IN HOW FAR WILL ETHNOGRAPHIC
MUSEUMS DIFFER FROM SOCIAL HISTORY
MUSEUMS IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM?
The case of two museums in Antwerp, Belgium
Jan Van Alphen
For nearly a century now, Antwerp has had a museum of social history or
local folklore and a collection of non-European ethnographic art. The latter became
the Ethnographic Museum in 1952. The Folklore Museum collected objects
referring to local traditions in the town of Antwerp, like traditional puppet
theatres, giant processional effigies of local heroes and mythic figures, objects of
religious devotion etc. Most of the objects refer to the social Ufe in a big harbour
town. The Ethnographic Museum shows the material culture of African, Asian,
American and South-Sea cultures and tribes mostly through art objects. Owing
to the coimtless ships from all over the world which entered the port of Antwerp
in the course of several centuries, exotic objects of art arrived to the town and
the collection constantly grew in importance. During the colonisation of Congo
by Belgium the African collection of the museum acquired international
significance. Nowadays the Social History or Folklore Museum contains nearly
200.000 objects, the Ethnographic Museum about 30.000.
By coincidence the newly erected building of the Ethnographic Museum
which opened in 1988 lies next to the Folklore Museum. They share a conmion
garden. Both institutions developed in their own way. The Folklore Museimi
became one of the biggest folklore collections in the coimtry. The Ethnographic
Museum went in an anthropological direction and gained a reputation by
exhibiting masterpieces of art from the four non-European continents.
In 1995 the newly elected alderman for culture in Antwerp launched the
idea of fusing both museums on the basis of cross-cultural terms. Since that time
there has been a continuous discussion between the expert on local folk-art,
social history, cross-cultural ideas, ciiltural anthropology and non-western tribal
art. Initially, the discussion was perhaps purely theoretical:
-Why is it that so few examples exist of a fusion of non-western
ethnographic and European social history collections?
-Should local European folk-art be treated in the same way as 'tribal' art or
ethnographic art from other continents?
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Jan Van Alphen
- Is there a difference between the "ethnographic" art of important non-
European cultures and the art of the so-called "great ancient civilisations". For
example: classical Indian Art (from India) is mostly treated as ethnic art, while
classical Egyptian, Greek or Roman art are treated on another level.
- Now that cultures are increasingly close to each other and frontiers fading,
wül museirais in the new mülenniimi have to treat the art of the world's cultures
in a more comparative way.
But in the end we also arrived at some practical findings:
- One has to know the collections concerned. For instance, since the
ethnographic collection is mainly an art collection, the market value of the objects
is usually much higher than the local objects in a social historical context.
- One has to take into cor\sideration that both museums historically grew
separately and were influenced by different scientific approaches, aims and
circumstances. Moreover, each museum's public of interested visitors seems to
be quite different.
- A study showed that of the 200,000 objects in the Folklore Museum, a
maximum of 1,000 objects can be treated in a cross-cultural or anthropological
way: for example by placing them in the comparative context of a 'life cycle', or
of 'magic and witchcraft'. The remaining 199,000 objects are connected with the
social and religious history of the town of Antwerp itself.
Another "coincidence" is the fact that the Vleeshuis (Butcher's Hall)
Museum and its impressive 16*-century building will soon be turned into a
new Museum of the History of Antwerp. Up to now it housed archaeological
findings from Antwerp and historical musical instruments. If no substantial
arguments come up in order to link, or on the contrary, to break up the liitks of
non-European ethnography or anthropology with Antwerp's social history or
local folk art, the Folklore Museum's collections will probably join the
ethnographic collections and become mixed with them in the presentations of
the Ethnographic Museum. This was the situation just before the annual meeting
of NET in September 1997.
The evolution after the meeting
The meeting in Ljubljana contributed to making it clear that the 'Folklore
Museum' in Antwerp has all the characteristics of a social history museum. The
scientific, ideological, presentational and managing approach is totally different
from that of non-western ethnographic museums.
The several outstanding and beautiful Slovenian collections we visited with
the NET-representatives convinced me that much more can be realised in a
logically planned, strategically homogenous and budgetary well-defined museum
project.
The preparation of the new 'Museum of the history of Antwerp' shed new
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In how far will ethnographic museums differ from social history museums in the new millenmum
light on the discussion. The staff of the Folklore Museum itself was much more
inclined to Unk its collection with the new History Museum instead of with the
Ethnographic Museum. A number of talks in which the alderman for culture,
the responsible staff of the Folklore Museum and the author of this article
participated finally led to an agreement. Our joint conclusion was that the
collections, scientific approach and museological rationale of the Folklore
Museum is much more in tune with the new History of Antwerp Museum than
with the Ethnographic Museum. The idea of joirüng non-western ethnography
with Antwerp folklore was aborted.
