Languages and exhibition practices in contemporary museums

The great French museologist Georges-Henry Rivière, one of the promoters during the 1970s of the "new museology" movement, stated that "the exhibition is the medium par excellence of the museum, the instrument of its language particular". According to this postulate, it can be said that museums communicate and speak mainly through their exhibitions. Thus, every exhibition, and by extension, every exhibition program is essentially an act of communication. Certainly, the construction of an exhibition language of its own, identified as such both inside and outside the museum, constitutes a complex process in which a great diversity of factors intervene.

First of all, without a doubt, it is necessary to mention the nature, type and number of the collections that constitute its heritage and which, in the first instance, condition the scope of its thematic scope of potential action and, at the same time, also of its social and media perception.

Secondly, it also becomes important to know the number and typology of the public, real and potential, identified by the institution, and to the extent possible, knowledge also of their needs, interests and expectations.

Thirdly, it is necessary to consider the nature and weight of the museographic traditions in force in the institution and, at the same time, the margin of flexibility that these traditions make possible. Finally, the landscape also requires not to neglect the part that represents the number and type of economic, technical and, above all, human resources that the center has. This last element suara mentioned, that is, the people who participate in the process of defining and implementing this language and, especially, their degree of talent and experience, their more innovative or more conventional temperament, and ultimately , his particular look and aesthetic tastes seem to me to be very important ingredients when it comes to shaping the exhibition language of a museum.

Aesthetic and symbolic expression

My professional experience in the museum sector has taught me that every exhibition is always a form and a product of aesthetic and symbolic expression of a collective nature, largely comparable to a film or a theatrical performance, and , consequently, I am firmly convinced that there is also an "art of exhibiting" that, unlike other contemporary arts and visual expressions, has not yet obtained the full academic, social and media recognition that, in my opinion, it deserves

Finally, and not to mention the last is one of the most important, it is necessary to mention the vision and, above all, the values that the museum assumes and defends, and that, consequently, inspire and guide all its institutional activity .

Challenges and demands

In relation to this last issue, I think it is particularly important to highlight four major challenges or demands that are increasingly being posed to contemporary museums, whatever their size, disciplinary orientation or form of governance.

The first of them is that of its contribution to sustainable development, its commitment to becoming a green museum: reduce, reuse, recycle, this is the mantra recited by museums committed to this line of action and which, applied specifically in the exhibition field, it mainly determines the adoption of new standards and protocols to develop the exhibition work with more sustainable criteria.

The second challenge to consider has to do with the notion of inclusion, which, more and more, is also a central theme in the concerns of contemporary museum institutions. Here, the emerging practices mainly seek to make disappear or, at the very least, diminish all those barriers that prevent free and full access to culture and heritage to all social groups, be they of a physical, intellectual, social, cultural or economic. It is the return of the concept of "social museum" that characterized the emergence of the "new museology" during the 1960s and 1970s. The notion and problems of inclusion must also be linked to the need to guarantee a fair balance in social and, especially, gender representation, in the languages and exhibition practices of museums. In this sense, it is necessary to bear in mind the capacity of museum institutions to create and, at the same time, legitimize images and social representations.

Exposició 'Dones de paraula' al Museu Frederic Marès.

Fortunately, the efforts to guarantee the gender perspective in the discourses and representations conveyed by museums, and especially in their exhibitions, permanent or temporary, are becoming more important every day in the agenda of many museums around the world and also in our country In addition, the challenge is also beginning to arise in relation to the presence and taking into consideration the sensitivities of other human groups who, legitimately, also aspire to have visibility and social representativeness within the museum field, such as now the LGBTIQ+ groups. In connection with the objectives and challenges of inclusion and social justice, we must also place what we consider to be the third major challenge that contemporary museums must also face in the exercise of their exhibition practice: the expansion of concept of democratization in the cultural field.

Here, the dimensions to be considered are of various kinds. On the one hand, there are the demands posed by the practice called "citizen science", which we must understand as a way of producing new scientific knowledge through a structured project of collective, participatory and open research, driven by different types of actors, who do not necessarily work within academic fields. On the other hand, there is the issue of the so-called "decolonization" of museums, especially hot in those institutions that preserve collections linked to imperial and colonial projects. In addition, in relation to the challenge of achieving greater democratization of museums, it is necessary to situate the problem and the debate of the ethical aspects of their financing and, by extension, of the exhibitions and other products that they develop, thanks to private patronage , companies and corporations.

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Educational entertainment

Finally, in this bird's-eye view of the main challenges of contemporary exhibition practice, which closely condition their exhibition languages, it is also necessary to mention the growing concern of some museums to incorporate the concept of endutainment into their practices or educational entertainment, which postulates the need to incorporate and make compatible objectives and entertainment elements to the traditionally formative or educational purpose of the museum.

Without wanting to go deeper or interrupt the debate, I just limit myself to pointing out that, on the one hand, and for a large part of the people who visit a museum, the free visit almost always takes place in a time and in a context of leisure, and with more or less dimension and cultural interest.

On the other hand, scholars and analysts of the problem warn us and frequent museums and exhibitions because, above all, they want to have unique and interesting "experiences", and this from an intellectual, sensory, social and emotional point of view. The motivation is no longer primarily "learning" or "intellectual cultivation". There are also those who want to experience a situation of personal interaction with others, who want to play and manipulate, who want to listen to stories and who, in doing so, want to feel and be moved.

Today's museums must definitely assume that they have very diverse and often contradictory audiences, some of whom value a museum visit experience that integrates dimensions beyond the intellect and often closer to the game or the emotions. Without any of the possible types of visitors, the homo ludens has been frequenting our museums and exhibitions for some time now, it asks and will ask us for a greater attention and offer than we have traditionally given it, at the risk of ceasing to interest him

Performance d'Otobong Nkanga a l'IVAM.