioning and challenging themes

neutral and passive position of the visitorcentral and dynamic

authoritarian voice

constructing, sharing and negotiating meanings and values

interpreting the exhibition

understanding an exhibition as a subjective and progressive process

participation

a single disciplinemulti-disciplinary

homogeneous publicheterogeneous public

Museum brands are value brands measured in name awareness, perceived quality, associations and visitor satisfaction.3. MUSEUM CROSSOVERSa. Why do museums go beyond their walls

The shifting from old to new museology led also to museums transgressing their limits.

Through this extension, museums meet their potential visitors and their needs halfway, but the museums that went into the street dont solely address to their common public. At the same time, their motivation for going beyond their walls is not only that of wishing to perform social work in a wider setting. The American Association of Museums names, in its brochure edited in 2012 Trends Watch as main reasons for taking it to the street, the weak economy (meaning less paying visitors), the cultural authority diminution (the blurring of high/low culture differences) and the rediscovery of localism (eventually as a reaction against globalism). b. Social impact of different museum crossoversi. Crossing over the physical boundary museums on the streets In between museums and street

The threshold between inside and outside isnt always just a physical delimitation, be it transparent or opaque, thin or massive. It sometimes becomes spatial a communication liaison between museum and street (like courtyards or plazas). In this context, these spaces are often pretences for organizing cultural events which question the solitary, formal and official character of the institution. Pompidou CentreThe plaza in front of Pompidou Centre is an invitation to improvisations which blurs the differences between high and low culture and dissolves the clear inside/outside distinction.

The Riverside MuseumAt The Riverside Museum in Glasgow, the area in front of the museum has been transformed into a civic space and put to an informal use in order to attract a less accessible public like bicyclists and skateboarders. The events that take place here create a stronger interrelationship between the museum ant the community it services.

Beyond the walls Satellites

Contemporary museums engage in various activities, not necessarily interconnected with the main exhibition, but rather with their cultural and social role at the community, locality, areal, national or international level. Museums involve in solving not only basic, but also social, transformative and evolutional problems, concerning the self, the family or group. In order to do so, museums go beyond their walls and run all kinds of activities which are not exclusively addressed to the visitors. Some of the manifestations that take place outside the museum consist of placing representative satellite buildings which mark their affiliation.

The Wall [Vggen]The Wall is an installation placed by the Copenhagen Museum in various city plazas. By proposing this LCD wall, a connection between past-present-future has been created. It interactively illustrates the urban transformations which took place (through the medium of stories, images, events, cultural tendencies, ways of life, identities etc.). It facilitates communication and encourages interaction and sharing of information. The act is seen as a way of shifting the interest on public participation in accumulating knowledge and on discovering the consequences of the past. ii. Branching inside and outside borders

Museum brands are, as I said before, linked to name awareness, associations and perception. Thus, using the same name for newer locations cuts short the process of making a name and a brand. It also assures the communities involved of the interest the institution pays to get closer to their needs.Tate (Britain, Modern, Liverpool, St Ives)Guggenheim (New York, Venice, Bilbao, Abu Dhabi) + closed (Berlin, Las Vegas)Guggenheim, seen as the first global museum because of its worldwide spread branches, received many critiques because its expansion did not mean only getting closer to a wider public, but also commercializing exhibitions. The attention shifts, in this case, from the art collection to the architecture as a work of art, used to raise the number of tourists. iii. Travelling collections and museums

Nomadic MuseumThe Nomadic Museum represents the travelling home of the exhibition known as Ashes and Snow (pictures and movies depicting the human/animal interaction in a try to rediscover the primordial harmony between them), by Gregory Colbert.Since its foundation in 2005, the museum has been located in public plazas in New York (2005), Santa Monica (2006), Tokyo (2007) and Mexico City (2008).

This nomadic museum exceeded boundaries and borders. It had a high social, international and trans-cultural importance, emphasized by its placement in public places.iv. Virtual space museums

The blurring of the boundaries betweenleisure / education / consumption

transforms the museum websites into places of(re)presentation / information / exhibition / marketing / kindling.The future of museums in the information age (Ross Parry at the Museums in the Information Age: Evolution or Extinction? debate, The Science Museum, London 2012)

socialultra-socialization and personalization

situatedproviding specific content to the visitor based on his location

sensoryrecognize and use accordingly the blurring of the boundary between digital and not-digital

semanticthe ability to make online connections between items

v. Museums of the border crossovers Immigrant Community MuseumsFor immigrant communities the museum space becomes helpful in the process of accommodation to a new society and, in the same time, a keeper of the native values. It gives them the opportunity to assert their own authority, to socialize and manifest solidarity.4. IN CONCLUSIONMuseums are caught between local and global forces, but this is not a bad thing. It gives the opportunity to creatively respond to the challenges raised. Their position between the dualities discussed earlier (continuity/discontinuity, uniqueness/universality, inclusion/exclusion etc.) needs to be continuously negotiated and reasserted. Understanding that, we must also ask ourselves what happens with the fixed built environment in the face of these changing positions.

Architecture should mediate these tensions and disclose the position of the institution. It is not easy to create equilibrium between all the factors involved, but the actual question is rather:

What aspects, taken from the museum aims and purposes, should prevail?