Description
Book SynopsisGabriela Nicolescu is an Exhibition Maker, a Writer and a Post-Doctoral Researcher with the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford, UK. She has published in
Critique of Anthropology, the
Journal of Design History, the
Journal of Material Culture,
World Art,
East Central Europe and
Anthropology & Aging.
Trade ReviewNicolescu’s scholarship throws light on what happens to a globally significant collection through decades of social and political transformation. Her thinking on the power of objects, styles and collections will galvanise students of culture everywhere. * Adam Drazin, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK *
Masterfully examines aesthetics, ethics, and politics in the turbulent monarchist, socialist, and post-socialist biography of the Museum of the Romanian Peasant. Nicolescu’s analysis of the museum as a vital, porous actor within society is engaging and original. * Margaret H. Beissinger, Research Scholar, Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, Princeton University, USA *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Abbreviations INTRODUCTION: POROUS MUSEUMS Museums as expandable Museums as garbage and concealing Museums as continuities of practice Synopsis of Chapters 1. TWO DIFFERENT DOORS: BUREAUCRACY AND PLAYFULNESS Living among stereotypes Closed rooms ‘Socialist’ white and tidy ‘Anti-communist’ colour and bricolage Negotiating a white gown In search of creativity: the EMYA prize Conclusion 2. THE STAGING OF HISTORY: ETHNOGRAPHY IN MUSEUM’S WAVERING ARCHIVES Why silencing the socialist past? Golden archives: aristocrats and peasants in the capital city Finding inspiration in Stockholm and Oslo Partial archives: partial truths 1950’s relocations Bucharest 1957 exhibition: the difficulty of inscribing difference Where are the peasants? Replies from a photo archive Conclusion 3. SOCIALIST MULTIPLICATION AND THE USE OF THE FUTURE TENSE Multiplication of employees and the school of seriality Work as a gift: the art of bureaucracy and numbers 1960s: Marathon of exhibitions and events and technocrat dispersion The secret police searches the soul of Tancred Bana?eanu Socialism goes global: Travelling folk art exhibitions to Austria, Belgium, China, Mexico, Switzerland and Vietnam Endless multiplication of collections: the storage fever puts the museum to a halt 4. A QUESTION OF (IN)VISIBILITY The 1977 earthquake: new visibility and the media Socialist artizanat, art naïve and the mix of values Back to the stores: what museums do not need 1980s: Eating at the Museum of the Communist Party Hunger and collapse 5. WHAT IS LEFT AFTER A REVOLUTION… FRAGMENTS Priests in the museum: a story of exorcism and sacralisation 1990s’ Neo-Byzantinism Paper clips: fragmentation and assemblage ‘Alive’ museography: ‘when museums disrupt and heal’ Conclusion 6. THREE FACES OF COMMUNISM Anger: Communism as the Plague Practice: The Continuity of Stores Irony and playfulness: The Art of Bricolage Conclusion 7. CONCLUDING CHAPTER The porous museums: tales of continuity and rupture in central and eastern Europe The politics of display and peasants out of history Little space for modernity: the missing metal spoon Notes References List of Illustrations Index
