More about the future (potential) of museums I was at a very thought provoking talk today at Bard Graduate Center [Link]. Yannis Hamilakis told us about an exhibition he has helped curate that is currently running at Haffenreffer Gallery, Brown University USA. It is called Transient Matter: Assemblages of Migration in the Mediterranean. Yannis leads…
museums
decolonizing the museum
Another contribution to an ongoing discussion at Stanford around the future of Classics and the Humanities [Link]. Colonial loot In 1897 a British military force burned and looted, murdered their way through the capital city of the kingdom of Benin in west Africa. It was another dreadful act aimed at securing political and economic control…
Boijmans Collections Depot – teaser
The revolutionary new collections depot for Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam opens later this year. Here is en evocative glimpse of the roof top. More about this remarkable project – [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link]
William Blake – post-classicist
Recently I have been posting thoughts about the current state of Classical Studies, asking: What might be done regarding the complicity of Classical Studies in ideological standpoints, including cultural chauvinism, nationalism, imperialism, colonialism? I am much taken with dramatic techniques involving focus on characters and personae, avatars and ghosts, figuration and voices: How might we…
a mirror and a bowl
The giant silver bowl in Rotterdam, the new collections open storage depot for Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, now has its mirror skin within which one may see all kind of wonders. Here below are Peter Delpeut (novelist), Winy Maas (architect), and Sjarel Ex (director) with thoughts on viewing the landscape/cityscape by means of a giant…
Heritage – actuality and performative pragmatics
Published next month – Chinese translation of my essay on heritage as actuality, with a case study from the Roman north. [Link] to 2012 version in English.