cultural politics

Cardiff 1919 – theatre/archaeology

by Michael Shanks

A team from National Theatre Wales, featuring Kyle Legall and Mike Pearson, have just published a powerful work of theatre/archaeology* in their series Storm, about the race riots in Cardiff Wales in 1919. It takes the form of a graphic novel with animated video and voice over. A timely intervention. https://www.cardiff1919.wales – [Link] *theatre/archaeology –…

Confronting the Classics

by Michael Shanks

Project Greece and Rome – [Link] Classics is the study of Ancient Greece and Rome. Or is it? Mary Beard, Cambridge University Professor, the popular “Oxbridge Don“ of the British media, deals with the question of the object of Classics in her book Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures, and Innovations (Liveright 2013). I had a…

Update – the actuality of the archaeological past

by Michael Shanks

I have contributed little to this site Since 2016. I have been writing (Greece and Rome: a new model of antiquity [Link]), running experiments in fieldwork (Project Borderlands [Link]), exploring applied archaeology (with a host of organizations and corporations), asking questions of the proper role of the academic, the researcher, the scholar. In this contemporary…

the future of the museum

by Michael Shanks

The new Collections Depot for Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam is under construction. I visited a couple of weeks ago and had a chat with Sjarel Ex, Director of Boijmans. This is opening the doors of the museum and gallery in a new way – all 150,000 items in the collection will be…

materiality of the invisible

by Michael Shanks

Yesterday I had the great honor to open a remarkable exhibition of artworks at the Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht – multiform institute for fine art, design and reflection Curators: Lex ter Braak, Director of Van Eyck and Huib Haye van der Werf, Head of Artistic Program. The exhibition runs through The Van Eyck Academie, Marres,…