Overgrep på museum. Musealisering av personlige beretninger om tvang og overgrep

Abstract

In a 2008 project about children suffering from tuberculosis in the 1950s, the Norwegian Museum of Science, Technology, Industry and Medicine was struggling with the question of how to display personal stories of coercion and abuse. This article investigates how such memories from childhood were made into “artefacts” that could be exhibited in the museum and published in a catalogue. How were these objects constructed at the museum, in the media and by the museum visitors, and how were they understood? Were the main points of interest what happened then – the historical facts or phenomena – or what happened now, in the form of the storytellers telling their story today? The article focuses on discussions and negotiations between the curators and other employees at the museum, “the sanatorium children” and the media during the production process and after. How did the museum act and change while working with such controversial issues?