INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURAL RESEARCH

Interviewed by Anna Koneva

To Save and to Collect. Interview with the Director of the Hermitage Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky

The main topics of the interview are cultural memory, taste, museim as a cultural institution, turism, cultural politics, cultural values, the future of the museum’s politics.

Key words: museum, memory, exhibition, moderm art, cultural politics.

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Antonina NIKONOVA

Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia
Institute of Philosophy, Department of Museum Studies and Monument Protection
PhD (Philosophy)

The Museum Heuristics: Pro et Contra

Information potential of the museum object requires a permanent search for the new methods of study, interpretation and updating of the information field. In this regard, we should once again draw the reader's attention to the importance of the developing of theoretical and methodological research in museology. It is necessary to return to the study of museum object as historical source, and further define and develop methods of obtaining new knowledge in the museum space. This can solve the problem of museum's heuristics as a separate direction of museological research. The basis for a new research direction should become the work of historians and archivists, who are already developing such areas as historical and archival heuristics, historical Internet-heuristics. The goal of the museum heuristics will be the study of logical systems’ methods and methodological rules of searching and saving information about museum object with the aim of obtaining new knowledge and learning abilities of museum object to influence emotions and attention of a visitor, the form of perception of representational and associative characteristics of museum object. The results of sociological research show that 52% of visitors come to museums for knowledge. They just do not know, by which methods they can get this knowledge in museums. On these problems should be focused the museum heuristics.

Key words: museum object, museum heuristics, attribution of museum object, visual image, exhibition, visitor.

References

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Aleksey SMIRNOV

Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia
Institute of Philosophy, Department of Cultural Studies, Philosophy of Culture and Aesthetics, Associate Professor, Doctor of Science (Philosophy)

Contemporary Museum: Communication or Commemoration

It is necessary to create such an approach to the theory of museum communication, which considers the museum as a form of cultural translation memory. This consideration takes into account the active participation of the museum in commemoration practices, which can not be described theoretically using the communication model applied in museology. Revision of the communication model of the museum is confirmed with the examples of corporate museums, a relatively new form of museum work in Russia, as well as historical museums. On the one hand, history museums are involved in the formation of cultural memory, but, on the other hand, they are able to transmit political ideologemes. We also consider new forms of museum activities, in particular, the "museum of the Soviet past". These museums can neither be adequately described in terms of museum communication theory, nor be considered as a tool for translation of ideology. The main purpose of these projects is to create a specific space for commemoration practices.

Key words: contemporary museum, museum as a media, theoretical model of a museum, museum communication, communication channel, commemoration, practices of commemoration, cultural memory, ideology, historical museum.

References

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Alexander DRIKKER

Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia
Institute of Philosophy, Department of Museum Studies and Monument Protection
Professor, Doctor of Science (Cultural Studies)

Eugene MAKOVETSKY

Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia
Institute of Philosophy, Department of Museum Studies and Monument Protection
Associate Professor, Doctor of Science (Philosophy)

Museum Temple

The article is devoted to the analysis of radical transformations of the museum in modern culture. The historical path of the museum is considered: the reason of its birth only in the Protestant world, the forming museum as temple which affirms in post-religious society the supreme values (the truth, beauty) are shown in the materialized form. Connection of ideal and reality provides a rise of the museum temple, but it is fraught with the conflict. Property, posession, cost of museum exhibit initially determine museum institute. During rapid democratization of sanctuaries the materiality with its obvious pragmatical value in the relativistic world becomes more convincing than the doubtful eternal truth, the subject is more preferable than abstract ideals. A cult of things gives museum very noticeable preferences. A museum keeps and exhibits things (although unusual things). It is quite natural that the museum lives in democratic time more successfully, than related institutes of memory (the vegetating archives and dying libraries). Powerful pressure of the democratic atmosphere causes steady drift of the museum temple to «service to society». But in this cozy course disastrous danger traps the museums temples – temptation of a reduction, desire to fit into the world of the simplifications.
The topical museum (great purpose – service of democratic society and of visitor) replaces the museum temple. The prices are wining over the values. More and more obvious weakening of the museum temple, it attempts to go in the democratic current – the certificate of completion of a museum era. Global museumification, democratic museum boom don't contradict it. Numerous ill-matched democratic institutes of the social organization of leisure, clubs on interests (which unites only passion to a fashion brand of museum ) will find more organic not museum forms.
However the museum temple, of course, will remain as a monument of a surprising era, as the major reference point for searches of new «eternal» values and construction of new temples.

Key words: museum, temple, values, prices, Protestant ethics, cult, sacrality, democracy, era, culture, Reformation, evolution.