At the moment both museums continue their activities in their own way.
The Folklore Museimfi wants to pay more attention to the impact of immigrants
on the culture and social life of Antwerp. The Ethnographic Museimi will extend
its activities to 'non-western' cultures Living in Europe or to European ethnic
groups with distinctly non-European roots and remnants like the Finno-Ugrian
or Ural-Altaic peoples.
Whenever we shall wish to organise a cultural or comparative exhibition
with European and non-European cultures, we can always rely on our own
Folklore Museum and on many others and vice-versa. An exhibition project can
be worked out in perfect co-operation without having to mix both museum
coUectioris on a permanent basis.
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KOLIKO SE BODO V NOVEM TISOČLETJU
ETNOGRAFSKI MUZEJI RAZLIKOVALI
OD SOCIALNOZGODOVINSKIH?
Primer dveh muzejev v Antwerpnu v Belgiji
Jan Van Alphen,
Antwerpen se že skoraj stoletje ponaša z muzejem socialne zgodovine oz.
lokalne folklore in z zbirko zimajevropske ljudske umetnosti. Slednja je leta 1952
postala Etnografski muzej. Folklorni muzej je zbiral predmete povezane z lokalno
tradicijo v mestu Antwerpen, npr. o tradiconalnih lutkovnih gledališčih, o
ogromnih lutkah lokalnih jtinakov in mitskih oseb v sprevodih, o pobožnih
predmetih itd. Večina predmetov je povezana s socialnim življenjem v velikem
pristaniškem mestu. Etnografski muzej povečini prikazuje afriško, azijsko,
ameriško in južnomorsko materialno kulturo in plemena z umetniškimi predmeti.
Zaradi neštetih ladij, ki so stoletja pristajale v antwerpenskem pristanišču, je v
mesto prišlo nešteto eksotičnih umetniških predmetov in pomen zbirke je ves
čas naraščal. V času belgijske kolonizacije Konga je afriška zbirka muzeja postala
mednarodno pomembna. Danes hrani Socialnozgodovinski ali Folklorni muzej
blizu 200.000 predmetov. Etnografski muzej pa okrog 30.000.
Po naključju so novo stavbo Etnografskega muzeja zgradili poleg
Folklornega muzeja, tako da si delita vrt. Obe ustanovi sta se razvijali po svoje.
Folklorni muzej je zrasel v eno največjih etnografskih zbirk v Belgiji. Etnografski
muzej se je bolj usmerjal v antropologijo ki pridobival ugled z razstavljanjem
mojstrovin umetnosti s štirih zimajevropskih celin.
Leta 1995 je novoizvoljeni svetnik za kulturo v Antwerpnu sprožil pobudo,
da bi muzeja združili na interkultumi osnovi. Od takrat stalno potekajo razprave
med strokovnjaki za lokalno ljudsko umetnost, za socialno zgodovino, za
interkultume koncepte, za kulturno antropologijo in za zunajevropsko ljudsko
umetnost. Na začetku je bila razprava morda čisto teoretične narave:
- Zakaj je tako malo primerov združitve zunajevropskih Ijudskoumetnostrah
in evropskih socialnozgodovinskih zbkk?
- Ali naj evropsko ljudsko umetnost obravnavamo na isti način kot
"plemensko" ah ljudsko umetnost drugih cehn?
- Ali obstaja razlika med ljudsko umetnostjo pomembnih zunajevropskih
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Koliko se bodo v novem tisočletju etnografski muzeji razlikovali od socialnozgodovinskih?
ktiltur in umetnostjo tako imenovanih "velikih starih civüizacij"? Na primer
klasično indijsko umetnost običajno obravnavamo kot umetnost etničnih skupin,
medtem ko klasično egipčansko, grško ali rimsko umetnost obravnavamo na
drugi ravni.
- Bodo muzeji sedaj, ko so si posamezne kultiire vse bližje in ko izginjajo
meje, v novem tisočletju morali obravnavati umetnost svetovnih kultur bolj
primerjalno?
Na koncu smo pa vendar prišli tudi do nekaj praktičnih ugotovitev:
- Potrebno je temeljito poznavanje zbirk. Ker je, recimo, zimajevropska
zbirka v glavnem umetnostna zbirka, je tržna vrednost predmetov v njej običajno
mnogo višja kot vrednost lokalnih predmetov v sociakiozgodovinskem okviru.
- Upoštevati je treba, da sta se oba muzeja zgodovinsko razvijala ločeno in
pod vplivom različnih znanstvenih pristopov, ciljev in okoHščin. Poleg tega se
zdi, da je ciljna publika obeh muzejev zelo različna.
