Congress

Cultural Coordinates in Present-Day Museology: Five Neologisms

14 and 15 October 2021

Aims and objectives of the Conference

At its meeting 139a (Paris, 2019), the Executive Committee of the ICOM proposed that museums should be defined as “democratised, inclusive and polyphonic spaces”. The Committee also considered that in the light of today’s conflicts and challenges, museums should “care for artefacts and specimens for society, safeguard multiple memories for future generations and guarantee equality of rights and access to cultural heritage for all peoples.” In the light of these future challenges defined by an international organisation, rethinking the museum today means providing tools that make it possible to respond with the highest degree of democratic commitment to the societal challenges of contemporary culture, manifested both in the immediate community and on a much larger scale, through transnational projection and digital innovation. It is precisely here in the present day that the limits of museums - represented by the physical limits of their display spaces - lose significance in order to necessarily open themselves out towards their urban, social and, in a latent sense, human surroundings with the intention of assuming a more actively participative role in the life of their communities and of society in general. Present-day museology is thus working to redefine its disciplinary limits, respond to demands such as those of “transparency” and “sustainability”, for example, and strengthen the participation and inclusion of all members of society. This transformative process will also be accompanied by new museographical narratives.

The International Conference Cultural Coordinates in present-day museology: Five neologisms is aimed at research that focuses on analysing the contemporary museological discourse and its effects on cultural communication. Numerous questions arise, for example, regarding curatorial practices, the new formulas of knowledge transmission, museology’s potential contributions to social cohesion, the mediation made possible by the new technologies and the critical contribution to be expected concerning issues such as gender demands, environmental sustainability and others. The sections are headed by the corresponding neologisms into which the themes that are the subject of debate and analysis are divided: Demomuseum, Exomuseum, E-museum, Museosophy and Hypermuseum.

Studies Center

Sign up: 16 September to 8 October or until all places are filled.
Schedule: The times of the events listed in the programme are in mainland Spanish time.
Recipients: University staff and researchers focused on museological studies, students, art historians, cultural managers and museum professionals.
Location: Auditorium of the Museo Nacional del Prado.
Direction: Javier Arnaldo
Organiser: Museo Nacional del Prado
Presencial and online attendance: It is possible to attend the sessions until all seats are filled or to follow the conference online through the link to the Zoom platform that will be provided for all those enrolled. When enrolling you must choose a type of attendance.
Languages and simultaneous translation: Most of the talks will be given in Spanish but some will be in Italian, French or English.
There will be a simultaneous translation service into English for the talks in Spanish and into Spanish for all the others.
Collaborators: The project Atlas Museo. Coordenadas culturales en la museología del presente, financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the State Research Agency and the European Fund for Regional Development (MCI/AEI/FEDER; Ref. RTI2018-096578-B-I00)
Contact: congreso.coordenadas@museodelprado.es

Activity

Speakers and content

The themes of the conference are organised into the five sections headed by the titles of the panels, which are proceeded and followed by the opening and closing lectures. The talks alternate between reflections on museum practice and those formulated from the standpoint of the theory of the museum and art-historical research. The conference aims to encourage an encounter between these two museological experiences and to include inter-generational debates on the new functional paradigms that affect museum institutions in an international context today. Ten of the scheduled interventions are envisaged as framework talks, each lasting 30 minutes. A further ten are proposals selected by the academic Committee, each lasting 20 minutes. The speakers’ academic affiliations are listed below in alphabetical order.

