{"product_id":"the-porous-museum-9781350196636","title":"The Porous Museum","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eGabriela Nicolescu\u003c\/b\u003e 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 \u003ci\u003eCritique of Anthropology\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eJournal of Design History\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eJournal of Material Culture\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWorld Art\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEast Central Europe\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eAnthropology \u0026amp; Aging\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNicolescu’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 *\u003cbr\u003eMasterfully 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 \u0026amp; Literatures, Princeton University, USA *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgements 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","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49407520178519,"sku":"9781350196636","price":80.75,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781350196636.jpg?v=1730499649","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-porous-museum-9781350196636","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}