The museumisation of witnesses

On the role of contemporary witnesses in exhibitions

03.04. - 04.04.2014

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Date

03.04. - 04.04.2014

Location

Museumsakademie Joanneum, Linz

Meeting point

KZ-Gedenkstätte Mauthausen and NORDICO Stadtmuseum Linz (AT)

Costs

€ 180, reduced fee € 150 (The reduced fee is available to students, trainees, unemployed people, and employees of this year’s cooperation partners.)

External registration

Please register via e-mail.

Contact
+43-664/8017-9537
museumsakademie@museum-joanneum.at

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About the
Event

Nowadays, contemporary witnesses and their accounts play a key role in communicating past events and are a natural part of exhibitions on contemporary history and recent cultural history. Whether in person, in the form of written interviews, in sound documents, or in videos, those who were there attest, depict and illustrate. They stand for the concrete vs. the abstract, the private vs. the official, the human vs. the political, and the first-person perspective vs. the master narrative. Whereas historiographical representation sometimes seems distanced, witnesses appear authentic, moving and immediate. But do they really fulfil their expected role in the museum? On the basis of specific projects, we would like to discuss the roles and functions in which contemporary witnesses appear in exhibitions today. How are they related to the museum’s traditional bearers of meaning? How can their accounts be integrated into the overall design and which contextualisations suggest which interpretations? What does the biological end of those generations that experienced the event mean and the transition to new forms of communication for those responsible for exhibitions and for those who view them? With respect to this topic, how should we discuss museological concepts like authenticity and authority, representation and aura, and knowledge and example?

With
Andrea Bina Director NORDICO City Museum Linz (AT)
Ralf Lechner Curator of the permanent exhibition at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp Memorial (AT)
Alexander Prenninger b.a.s.e. Office for Applied Social Research & Development, Salzburg (AT)
Brigitte Reutner Curator NORDICO City Museum Linz (AT)
Christa Schikorra Head of Education Department, Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial (DE)
Wolfgang Schober Film producer and director, Linz (AT)
Lukas Schretter Mediator, Mauthausen Concentration Camp Memorial (AT)
Jörg Skriebeleit Director of the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial (DE)
Johanna Wensch Curator, Permanent Exhibition, Mauthausen Memorial (AT)
Barbara N. Wiesinger Freelance historian, Vienna (AT)

Organisers of the event
Jörg Skriebeleit Director of the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp Memorial (DE)
Bettina Habsburg-Lothringen Director of the Joanneum Museum Academy, Graz (AT)

Museumsakademie Joanneum is part of the Universalmuseums Joanneum

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The museumisation of witnesses

On the role of contemporary witnesses in exhibitions

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About the
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