
Decentring the Museum
Contemporary Art Institutions and Colonial Legacies
Nina Moentmann(Author)
Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd
Published on 1. September 2023
Book
Hardback
144 pages
978-1-84822-550-3 (ISBN)
Description
Nina Moentmann's timely book extends the decolonisation debate to the institutions of contemporary art. In a thoughtfully articulated text, illustrated with pertinent examples of best practice, she argues that to play a crucial role within increasingly diverse societies museums and galleries of contemporary art have a responsibility to 'decentre' their institutions, removing from their collections, exhibition policies and infrastructures a deeply embedded Euro-centric cultural focus with roots in the history of colonialism. In this, she argues, they can learn from the example both of anthropological museums (such as the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne), which are engaged in debates about the colonial histories of their collections, about trauma and repair, and of small-scale art spaces (such as La Colonie, Paris, ANO, Institute of Arts and Knowledge, Accra or Savvy Contemporary, Berlin), which have the flexibility, based on informal infrastructures, to initiate different kinds of conversation and collective knowledge production in collaboration with indigenous or local diasporic communities from the Global South.
For the first time, this book identifies the influence that anthropological museums and small art spaces can exert on museums of contemporary art to initiate a process of decentring.
For the first time, this book identifies the influence that anthropological museums and small art spaces can exert on museums of contemporary art to initiate a process of decentring.
Reviews / Votes
Winner of CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2024 'This book provides important solutions for making art and anthropological museums culturally relevant. It proposes an expansive model of museology grounded in notions of repair and healing and in practices of restoration and restitution, offering a distinct vision for the future of museums. Summing Up: Highly recommended.' - L. Estevez, Winston-Salem State University, CHOICEMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Illustrations; 20 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 205 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
288 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84822-550-3 (9781848225503)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
07/2023
Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd
€65.99
Available for download
Person
Nina Moentmann is Professor of Art Theory at the University of Cologne, and curator, writer and PI at the Global South Study Center (GSSC) at the University of Cologne. Her previous publications include Kunst als Sozialer Raum and the edited volumes Brave New Work: A Reader on Harun Farocki's film 'A New Product', Scandalous: A Reader on Art & Ethics, New Communities and Art and Its Institutions.
Content
Foreword; Introduction: Why Decentre Museums, and Why Now?; 1 The Colonial Dilemma of the Modern Museum; 2 Central Theoretical Concepts: From Decolonising to Decentring; 3 Repairing the Anthropological Museum; 4 Decolonial Sensibilities and Decentring Practices of Small-Scale Art Organisations; 5 The Contemporary Art Museum: Between the Anthropological Museum and Small Art Spaces; Epilogue: Decentred Museums as Infrastructures of People; Further Reading; Index