Open Access”Alt racehovmod bliver her så ynkeligt”. Visualisering af kultur i Nationalmuseets etnografiske samling
Author(s) -
Anne Folke Henningsen
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
nordisk museologi
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2002-0503
pISSN - 1103-8152
DOI - 10.5617/nm.3099
Subject(s) - exhibition , danish , ethnography , relation (database) , style (visual arts) , sociology , art history , art , aesthetics , visual arts , anthropology , philosophy , linguistics , database , computer science
In a case study of the reorganisation of the ethnographic exhibition at the Danish National Museum in the 1930s, the author questions the assumed effects of the curatorial strategies of one of the central characters behind it, Kaj Birket-Smith. Contrary to the explicit intentions of the curator, it is argued, the new style of exhibition invited the Danish public to understand themselves as culturally superior to the people represented, by positioning the latter outside of time and history. The wider implications of such representations of authenticity and timelessness in the ‘other’ are briefly discussed in relation to present-day ethnographic exhibitions.