Talks with the scientific board of the festival of Contemporary art for the first highlights and reflections on Forms of collecting/Forme della committenza. We interviewed Pier luigi Sacco.
The “Giornata del Contemporaneo” (the national day dedicated to contemporary art) and the “strike” by the cultural operators on November 12 highlighted the problems that museums are facing in this period of crisis. What is the role of museums in a period of limited resources? What kind of strategies and synergies can be activated in relation to the processes of urban development, both at a local and a national level?
PLS: Today, museums are going through a deep change, which doesn’t depend on the crisis: they are institutions founded in a socio-economic context in which most people had limited possibilities for travelling, visiting and therefore knowledge. Nowadays, the situation is almost the opposite: the opportunities for travelling, visiting and therefore knowledge are definitely more than the possibility (and above all the real willingness) for grasping these opportunities. As a consequence, museums cannot longer be only places for the collection and presentation of objects and information. They have to be especially places that make visitors increasingly active and conscious when it comes to research and exploration of the meanings promoted and spread around by the museums. In a moment of crisis, the problem is even more evident because the reduced availability of resources often leads the public administration to make extreme choices. In the case of public museums, which in Italy as all around Europe play a remarkable role in culture as a whole, it is important to establish museums, in public opinion, as dynamic places where knowledge, skills and social value are produced. Often, in order to fulfil this function in a successful and innovative way, it is important to create collaborative networks with other similar or complementary institutions with the aim of co-producing exhibitions and projects, innovation and the circulation of models and good practices in all the museum’s activities. The periods of crisis are often those in which necessity stimulates the creativity and positive adaptations of the cultural system to a negative environment. This period, in which we see the development and the spread of new technologies, increasing the capacity of involving the public in knowledge experiences, could be one of those.
continue reading at:
http://www.festivalartecontemporanea.it/intervista-a-pier-luigi-sacco-3
