MUSEUM IN AN AGE OF MIGRATIONS Oslo Kulturhistorisk Museum [by Rachele Albini, 2013]
The world we live in is becoming everyday more a world of ‘others’ rather than a world of ‘self’. Students, workers, professionals and tourists are the new nomads, protagonists of a dynamism more intense than in the past and affecting economical, demographical, political and cultural spheres. This phenomenon, increased by Internet and globalization, is responsible for a change in the way history, art and the idea of nationality are perceived. In this climate of trans-culturalism and transnationalism a multiplicity of voices is required for the narration of different stories, which is why the ethnographic museum as it was in the colonial era is not appropriate anymore. Ethnographic museums today should represent different points of view through different “lens”. These choices transform the institution from a temple of conservation of colonial memory into a forum of debate, meeting and discussion among cultures. The design discourse focuses on a new Kulturhistorisk Museum in Oslo, rethinking its ethnologic section in a post-colonial era.
