EN

The Constituent Museum. Constellations of Knowledge, Politics and Mediation

Edited by John Byrne, Elinor Morgan, November Paynter, Aida Sánchez de Serdio, and Adela Železnik

Graphic Design: George & Harrison

Published by L'Internationale and Valiz

2018
ISBN 978-94-92095-42-8

Contents

  1. 1.
    INTRODUCTION
  2. 2.
    THE CONSTITUENT MUSEUM – Editors’ Introduction
  3. 3.
    THE RAINBOW WRASSE
  4. 4.
    PART 1: BECOMING CONSTITUENT
  5. 5.
    BECOMING CONSTITUENT – Introduction
  6. 6.
    THE REST IS MISSING – On Constituencies as a Matricial Notion for New Institutions of the Commons
  7. 7.
    NEGOTIATING INSTITUTIONS
  8. 8.
    MIDDLESBROUGH’S NEW COMMUNITIES
  9. 9.
    NEW COMMUNITIES OF MIGRANTS
  10. 10.
    UNTIMELY NOTES ON ‘THE NEW ABDUCTION OF EUROPE’
  11. 11.
    PART 2: ARCHITECTURES OF USE
  12. 12.
    ARCHITECTURES OF USE – Introduction
  13. 13.
    ARCHITECTURES OF ENCOUNTER, ATTENTION AND CARE – Towards Responsible Worlding Action
  14. 14.
    NEGOTIATING JEOPARDY – Towards a Constituent Architecture of Use
  15. 15.
    TENSTA MUSEUM L’INTERNATIONALE
  16. 16.
    THE USES OF ART LAB @ LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORES UNIVERSITY
  17. 17.
    HONEST SHOP
  18. 19.
    MUSEUM SOLIDARITY LOBBY
  19. 20.
    PART 3: PEDAGOGIES OF ENCOUNTER
  20. 21.
    PEDAGOGIES OF ENCOUNTER – Introduction
  21. 22.
    ‘GIVE HER THE TOOLS, SHE WILL KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THEM!’ – Some Thoughts about Learning Together
  22. 23.
    A CONSTITUENT EDUCATION
  23. 24.
    ANOTHER ROAD MAP SCHOOL FOR ARTS EDUCATION
  24. 25.
    POSSIBILITIES FOR EMANCIPATION
  25. 26.
    ‘REALLY USEFUL KNOWLEDGE’
  26. 27.
    ‘REALLY USEFUL KNOWLEDGE’ AND INSTITUTIONAL LEARNING
  27. 28.
    BETWEEN ACTS: INFLUENCE, NEGOTIATE, ENCOUNTER, INSTIGATE, NARRATE – Re-writing the Relations Between Art and Situated Knowledge Found in Times of Crisis
  28. 29.
  29. 30.
    CLOSE THE FOLDING SCREEN BEFORE LENIN ESCAPES – Somateca and the Closet
  30. 31.
    A GREEK CHOIR TEARING THE CANVAS OF PUBLIC HEALTHCARE
  31. 32.
    PART 4: DISTRIBUTING OWNERSHIP
  32. 33.
    DISTRIBUTING OWNERSHIP – Introduction
  33. 34.
    DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS VERSUS CULTURE WARS
  34. 35.
    PRESERVING PRECARIOUSNESS, QUEERING DEBT
  35. 36.
    NOTES ON FRIENDSHIP
  36. 37.
    SOLIDARITY
  37. 38.
    ANTAGONISM
  38. 39.
    ‘VSAK ČLOVEK JE KUSTOS!/JEDER MENSCH IST EIN KURATOR!’ – Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, 16 June–30 September 2007
  39. 40.
    LODGERS AT M HKA
  40. 41.
    A MODEL FOR A CONSTITUENT MUSEUM – MOCA Toronto Canada
  41. 42.
    NEW LINTHORPE
  42. 43.
    PART 5: ARCHIVING AND COLLECTING RELATIONSHIPS
  43. 44.
    ARCHIVING AND COLLECTING RELATIONSHIPS – Introduction
  44. 45.
    REVISITING AND RECONSTITUTING NETWORKS FROM JAPAN TO BEIRUT TO CHILE
  45. 46.
    ARCHIVES IN USE – A Laboratory of Political Imagination for the Present
  46. 47.
    REALITIES OF THE UNDERCOMMONS – About the Work of Making, Unmaking and Remaking Organizations
  47. 48.
    VULNERABILITIES AND SHIFTING MEANINGS OF CITIZENSHIP
  48. 49.
    DATA ASYMMETRY
  49. 50.
    GRAPH COMMONS
  50. 51.
    OPEN SOURCE PROTOTYPES
  51. 52.
    THE SALT OFFICE OF USEFUL ART
  52. 53.
    APPENDIX
  53. 54.
    Contributors
  54. 55.
    Index of Names
  55. 56.
    Index of Works of Art, Exhibitions, Projects, Organizations
  56. 57.
    Acknowledgements
  57. 58.
    Colophon

