Open AccessYard Sales: A Book and an Exhibition: From Selling Off Objects to Redeeming Memory
Author(s) -
Octave Debary
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
culture unbound
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.256
H-Index - 7
ISSN - 2000-1525
DOI - 10.3384/cu.2000.1525.1571123
Subject(s) - exhibition , yard , presentation (obstetrics) , attic , visual arts , destinations , advertising , history , media studies , business , sociology , art , archaeology , tourism , medicine , physics , quantum mechanics , roof , radiology
The fate of everyday objects, when they reach the end of their lives - worn out, and sometimes even broken - varies a great deal. In some cases, their remains are exhibited in museums as instances of our heritage; in others, they end up in garages and attics, or are simply disposed of. This paper focuses on the social operations surrounding the redefinition of their status as second-hand objects. We pay special attention to what happens when they are requalified as objects of memory in yard sales. Over the past thirty years, such markets - where personal stories change hands - have become favoured destinations for Sunday outings in France. They are open-air museums, where new memories are cobbled together from old objects. We attempt to show what is at stake in these transactions and transitions through a presentation of a book and an exhibition (2011-2012) devoted to French yard sales