References

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Marina TSVETAEVA

Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia
Institute of Philosophy, Department of Museum Studies and Monument Protection
Professor, Doctor of Science (Cultural Studies)

Classical Museum: Problems of Cultural Heritage Interpretation

This article investigates the mission of the classical museum to conservate both material and non-material heritage. It also highlights the problems of interaction between religious culture and the museum in the contex of soteriological and religious-moral basis. The spiritual and moral problematic that can be seen in Сhristian anthropology, classical literature and art, help to expand the interpretational models and methods of exposing cultural heritage. They also result in enrichment of the museum with traditional spheres of the Christian world outlook that are crucial not only for creating expositions of Ancient Russian and Medieval art but also classical and contemporary as well. The system of trichotomous analysis helps to identify various levels of culture, aspects of spiritual and moral, religious and secularized worldviews. The main idea is enlarging the figurative language by means of semantic, spiritual-aesthetic, dramaturgic potential of the exposition, which becomes a symbol, text and meaning at once. The methods of interpretation and exhibition of masonry, that influenced many cultural spheres of XVIII – the first half of XIX centuries, are analyzed by means of the example of the paintings of F. S. Rokotov. These works can be found in the Russian museum. This article also analyses the semantics of baroque and rococo that are shown within the exposition.

Key words: baroque, theologies of culture, interpretation, classic museum, cultural heritage, mystic, ontology, rococo, F. Rokotov, soteriology, Church, exposition.

References

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Alexey LUCHKIN

State budgetary institution of culture of Moscow “Museum-panorama “The Battle of Borodino”, Russia
Expositional and exhibition department

The museum exhibition of the late XIX beginning of the XX century through the eyes of his contemporaries. Birth of Criticism

In an article on the example of the history of the first exhibitions of specific museums late XIX – early XX century the importance of the use of correspondence and memoirs of contemporaries in the study of the evolution of the exposition of thought in Russia, as well as the birth of the national museum of constructive criticism is shown.

Key words: the history of museums , the Russian Empire, the museum exposition beginning of XX century, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Museum of Old Petersburg , Russian Museum , memoirs and correspondence culture, «World of Art».

References

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Yuliya KUZOVENKOVA

Samara State Medical University, Samara, Russia
Associate Professor of the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies, PhD in Cultural Studies

The Dialectics of Museum and Street through the Lens of Becoming a Street Artist

The article deals with the relationships between young street artists and Artworld institutions (museums, galleries) in the process of becoming professional artists. In this context, Artworld institutions get into the field of dialectical relationships between true and false in art and become judges in local cultural space of province. The research is based on the interviews have been conducted with members of Artworld institutions and with street artists and graffiti artists from Samara. The results of the research show that museums and galleries, which give artists an opportunity of exhibiting, act as social and material conditions for recognition street artists as serious artists and for their development. On the other hand, galleries don`t usually meet all street artists` needs. For this reason streets are so impotent as museums and galleries for street artists. First of all, streets enable them to call themselves street artists distinguishing traditional artists and street artists. Secondly, streets gave opportunities for creative experiments, because there are less standards.

Key words: street art, graffiti, city, province, artist, museum, gallery, institution, modern art.

References

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Irina MURZINA

Ural State Pedagogical University, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Head of Department of Culturology, Professor, Doctor of Science (Culturology)

Alexander MURZIN

Ural State Pedagogical University, Yekaterinburg, Russia
PhD (Cultural Studies)

Mining Museums: New Educational Space and the Representation of Culture

The analysis of spiritual culture of miners from several regions of Europe and Russia allow to say that there is a certain type of culture in these areas for which mining was determined by the routine and rhythm of life and has formed the system of values. The transformation of culture tooks place in the transition from medieval culture to developed industrial one. The purpose of this article is to show the direction of the preservation of the cultural heritage of the miners.
Today, the list of cultural heritage of UNESCO includes 15 monuments of mining history. In addition to them in the cities associated with the extraction of minerals, are small museums intended to acquaint with the peculiarities of mining. At the same time, the issue of museumification of cultural heritage of miners still remains relevant.
In the article the substantive aspects of the exhibits of mining museums and suggested promising directions for mainstreaming culture in Russia are shown.

Key words: the museumification, miner, mining, type of culture, museum, historical and cultural heritage, intangible cultural heritage, tradition, cultural codes and semantics.

References

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Olga BEZZUBOVA

Saint-Petersburg Mining University, Russia
Department of Philosophy, Associate Professor, Ph. D (Philosophy)

Museum and the Memory Policy

The article considers the value of museums in context of social and cultural memory as a subject of contemporary social sciences and humanities. The notion of memory compared to the notion of history enables to take under consideration the personal, individual aspects of lived experience. Meanwhile, unlike the history striving for objectivity and impartiality, the memory is always emotional and presupposes a subjective vision of the past and its moral evaluation. Being an important means in construction of the group solidarity, memory gets a new role in contemporary culture characterizing with the reject of unification policy. At the same time recognition a subject’s or a group’s right to their own identity engenders many problems related with the need to establish a dialogue. Moreover, the memory about the past is often traumatic, dealing with the tragic events in history that leads to the atomization and increases confrontation in society. In this condition museum could be treated both as an institution which represents the different images of the past and in the same time as an important discussion platform.

Key words: museum, memory, history, cultural memory, identity, memory policy, commemoration, sites of memory, memorial culture, new museology.