What would happen if museums put relationships at the centre of their operations? This question inspires this publication, which offers a diverse, rigorous, and experimental analysis of what is commonly known as education, mediation or interpretation within museum institutions. It regards the visitor not as a passive receiver of predefined content, but as an active member of a constituent body, whom it facilitates, provokes, inspires and learns from. Moving beyond the practice of mediation as such, the publication situates constituent practices of collaboration and co-production within the existing social-political (neoliberal) context. It does this to reimagine and affect both the physical and organizational structures of museums and galleries.

Understanding the challenges of a constituent practice in an integral, interdisciplinary manner is what this publication aspires to. This is explored by placing the museum's constituents – museum professionals, active audience/co-curator, local and political agencies, operational structures and contexts – at the centre of the museum organization and looking at how their positions in society start to shift and change.

Issues that are addressed: ownership and power dynamics, collective pedagogy, pedagogy of encounter, collaboration, assent, dissent and consent, co-labour and co-curation (economies of exchange), precarity, and working with interns, archives and how to activate them, broadcasting, digital cultivation, crowdsourcing, and many other topics.

Editors: John Byrne (Lead Editor, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool), Elinor Morgan (MIMA, Middlesbrough), November Paynter (MOCA, Toronto), Aida Sánchez de Serdio (UOC, Barcelona), and Adela Železnik (MG+msum, Ljubljana).

Contributors: Azra Akšamija, Alberto Altés Arlandis, Burak Arikan, James Beighton, Manuel Borja-Villel, Sara Buraya, John Byrne, Jesús Carrillo, Alejandro Cevallos Narváez, Céline Condorelli, Sean Dockray, Özge Ersoy, Carmen Esbrí, Oriol Fontdevila, Amy Franceschini, Janna Graham, Nav Haq, Yaiza Hernández Velázquez, Emily Hesse, John Hill, Alistair Hudson, Adelita Husni-Bey, Kristine Khouri, Nora Landkammer, Maria Lind, Isabell Lorey, Francis McKee, Elinor Morgan, Paula Moliner, November Paynter, Manuela Pedrón Nicolau, Elliot Perkins, Bojana Piškur, Tjaša Pogačar Podgornik, Alan Quireyns, RedCSur, Rasha Salti, Francesco Salvini / pantxo ramas, Raúl Sánchez Cedillo, Aida Sánchez de Serdio, Somateca, Igor Španjol, Nora Sternfeld, Subtramas, Tiziana Terranova, Piet Van Hecke, Onur Yıldız, and Adela Železnik.

2018, Valiz with L'internationale | supported by the Culture Programme of the European Union | partners: Liverpool John Moores University, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art | paperback | 384 pp. | English | ISBN 978-94-92095-42-8 | Design by George & Harrison. To purchase the book, please follow this link to the website of our publisher, Valiz.