- Raziskava je pokazala, da izmed 200.000 predmetov v Narodopisnem
muzeju največ 1.000 predmetov lahko obravnavamo z interkulturnega ali
antropološkega vidika: na primer tako, da bi jih postavui v primerjalni kontekst
"življenjskega kroga" ali "magije in čarovništva". Ostalih 199.000 predmetov je
povezanih s socialno in versko zgodovino samega mesta Antwerpna.
Drugo "naključje" je dejstvo, da se bo muzej Vleeshuis (Cehovska dvorana
mesarjev) v mogočni stavbi iz 16. stoletja kmalu pretvoril v novi Mvizej zgodovine
Antwerpna. Do sedaj so v njej hranili arheološke najdbe iz Antwerpna in
zgodovinske glasbene instrumente. Če ne bo tehtnih argumentov ne za
povezovanje in ne za prekinitev povezav zunajevropske etnologije ali
antropologije s socialno zgodovino ali z lokalno ljudsko umetnostjo Antwerpna,
se bodo zbirke Narodopisnega muzeja verjetno pridružile zimajevropskim
zbirkam in se pomešane z njimi predstavile v razstavah Etnografskega muzeja.
Tako je bilo stanje tik pred letnim sestankom NET septembra 1997.
Razvoj dogodkov po sestanku
Po sestanku v Ljubljani je postalo precej bolj jasno, da ima Narodopisni
muzej v Antwerpnu vse značilnosti socialnozgodovinskega muzeja. Znanstveni,
ideološki, predstavitveni in upravni pristop se popolnoma razlikuje od pristopa
neevropskih etnografskih muzejev.
Številne izredne in čudovite slovenske razstave, ki smo jih obiskali s
predstavniki NET-a, so me prepričale, da lahko dosežemo veliko več v logično
načrtovanem, strateško homogenem in proračunsko natančno opredeljenem
muzejskem projektu.
Priprave za novi Muzej zgodovine Antwerpna so prispevale nove vidike k
razpravi. Strokovni delavci Narodopisnega muzeja so bili bolj nagnjeni k temu,
da svoje zbirke združijo z novim zgodovinskim muzejem kot z zbirkami
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Jan Van Alphen
Etnografskega muzeja. Vrsta razgovorov, ki so se jih udeležili svetnik za kulturo,
odgovorni delavci Narodopisnega muzeja in podpisani, so končno privedli do
sporazvima. Skupni sklep je bü, da so zbirke, znanstveni pristop in muzeološka
logika Narodopisnega muzeja veliko bolj usklajeni z novim muzejem zgodovine
Antwerpna kot z Etnografskim muzejem. Zamisel o združitvi zunajevropske
etnologije z antvverpensko folkloro je bila opuščena.
Trenutno oba muzeja nadaljujeta svoje aktivnosti vsak po svoji poti.
Narodopisni muzej želi posvečati več pozornosti vplivu priseljencev na kulturo
in na socialno življenje mesta. Etnografski muzej namerava razširiti svoje
aktivnosti na zunajevropske kulture, ki živijo v Evropi, ali na evropske etnične
skupine z očitno neevropskimi koreneninami in ostanki, npr. na ugro-fiiiske, na
uralske in altajske narode.
Kadarkoli bome želeH organizirati kulturno ali primerjalno razstavo
evropskih in zunajevropskih kultur, se lahko vedno zanašamo na Narodopisni
muzej in na številne druge muzeje in obratno. Projekt razstave se lahko izdela v
popolnem sodelovanju, ne da bi morali za stalno pomešati zbirke obeh muzejev.
BESEDA O AVTORJU
Jan van Alphen, indolog in etnolog,
podiplomski študij iz sanskrta in indijske
umetnosti je opravil na univerzi v Bombayu v
Indiji. Je kustos azijskega oddelka Antwerpen-
skega narodopisnega muzeja od 1985 in kustos
direktor od 1995. Napisal je številne članke o
etničnih skupinah srednje Indije (Bastar) in o
indijskih umetnostnih temah. Je tudi avtor večih
razstav in katologov, med njimi so Korejska
keramika (1993), Medicina Vzhoda (1995) ter
Šamanizem v Tuvi (1997-1998).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tan van Alphen, indologist and ethnolo-
gist, post-graduate studies of Sanskrit and
Indian art at Bombay University, India. Curator
at the Asian department of the Antwerp Ethno-
graphic Museum since 1985 and curator-direc-
tor since 1995. He is the author of many articles
on Central-Indian tribes (Bastar) and on other
Indian art themes. He is also the author of
several exhibitions and catalogues including
Korean ceramics (1993), Oriental medicine
(1995) and Shamanism in Tuva (1997-1998).
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