| 1. |
- Hodén, Tintin, 1987-
(author)
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Motsättningarnas museum : Samproduktionen av museiideal i den offentliga debatten om Moderna museet 1972–2013
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation examines how the art museum’s societal function has been constructed in the Swedish public debate. The dissertation shows that the cultural section of the daily press is, and has been, a forum where actors exchange opinions about art museums, and where notions on the art museums’ functions are co-produced. The specific aim of the dissertation is to examine how museum ideals have been co-produced in the public debate on Moderna Museet (the Swedish Museum of Modern Art). The term museum ideal refers to exemplary notions about the function of the art museum, and also to ideas on how the art museum should fulfil this conceptualised function. The co-production of museum ideals is analysed in four case studies, which span from 1972 to 2013. The case studies sequentially examine the debates regarding Moderna Museet’s acquisition of the artworks in the New York Collection, the debate on the museum’s new building, the debate about the museum’s sponsorship collaboration with the multinational conglomerate corporation Sony, as well as the debates regarding the project The Second Museums of Our Wishes and the exhibition Hilma af Klint – A Pioneer of Abstraction. The dissertation concludes that four reoccurring museum ideals have been co-produced throughout the debates. The first ideal emphasises the importance of equal representation and democratic inclusion. The second ideal stresses Moderna Museet’s educational purpose. The third ideal underlines that the museum should engage in innovative and experimental activities and the fourth ideal accentuates the importance of international prestige and influence. However, the implications of the four museum ideals have not been fixed nor static. Rather, they have been adjusted to match their changing contexts. It appears that there has sometimes been a discrepancy between the museum ideals and Moderna Museet’s mission statements. However, this discrepancy only underlines the museum ideals’ status as ideals. Moderna Museet may not ever fully achieve what the ideals prescribe, but they nonetheless serve as essential objectives for the museum. Furthermore, the conflicts that have provoked the debates have had a significant impact on the ideals. As an example, the format of the debates has sometimes established polemic between the museum ideals. For this reason, some of the ideals have appeared as opposites, even though their implications have been quite similar.
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| 2. |
- Wagrell, Kristin, 1986-
(author)
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"Chorus of the Saved" : Constructing the Holocaust Survivor in Swedish Public Discourse, 1943-1966
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In this dissertation I examine how the Holocaust survivor has been constructed in Swedish public discourse during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. This is done using a Foucauldian-inspired genealogical method through which an eclectic collection of sources—newsreels, films, radio programs, television programs and newspaper articles—is analyzed. The theoretical underpinnings of this analysis are based on Ian Hacking’s concept of discourse where the classification of survivor ‘types’ has a direct bearing on the expressions possible for those who are classified, i.e. individuals with Holocaust experience. The overarching research question of the dissertation therefore asks: how did a Holocaust survivor ‘type’ develop in Sweden during the 1940s, 50s and 60s? The main thrust of the argument presented in the dissertation is that the concepts of ‘silence’ and ‘excess’ have always disciplined the ways in which Holocaust survivors have been conceived of as both victims and witnesses in Swedish public discourse. The communication of Jewish suffering by survivor-witnesses has both been framed as a dangerous, destructive force which could instigate unnecessary conflict while it, at the same time, has been positioned as a remedy to collective forgetfulness as well as a solution to rising levels of xenophobia and antisemitism. How survivors have been constructed historically also demonstrates the flawed logic of a historical progressivism within which Holocaust memory is seen to steadily go from silence to interest/increased knowledge. What the research presented in this dissertation shows is that this process is not determined by historical progression but by the underlying problematization of Holocaust survivors’ utility.
