Karp's question is so simply put, but the answer is complicated by both culture and the practice of representation.*
Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Karp and Lavine 1991) is a series of essays which were first presented at the conference "The Poetics and Politics of Representation", held at the Smithsonian Institution in 1988. On the issue of "Culture and Representation" specifically, Karp explains that the participants of the conference "tended to think of exhibitions as conforming to one of two models: either a vehicle for the display of objects or a space for telling a story." (pp. 12) Karp points out that there is a glaring omission from the debates regarding the exhibition - that is, the interrogation of the fundamental assumptions about exhibitions as a medium and setting for representation.
The Western tradition, from which the museum emerged, has been widely discussed, but less so are the issues that arise when different cultures and perspectives come into contact (Karp 1991). How do exhibitions represent objects or stories from outside the Western tradition, and how do visitors who are culturally attuned to the Western tradition of viewing exhibitions perceive outside of that? Additionally, how has the Western tradition of museums and representation influenced other cultures?
In Masaaki Miroshita's fascinating book, The Empty Museum: Western cultures and the artistic field in modern Japan (2010), he discusses the evolution of art galleries (bijutsukan) in Japan, in particular the Toyko to Bijutsukan (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum). This gallery, with no curator, no permanent collection and no permanent display, was at times criticised for not following the Western standard model, but nevertheless was very influential on the practices of regional art galleries around the country. Morishita argues that, far from being a failure, this model was a response to the unique demands that were placed upon it within the Japanese culture and art world, in particular, from the art groups that used the space for their annual exhibitions, such as the bijutsu dantai (art groups), iemoto (art schools), the zaiya (unofficial art groups) and the Taisho abangyarudo (Taisho avant-garde).
Morishita points out that Japan did experience a 'transculturation', but that it was not a unidirectional 'acculturation', on the Japanese or Western side, but what happened in Japan "was the development of a new, hybrid form of culture, or neoculturism, through the contingent, mutual relations between various elements from both cultures." (pp 20)
The Rescuers exhibition is based on stories from hugely diverse cultures: Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and other parts of Europe. The design of the exhibition has to cross borders and still be neutral. The type, in other words, must have its own international passport - one that gives it residency in each panels it lands in. It has to be both dignified and approachable, and honour the people in the photographs and their stories, for the type is their word, alive on the page.
Karp and Morishita's books provide valuable insight into issues regarding the representation of cultures in exhibitions, and will be valuable in the research to come.
* I separate culture and practice here deliberately, as not everyone within a culture practices exhibition curating or design, but perhaps experiences it as a visitor, or as an artist whose works are exhibited by others. This opens the debate of representation to include not only culture, but the power of the operators within each role of the exhibition, and the distinction between culture and the roles of the players is one that deserves more discussion. For this post, a discussion of culture and representation will suffice.
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| Masaaki Morishita 2010. The Empty Museum: Western cultures and the artistic field in modern Japan. Surrey: Ashgate. |
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| Ivan Karp and Lavine, S.D (eds.) 1991. Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution. |
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