Javier Arnaldo: Head of the Study Centre of the Museo Nacional del Prado
Irene Baldriga: Researcher attached to the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities at the Università Sapienza, Rome
Selina Blasco: Professor of Art History in the Fine Arts Faculty of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid
María Bolaños:: Director of the Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid
Fabienne Brugère: Professor of Philosophy at the Université Paris 8 and president of the consortium of universities and museums of Paris
Marina Chinchilla: Deputy director of administration at the Museo Nacional del Prado
Manuel Fontán del Junco: Director of Museums and Exhibitions at the Fundación Juan March
Rocío Gracia Ipiña: Guest professor at the School of Architecture of the Universidad de Navarra
Celia Guilarte: Head of the Department of Institutional Relations, Museo Nacional del Prado
Sol Izquierdo de la Viña: Member of the curatorial team of the Brücke-Museum, Berlin, of the R+D+i project Creativity in the shadows. Mestizo accounts of art in contemporary society and of the TRAMA Research group
Carlos Jiménez Cuenca: General coordinator of Infrastructure and Systems at the Museo Nacional del Prado
Orietta Lanzarini: Associate professor of the History of Architecture at the Università degli Studi di Udine
Daniel Lesmes: Professor of Art History in the Faculty of Geography and History at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Beatriz Martínez Sosa: Pre-doctoral researcher, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour
Ute Marxreiter: Curator of Education at the Ethnologisches Museum and at the Museum für Asiatische Kunst in Berlin
Cristina Navarro: Associate researcher for Digital Development at the Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz
Javier Pantoja Ferrari: Head of the Department of Digital Development, Museo Nacional del Prado
Modesta Di Paola: Researcher attached to the R+D+i project Atlas Museo and to the Complutense Research Group S U+M A
Irene Di Pietro: Post-doctoral collaborator of the Chair of Museology and Collecting, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna
Irene Pérez López: FPU pre-doctoral researcher at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Dominique Poulot: Senior professor of History at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and honorary member of the Institut Universitaire de France
Henar Rivière: Head of Research and Projects at the Archivo Lafuente (Santander) and contracted post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Art History at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Ariadna Ruiz Gómez: FPU pre-doctoral researcher at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Enrolment

Enrolment period: 16 September to 8 October or until all places are filled.
How to enrol: Enrolment is by filling out the online form available at this link. Please fill out all the sections and indicate whether you will be attending online or in presence. Applications will be dealt with in strict order of the arrival of the forms and only those receiving confirmation from the Museo Nacional del Prado can attend.
Types of attendance: a) presential, b) online
Fees: Students: free (limited places for presential modality); Professionals in the cultural sector: 36.40 €; Members of the FAMP: 44.80 €; General public: 56 €
Certificates of attendance: Being allocated a place at the conference implies your commitment to attend it, given that numbers are limited. There will be an attendance checking system. At the end of the event those who have attended are entitled to a certificate which confirms their attendance.

Organisation

Academic committee: Laura Arias Serrano (Universidad Complutense de Madrid); Javier Arnaldo (Museo Nacional del Prado); Elisabetta Ballaira (Fondazione 1563, Torino); María Bolaños (Museo Nacional de Escultura); Clara Camacho (Plano Nacional das Artes, Portugal); Sandra Costa (Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna); Iñaki Estella (Universidad Complutense de Madrid); David García Cueto (Museo Nacional del Prado); Alicia Herrero Delavenay (ICAA, España); Modesta Di Paola (Proyecto Atlas Museo); Dominique Poulot (Université Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne); Henar Rivière (Archivo Lafuente); Luis Sazatornil (Universidad de Cantabria)
Executive committee: Javier Arnaldo; Modesta Di Paola
Coordination: Clara Camacho Romero; Paloma Málaga; Sofía Mañero
Director: Javier Arnaldo

Programa

2021

Oct: 14

08.30 hReception and accreditation of participants
09.15 hWelcome: Miguel Falomir (Museo Nacional del Prado)
09.30 hInaugural lecture: María Bolaños (Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid): El museo y el pasado [The museum and the past]

Break
11.00 hSection I. Demomuseum: inclusion and democracy: Marina Chinchilla (Museo Nacional del Prado): Un sinfín de compromisos. El museo del siglo XXI [Endless compromises. The 21^st century museum]
Fabienne Brugère (Université Paris 8, Université Paris Lumières): Du musée-sanctuaire au musée-vie. Quelle démocratisation de la culture? [Del museo-santuario al museo-vida. ¿Qué democratización de a cultura?]
Rocío Gracia Ipiña (Universidad de Navarra): El salón de los amigos: sobre la participación en el museo [The Friends’ Room: on participation in museums]
Irene Pérez López (Universidad Complutense de Madrid): El giro hacia el visitante. Construcción de significados, participación y bienestar en el museo [The shift towards the visitor. Construction of meanings, participation and well-being in the museum]
Ute Marxreiter & Cristina Navarro (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin): Blending Curatorial, Educational and Collaborative Practices: The “Family Spaces” in the Ethnological Museum in the Humboldt Forum Berlin [La mezcla de prácticas curatoriales, educativas y colaborativas: los “espacios familiares” en el Museo Etnológico del Humboldt Forum, Berlín]
Ariadna Ruiz Gómez (Universidad Complutense de Madrid): En la redefinición del concepto “museo”. ¿Reformulación del museo tras la pandemia? [On the redefinition of the concept of “museum”. Reformulating the museum after the pandemic?]
13.30 hRound table debate Demomuseo: Moderator: Marina Chinchilla