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| 3. |
- Zabalueva, Olga, 1984-
(author)
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"Not All Museums" : Memory, politics, and museum activism on the move
- 2023
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation examines the institutional ontology of museums: how it is being changed and which issues and actors are calling for such change. A museum project that started from scratch in the mid-2010s – the Museum of Movements in Malmö, Sweden – is used as a lens to examine how the global processes of (re)imagining the museum are unfolding in the local Swedish context. The research questions addressed in the dissertation consider the use of politics in the process of museum making (and unmaking); framing of “difficult issues” which cultural institutions are dealing with in both the global and the Swedish museum context; and constituting socially relevant and sustainable museum practices based on agonistic memory framework and museum activism. Addressing these research questions, the text moves constantly between analyses of theories and empirical material. Each chapter also discusses existing research in the relevant field, be it museum politics, memory studies or the concept of “difficult issues”. The study relies on the ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the process of the Museum of Movements’ making and unmaking (2018-2020) and brings in theoretical frameworks to connect museology and memory studies in order to explain museum- and memory politics and museums as processes.
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| 4. |
- Zabalueva, Olga, 1984-
(author)
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"Not All Museums" : memory, politics, and museum activism on the move
- 2023
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation examines the institutional ontology of museums: how it is being changed and which issues and actors are calling for such change. A museum project that started from scratch in the mid-2010s – the Museum of Movements in Malmö, Sweden – is used as a lens to examine how the global processes of (re)imagining the museum are unfolding in the local Swedish context. The research questions addressed in the dissertation consider the use of politics in the process of museum making (and unmaking); framing of “difficult issues” which cultural institutions are dealing with in both the global and the Swedish museum context; and constituting socially relevant and sustainable museum practices based on agonistic memory framework and museum activism. Addressing these research questions, the text moves constantly between analyses of theories and empirical material. Each chapter also discusses existing research in the relevant field, be it museum politics, memory studies or the concept of “difficult issues”. The study relies on the ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the process of the Museum of Movements’ making and unmaking (2018-2020) and brings in theoretical frameworks to connect museology and memory studies in order to explain museum- and memory politics and museums as processes.
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| 5. |
- Lind, Kerstin, 1964-
(author)
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Textila konstmöten : Konstslöjdanstalten i Lund 1897–1932
- 2024
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Syftet med den här avhandlingen är att skapa förståelse för den textila konstens kunskapscirkulation med utgångspunkt från Konstslöjdanstalten vid Kulturen i Lund 1897–1932, med inriktning på dess historiska kontext, organisation och textila produktion. Avhandlingen belyser hur Sveriges utbredda textila kunskapskapital och traditioner samt idéer och utbildningsambitioner kring konst och hantverk skapade ett textilt kunskapslandskap kopplat till dåvarande kulturhistoriska idéer. Vidare visar avhandlingen hur ett omfattande textilt kunskapssystem bildades, genom vilket aktörer främjade idéer som stödde och utvecklade den textila konsten. I detta kunskapssystem framstår hushållningssällskapen som en betydande agent för kunskapscirkulationen. Konstslöjdanstalten har dessutom synliggjorts som en aktör i det samlade textila kunskapslandskapet. Dess textilverksamhet fungerade på liknande sätt som andra textilproducenter men utifrån Kulturens kunskapssystem – den treenighet som utgjordes av Kulturens museum, Sydsvenska konstindustrilotteriet och Konstslöjdanstalten. Kunskapen om kulturhistoria omformades genom verksamhetens textila konst och bidrog till folkbildningen: vad gäller kulturhistoria, textilteknik och konst. I avhandlingen tolkas både arkivkällor och bildmaterial – Konstslöjdanstaltens textila konst – för att beakta aspekter av hur kunskap verkade, cirkulerade och kopplade samman kulturhistoria, konst och hantverk. Olika aktörers kunskapsfärdigheter (episteme, techne, fronesis) och kunskapshandlingar (theoria, praxis, poiesis) analyseras i samband med de textila kunskapsprocesserna. Genom de sammanvävda analyserna av arkiv, bilder och kunskapscirkulation har det varit möjligt att urskilja såväl kunskapsprocesser som aktörers färdigheter och handlingar.
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