ISS 25 (1995).pdf - The International Council of Museums

MUSEUMS AND COMMUNITY
FINAL REMARKS
(Mathilde Bellaigue)
The core of the problem was to explore the threefold relation between the communjty (to
define), our heritage which, whether in the museum or related to it, acts as a medium for that relation,
and the museum itself.
The community
As a preambula, it appears necessary to give ourselves some theoretical bases: we have to
distinguish between the anthropological acceptance of the word "commwtity" (a primary reference
group characterized by its time, space, culture etc) and "commwtity" meaning a group of people
taking position. The former one is commonly concerned by the museum.
A commwtity, as a group of persons interacting with their environment, manipulating its
resources, having social, economical, esthetical codes, and leaving their own traces as their
expression, is continually shifting.
But the "commwtity" can also be considered from the point of view of the museum, as a
social and cultural group that wants to be in a dialectical and active relation with the museum.
The heritage as a medium
The museum is constituted of remaining things (our traces) that we choose to keep as our
heritage. The functions of heritage have to be precised :
- museum collections are not an end but a mean
- heritage is not an identity but a reference
- there is a relativity in collections : what is inside the museum is often strange to the society
around that museum.
If what is preserved is submitted to criticism (the museologist's choice), there is no effective
criticism of that choice. However such a critical stage would in fact be the sign of modernity, the
moment when we choose what we want to keep from our traces. (That is why destroying the cultural
traces of a commwtity is the base of eUmocide : it both cuts the thread from the past, therefore
annihilates the memory, and deprives the community from an instrument to organize its future).
The museum
The museum is altogether a place, a tool and a symbol for the preservation and restoration of
the memory. History gives birth to material and immaterial heritage. Museology helps us to manage
the burden of the past in museums.
Through the different museal stages, the objects acquire successive and different meanings.
Objects of to-day are supposed to represent the present truth. At every moment we can change the
construction, not only of the museum, but of history. but of memory. The museum has not to "take
the colour of the community". For true relations lie upon alterity which is the base of dignity.
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