Constructive Resistance by Mona Lilja

Author:Mona Lilja
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781538146491
Publisher: ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Chapter 7

Artifacts, Affects, and Authenticity

Constructive Resistance in Museum Spaces

Contemporary marketplaces and cultural arenas are overfilled with objects that are considered as “copies,” “fakes,” and “reproductions.” Generally, in these places, “copies” seem to be less valued than “authentic” objects—that is, objects that could be produced and authenticated through, for example, expert knowledge or certification; there is a desire for authenticity in museums as well as in society as a whole (Grayson and Martinec 2004).

The focus of this chapter is “authentic” objects that were exhibited in the exhibition History Unfolds, which was displayed in 2017 at the Museum of History, Stockholm, as well as the exhibition Destination X, which was shown in 2012 at the Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg. These exhibitions are analyzed in order to show how and why “authentic” artifacts are used at museums by the administrations, staff members, and artists, as a form of constructive “resistance,” which has the aim of providing space for new voices and opening up different significations in regard to migration and migrants.

It is interesting that some material artifacts are more attractive and become more important to us because they were present during other times and have been felt and seen by the people of the past; perhaps during painful moments, grand time-periods, or dramatic ruptures. These artifacts are often seen as more fascinating and valuable than copies that have not “time-traveled.” The “authentic” artifacts that are elaborated on in this chapter are embraced as “discursive materialities,” which are created in the entanglement of matter with “the symbolic” (Lilja and Martinsson 2018). The emphasis is on the authenticity that is assigned to personal possessions (Grayson and Shulman 2004) or other artifacts, which could be spatiotemporally linked with migrant bodies. The “authentic” objects discussed are those that are ascribed meaning—particularly due to their previous physical encounters with migrant bodies.

As demonstrated in the analysis below, “authentic” objects are sometimes exhibited in museums as a form of constructive resistance, to make visitors abandon their standard interpretations and negotiate categories such as “us” and “them.” The forthcoming sections display how “authentic” artifacts, when used as meaning-making resistance in museum spaces, come to symbolize “matter-out-of-place,” be seen as “living” objects with “memories,” remove distances, and create time-lagged processes of signification that are interweaved in emotional processes. These artifacts are used to establish elaborated alternative discourses and/or deconstructed understandings of history. In addition, they can be said to be a means of constructive resistance, as they not only complexify and problematize various dimensions of the issue of migration but also contribute to the production of different truths.

The analysis in this chapter builds upon observations within the above-mentioned exhibitions; I have spent time viewing, reading, and experiencing the exhibitions, and I have also observed how the visitors interacted with the exhibited artifacts and texts. Over and above this, I draw on texts that describe and analyze the exhibitions.

Exhibition Spaces, Artifacts, Migration, and Resistance: Destination X and History Unfolds

As stated above, the key focus of this chapter is “authentic” objects, particularly those that are on display in museums in relation to migration.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.