Page 34 - Expotime10_11_2017

New museums

Michael Stanic

We get more and more new monuments for architects,

not museums fit for future

In part 1 of the "Future museums" series, we did not only and turn them into some kind of event and pleasure
propose roboters for certain types of museums. We believe centers. If they don't care.
in changes and, because of this, introduced a new future
museum category, the “crossover museum“ and proposed Do we need museums like Nouvels Abu Dhabi building,
“interim museums“ as stages for experiments. Both terms like the huge museum towers in China, the ugly grain
include various new functions, such as theaters, movies, mills in Capetown and other “crazy“ surreal composi-
more and better service offers, teaching departments, tions of architects, which (some of them at least with
art schools, laboratories, art services in general, creative their contracting authorities) once in a while assume to
“think tanks“, kindergardens and the “Piazza“ as an open be demurs, Goethe's Zauberlehrling or a Titan oppos-
common place, as well as secure, even domed gardens and ing Zeus? What would happen, if museum funding bodies
ecological parks to surround them. would ask the public which of the shortlisted architec-
tural concepts they would prefer? What might happen to
We also proposed a new intelligent and „redundant“ smaller city museums in Europe being aware of the large
mixture of maybe some suitable parts of archaeological integration problems, the visible lack of housing and a
or other (art) collections within renovated or new theat- fairly old infrastructures in a lot of cities? Can the future
ers; for Augsburg, Germany, for instance we suggest the museum help to stabilize democracy and social freedom
innovative combination from the historic City theater and what must we do to achieve these goals, to obtain
with the archaeological collections, because the Roman a Schiller-like freedom and an open society in the terms
city does not have a museum for this important period of Sir Karl Popper?
(the community was founded by emperor Augustus).
In Germany, only 10-20% of all citizens visit museums,
Furtheron, we analyzed various aspects of the future mu- despite all efforts of our museum educators. We have
seums, their shape (bigger, more expensive) etc., their furnished our country with comparable many museums
upcoming modern materials, such as carbon, plastic, which present all aspects of our old and impressive cul-
new concrete, as well as their variable functions, which ture and the cultures of "the others" as well. But many of
eventually will define their architectural form (form fol- them have remained quite old-fashioned ‒ often because
lows function). On the other hand we tried to find out, of unsufficient finances. Of course, we have some muse-
what kind of possible functions the museum should offer ums of charme, but many of them are just museums of
to counteract the overgrowing presence of internet, dig- poverty. And many museums are run by representatives
italisations, augmented realities and hundreds of other of a manager generations, who started their museum
electronic devices, as “needed“ infrastructure. work after WWII, or in the 50s or 60s and became frus-
trated and spiritless.
What might be the new local position of museums in the
historic old centers, in the growing cities outskirts and Maybe all future museum must become a little bit more
in the new quarters i. g. the abandoned industrial zones, subversive, provocating, but, most of all: less aligned to
railroads, airports, powerplants, mills or factories? We actual fashion trends. Josef Beuys once remarked: “Die
came to the conclusion, that it might even be cheaper Verwirklichung der Demokratie ist die primäre Aufgabe
and more efficient to build new cities and museums as der Kunst in der Gegenwart“ ["The completion of de-
well than to repair both over centuries. mocracy is the main task of art today."]. Contributing
to the completion of democracy is also the main task of
The next problem museums will encounter is the com- future museums.
plicated situation of our expanding cities and their mul-
ticultural splitting societies, e.g. the continuing immi-
gration and increasing social disruptions. International See Stanic, Michael: Future museums, Teil II. In: MUSEUM
marked laws and utilitaristic habits define the modern AKTUELL, issue 243, 2017,p. 7-16. The issue can be read for
way of life. These facts will affect the future museum free,http://www.museum-aktuell.de/leseprobe/mobile/index.

34
EXPOTIME!, issue October / November 2017