Open AccessOpen for Interpretation
Author(s) -
Karin Kaufmann
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
tsantsa
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2673-5377
pISSN - 1420-7834
DOI - 10.36950/tsantsa.2019.24.6924
Subject(s) - exhibition , interpretation (philosophy) , ethnography , citizen journalism , meaning (existential) , sociology , media studies , knowledge production , epistemology , visual arts , aesthetics , art , political science , computer science , law , knowledge management , anthropology , philosophy , linguistics
This article discusses the curatorial strategy of open storage and its assumed potential to decolonize knowledge production in ethnographic museums. Showing masses of stored objects supposedly free from any institutional interpretation is thought to allow for shifting the authority over meaning-making from the museum to the public. Findings from public storeroom visits that were conducted in connection with a participatory exhibition project in an ethnographic museum call these assumptions into question.