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

· working over the community (or about the community)
· working for the community
· working with the community
· let work the community
The museologic approach towards the matter will depend of how clear these options may
be. Clear options will prevent common mistakes such as - the apocaliptic conservacionism ; the
cartesian approach to exhibitions; and the perception of the museological discourse as absolute
thnuth .
Museology, as any other science in the present days, works over relativization of
knowledge. The holistic approach, defended by contemporary Museology, does not accept the
idea of museum as a ready-made product, nor of the community as an abstract social entity. The
museum is today understood as a phenomenon with all its dynamics and the community is
perceived, in its broader sense, as a concrete representation of natural or social quanta.
Everything, as we see , is relative. Community and Museum are relative concepts. The
world itself changes everyday - which means our perception of the world is also relative. Since
nothing its absolute, what possible means do we have of making the museum promote knowledge?
The first attitude is to promote the capacity of the museological community: it is
fundamental that those who work with museums be prepared to make museology. On a second
basis, it must be understood that the changing role of the museum does not apply to reality throuhg
isolated activities, labelled as • educationar - which means that working with or for communities
(specially in the social shpere) is an attitude of life, requiring a high degree of participation on all
sides and where arrogance and prejudice are not welcome. Third - elements that will promote
generation of knowledge must be searched in the communities themselves. They may relate to the
exchange of energies, to the understanding of the processes of life and nature ... or to the
acceptance of the common knowledge of some communities (not the imposition of our own
knowledge).
It also refers to the recognition of museums and communities not previously
imagined as such, in an attitude of nupture from traditional and old-fashioned pattems of
knowledge, towards new dimensions, new fonns of perception that until yesterday may have been
called' non-scientific' or unorthodox. What better field of action than a sience under constnuction -
such as Museology?
98
Rio de Janeiro, May 1995.