Break
16.00 hSection II. Exomuseum: sociability and sustainability: Carlos Jiménez Cuenca (Museo Nacional del Prado): Arquitectura, sociabilidad y sostenibilidad en el Museo del Prado [Architecture, sociability and sustainability at the Museo del Prado]
Modesta Di Paola (Atlas Museo): Exomuseo. Repensar la sociabilidad y la sostenibilidad en la museología del presente [Exomuseum. Rethinking sociability and sustainability in present-day museology]
Daniel Lesmes (Universidad Complutense de Madrid): El museo y lo vivo [The museum and life]

Break
18.00 hSection III. E-museum: the digital scope: Javier Pantoja Ferrari (Museo Nacional del Prado): ¿Hacia un museo posthumano? Reflexiones sobre posthumanismo, transhumanismo y museología [Towards a post-human museum? Reflections on post-humanism, trans-humanism and museology]
Manuel Fontán del Junco (Fundación Juan March): En el museo global: subjetividades, conocimiento y colonización [In the global museum: subjectivities, knowledge and colonisation]
Irene Di Pietro (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna): I musei italiani e l’esperienza digitale: meditazione e apprendimento tra online e offline [Los museos italianos y la experiencia digital: mediación y aprendizaje entre online y offline]
19.30 hRound table debate Exomuseum / E-museum: Moderators: Carlos Jiménez Cuenca y Javier Pantoja

Oct: 15

09.00 hSection IV. Museosophy: theories of the museum, museum spaces and curatorial practices: Celia Guilarte (Museo Nacional del Prado): La invención del Prado [The invention of the Prado]
Irene Baldriga (Sapienza Università di Roma): Il museo e le politiche del ricordo: patrimonio negato e condiviso [El museo y las políticas del recuerdo: patrimonio negado y compartido]
Orietta Lanzarini (Università degli Studi di Udine): Les Liaisons dangereuses. Le Mostre degli anni Trenta e la museografia postbellica in Italia [Les Liaisons dangereuses. Las exposiciones de los años treinta y la museografía postbética en Italia]
Beatriz Martínez Sosa (Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour): Revisión y reflexibilidad: cuando el museo se expone [Revision and reflexibility: when the museum displays itself]
Sol Izquierdo de la Viña (Brücke-Museum Berlin): Prácticas curatoriales en el escenario postcolonial: Repensar la herencia del expresionismo alemán en el espacio expositivo [Curatorial practices in the post-colonial context: rethinking the legacy of German Expressionism in the display space]

Break
12.00 hSection V. Hypermuseum: museographical innovations and mutability of accounts: Javier Arnaldo (Museo Nacional del Prado): Expografía: ensayo y ficción [Expographia: essay and fiction]
Selina Blasco (Universidad Complutense de Madrid): Espacios, vida, museo [Spaces, life, museum]
Henar Rivière (Archivo Lafuente): Archivo activo como institución viva. La redefinición de la práctica archivística desde el activismo underground [The active archive as living institution. The redefinition of archival practice from the standpoint of underground activism]
13.30 hRound table debate Museosophie / Hypermuseum: Moderators: Celia Guilarte and Javier Arnaldo

Break
16.00 hRecapitulation and final debate. On neologisms in the museum: Recapitulations: Fabienne Brugère, Modesta Di Paola and Javier Arnaldo
17.00 hClosing lecture: Dominique Poulot (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne): Les musées et leurs amis: un amour inquiet [Los museos y sus amigos: un amor sin sosiego]