Director of the IEA presents critical guide on museums at conferences in Europe

Martin Grossmann

The director of the IEA and coordinator of the Institute's research group Fórum Permanente: Cultural System Between Public and Private, Martin Grossmann will be one of the lecturers of the seminar Museums, Museumgoers, Media – A Visionary Project, organized by the Humboldt-Forum in Berlin from December 3 to 5. "The Stranger's Guide to the Museum Galaxy" is the name of his conference, to be given on Friday, the 4th.

On December 10, Grossmann will deliver a more detailed presentation on the same theme at the University of Birmingham's Institute of Advanced Studies, where he will stay as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow Professor during this month and in June 2016.

With a title inspired by the bestseller "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams and Marshall McLuhan’s “The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man,” the speech intends to "offer a storyboard for a critical guide to attendees of museums in the contemporary society." In the future, the information may join a book or digital guide.

According to Grossmann, the paradigm of 20th century art museum, the "white cube" that has the MoMA as an exponent, has been deconstructed in recent decades. "Other types of museums are strengthening their differences and gaining global recognition. Today we are able to experience different types of 'mise-en-scène' in buildings aimed at art and culture," he says.

He highlights the growth of what he calls "paradoxical museum". A result of the "society of the spectacle", defined by Guy Debord, the phenomenon has as its backdrop the "spectacular" museums such as the Beoubourg in Paris, the Guggenheim in Bilbao, and the Tate Modern in London, besides the constant updating of the MoMA. Highlighted in this scenario is now the Humboldt-Forum, which will open to the public in 2019.