Staging Migration (in) Museums: A Reflection on Exhibition Design Practices for the Representation of Migration in European Contemporary Museums

Abstract

Migration, cultural diversity and the growing ethnic-cultural mix that characterize contemporary society are nowadays a key issue for European museums. Since the 1990s a rich theoretical debate on the subject has been developed by scholars and the museums community at large, several ‘migration museums’ have been opened across Europe, while, most recently, a number of museums have been reassessing their collections and galleries in relation to issues such as emigration, immigration, cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue. This article aims at contributing to the debate with a museographical reflection on the subject by exploring its design implications, to finally suggest that the challenge for representing migration in museums does not only concern the museum’s curatorial approaches but also requires the development of new exhibition settings and practices.Keywords: exhibition design; migration museums; museography

Representations of migration, borders and memories in exhibitions: a multimodal text analysis

“…It was devoted to one particular group (Naguib 2015), the Finns in Sweden and, through stories from children, citizens and celebrities, it tried to change peoples' attitudes towards this group. The second exhibition, Narratives About Escape, used life stories together with visual metaphors (Baur 2010;Lanz 2016) and facts to illustrate a complex image of migration from historical and contemporary perspectives. Primarily, it looked at migration from a Swedish perspective.…”

“…The model for the analysis of multimodal texts (Danielsson andSelander 2014, 2016) helped uncover messages of values and political ideology. For instance, in The Legacy, we noticed how it generally provided more neutral, or perhaps even playful (Lanz 2016) information about the migration of a particular group. Looking at the personal accounts, it was mainly through the use of suggestive metaphors (Lanz 2016) and values that prejudice against the Finns in Sweden was uncovered.…”

“…For instance, in The Legacy, we noticed how it generally provided more neutral, or perhaps even playful (Lanz 2016) information about the migration of a particular group. Looking at the personal accounts, it was mainly through the use of suggestive metaphors (Lanz 2016) and values that prejudice against the Finns in Sweden was uncovered. In the metaphors, expressions of negative as well as positive minority identities were displayed.…”

“…The interest in studying migration and refugees tends to increase when these questions become prioritized in the political agenda (Black 2001). For instance, Baur (2010) and Lanz (2016) focus on exhibition design practices in museums and galleries devoted to migration. Elements and recurring objects in these museums, such as luggage, migrants' letters, pictures and clothes, are defined as 'visual metaphors' with symbolic value, and are used to evoke shared experiences of immigration.…”

“…Elements and recurring objects in these museums, such as luggage, migrants' letters, pictures and clothes, are defined as 'visual metaphors' with symbolic value, and are used to evoke shared experiences of immigration. Lanz (2016) shows how the concepts of immigration and emigration are often treated differently in terms of design; emigration museums often use playful solutions such as full-scale reconstructions, and as a contrast immigration museums tend to be more abstract and suggestive, using artworks and testimonies. Naguib (2015) investigates the 'intangible heritage' of narratives of migration and personal life stories, which are of increasing interest to museums.…”