References

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Marina BIRYUKOVA

Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia
Institute of Philosophy, Department of Museum Studies and Monument Protection, PhD (Art History)

Imaginary Museum vs Real Museum: Concepts of Hypothetical Museums in the Second Half of the 20th Century

This article considers the phenomenon of emergence of imaginary museums’ concepts in the second half of the 20th century, associated with the difficulty of aesthetic appreciation of contemporary art in the context of postmodern paradigm. The opposition of real Museum and Museum of the imaginary, offering a subjective look at the art of the latest trends, has resulted in the scientific discussion on the topic of insolvency of classical aesthetics and priority of personal taste (personal aesthetic judgement) as an alternative to institutional assessment of art in the context of existing museums. The article analyzes conceptions of hypothetical museums, including “museums” of art theorists, philosophers and curators, as well as “museums” of artists. The ideas of the “Imaginary Museum” of André Malraux, “Museum of Obsessions” of Harald Szeemann, “Anti-Museum” of Johannes Cladders, “Mouse Museum” of Claes Oldenburg were a response to the uncertainty of aesthetic requirements to contemporary art and limited criteria for its evaluation.

Key words: imaginary museum, André Malraux, Harald Szeemann, Johannes Cladders, Theodor Adorno, Thierry de Duve, Claes Oldenburg, contemporary art, postmodernism, aesthetics, category of taste.

References

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Darya VASILINA

M.Akmullah Bashkir State Pedagogical University, Ufa, Russia
Ph. D., senior lecturer of the department of cultural and socio-economic disciplines

Virtual Museum as a phenomenon of modern culture

Internet and its possibilities are important for the representatives of cultural institutions. The phenomenon of virtual museums has important properties: it exists in the virtual space, it bases on the artifacts and cultural objects of the past, present and future, it is addressed to a wide range of people. Virtual museums were established in the 90s of XX century, and 15 years later the number of visitors has increased to the level of actual visitors of museums. Today, virtual museums have structural and functional diversity. Virtual museums have a lot of advantages, but they have some drawbacks: while surfing user meets a lot of accompanying information, live communication is absent, unlimited use of the Internet reduces the person's work ability, long work at the computer leads to diseases of eyes, brain and spine. Consideration of the virtual museum as a phenomenon of modern culture demonstrates the impact of information technology on the socio-cultural space of Russia.

Key words: museum, virtual museum, properties of the virtual museum, museum and Internet technology, history of virtual museum, types of virtual museums, functions of virtual museum, advantages and disadvantages of the virtual museum, online communication with the museum, Information Technology.

References

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Igor EVLAMPIEV

Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia
Institute of Philosophy, Department of Russian Philosophy and Culture
Professor, Doctor of Science (Philosophy)

The Idea of Museum in the Context of European Model of Culture and its Postmodern Denial

In the Renaissance the model of cultural development which defined the essence of European civilization was created and it was a major factor in its historical progress. According to this model the culture develops only through recourse to the great patterns of the past culture, the culture is a “renaissance” of the past. The epoch of modernism has not changed this model: denying the forms of classical culture a modernistic artwork depends on it. The idea of museum is an essential element of European cultural model as the museum is a form of existence of the cultural past in the present. Postmodernism denies the dependence of the new culture on the past, so it is trying to destroy the museum as a form of European cultural memory.

Key words: european model of cultural, renaissance, modernism, postmodernity, cultural memory, degradation of culture.

References

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Irina FADEEVA

Syktyvkar State University, Russia
Head of the department of Culturology and Educational Anthropology
Professor, Doctor of Science (Culturology)

Axiology and Semiotics: Existential Values in the Context of Modern Cultural Anthropology

This article analyzes the anthropological crisis, an important manifestation of which is the crisis of contemporary socio-cultural semiosis. The author believes that the destruction of the socio-cultural semiosis is substantiated of destruction of existential parameters of individual identity and deformation of socio-cultural values. The article deals with the social inhomogeneity of the contemporary cultural space and intellectual differentiation of modern society. One of the factors of the crisis, according to the author of the article, is the bureaucratization of social and communicative spheres, as well as the marginalization of a substantial part of the population. However, the author notes the increase of the intellectual scientific, socio-cultural, artistic practices. It is important that these processes are associated with changes in the social and cultural axiology. The article deals with the necessity of existential reflection as a factor of axiological self- substantiation of individual and as the basis of social and cultural semiosis.

Key words: socio-cultural semiosis, sociocultural valuables, existential reflection, self-justification, hyper-communication, hyper-sociality, marginalization.

References

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Daria STARIKASHKINA

International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel
Master of Cultural Studies, Master of Arts

Representation of Catastrophe: Memory in Art vs. Art of Memory

This article deals with topics of representation of complex memory of the events such as the Holocaust or any other examples of the crimes against humanities. It examines an issue of vividness of testimonies presented via visual art, considering photographs as a (primary) source for historical research and for artists’ and curators’ work. It looks into the concept of postmemory, which plays a key role in analysis of the of visual art in a process of shaping memory. The article outlines a locus of contemporary visual art which, accordingly to G. Pollok, cannot be only historical but should also propose a motion for reconsideration of what happened in the past, by bringing an ethics into the framework of history, museology and memory studies in post-catastrophic contemporaneity

Key words: memory, trauma, visual art, catastrophe, postmemory, ethics of memory.

References

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