Ethnographic Museum Between Science and Art. On Modes of Legitimization in the Process of Assembling Museum Objects and the Museum Crisis

Abstract

Realm of science and realm of art – within each of those fields the state of things is different as if they were subject to different laws of physics. Could this pair, often presented as a dichotomy, be joined together to form a loop such as a Möbius strip? What would happen with the objects in the realm of science? Can artistic tools be somewhat helpful in the face of museum crisis? The Author tries to address these issues. She begins with a brief outline of the specific of the museum crisis and describes the museum in terms of modern critical theories. She analyses modes of ethnographic legitimation introduced in the process of cultural assembling of objects. She then focuses on ways in which ethnographic museums have drawn inspiration for their activities from the field of art. Finally, she tackles the question of how these artistic inspirations could be useful on the threshold of crisis.