Contribution to Book
"Narrative Spaces of Conflict and Social Repair: The Conflictorium and Museum of Conflict (Ahmedabad)"
Museums, Narratives, and Critical Histories: Narrating the Past for the Present and Future
(2024)
Abstract
This chapter will examine the ways in which a former home in Ahmedabad,
India, which was repurposed as a museum and cultural center, has created
dialogic platforms that engage visitors in multivalent experiences of conflict, rupture,
and repair. The Museum of Conflict (MoC), as part of the overarching Conflictorium
project, has not only become a site where visitors explore the narratives of
historical conflict in India and the ruptures that have shaped the social space of
Ahmedabad, India (that are often referenced as riots and protests), but also as a
place where they can examine and share their personal narratives of conflict and
participate in a process of social repair.
Keywords
- social conflict,
- social justice,
- social repair,
- narrative space,
- affect,
- (un)learning,
- heritage futures,
- socially engaged art
Disciplines
Publication Date
Spring March, 2024
Editor
Kerstin Barndt and Stephan Jaeger
Publisher
De Gruyter
Series
Museums and Narrative
ISBN
9783110787405
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110787443-014
Publisher Statement
In response to systemic racism and institutions’ implications in histories of colonialism, nationalism, and exclusion, museum curators have embraced new ways of storytelling to face entangled memories and histories. Critical museum practices have consciously sought to unsettle established forms of representation, break with linear narratives of progress, and experiment with new modes of multivocal, multimedia, and subjective storytelling. The volume features analyses of narratives and narration in museums and heritage institutions today, as well as visions for future museum practices on a local, regional, national, transnational, and global scale. It is divided into three sections: Narrative Theory and Temporality, Ruptures and Repair, and Difficult Memories and Histories. Essays from a variety of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences examine museum practices in history, memorial, anthropological, and art museums across six continents. They develop narratological categories, reflect on immersive and virtual narratives, challenge colonial violence and hegemonic forms of representation, query the performance of heritage, parse exhibition design, and unearth techniques to express narratives of social justice.
Citation Information
Barndt, Kerstin and Jaeger, Stephan. Museums, Narratives, and Critical Histories: Narrating the Past for the Present and Future, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110787443