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| Imperial War Museum |
On my second year in London, back in
1994, I could see the cupola of the Imperial War Museum (IWM) from my kitchen
window. It was a beautiful view of a beautiful museum. To the surprise of many
people, this is my favourite museum in London.
On my way to the first
Congress of Military Museology, I was thinking that I never considered the IWM, which was going to make a
presentation on that day, a military museum. To me, the IWM is a people´s
museum (shouldn´t they all be?). A museum of the military and the civilians, of
men and women, of grown ups and children, of human beings and animals (I am
thinking of some of the exhibitions I saw there). It´s much more than dates,
battles, tactics, types of weapons, treaties. It´s a museum that tells the
stories of people whose lives were affected by war.
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| Promotional postcard of the First World War Galleries at the Imperial War Museum |
The IWM presentation was
included in a panel that would discuss the Military Museums and the the Great War
Centenary. The first speaker was Maria Fernanda Rollo, a university professor
and coordinator of the project Portugal 1914. This is a web portal, with very rich contents gathered with the collaboration
of various institutions and professionals with different backgrounds, as well
as the general public. The aim is to
promote active citizenship, committed to the protection, preservation and
safeguarding of a collective heritage, as well as to raise awareness of the
importance of remembrance and the preservation of historical knowledge. “This
is a virtual museum, that tells stories,
where one learns with affection. It´s a museum that is alive”, said Maria
Fernanda Rollo.
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| Promotional postcard of the First World War Galleries at the Imperial War Museum |
I smiled when I heard this statement. Because, implicitely, Maria
Fernanda Rollo was revealing to us her perception of museums: a dead space, a
space where stories are not told, a space where affection doesn´t have a place.
A perception which is widely shared by many people in our society at various
levels (do you remember why painter Paula Rego wished for the museum of her
paintings in Cascais to be called “House of Stories” and not “museum”?). But I also smiled while listening to my good friend Gina Koutsika making
her lively and stimulating presentation on the initiatives of the IWM for the
commemoration of the centenary. Gina showed us how alive a museum can (and
should) be, how full of stories and feelings, how close to the communities it
serves. This is not a museum in the virtual world, it´s a real one, it exists.
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| Promotional postcard of the First World War Galleries at the Imperial War Museum |
Once the debate started, my
mind travelled to another museum visit, some ten years ago, at the In Flanders Fields Museum (Ypres, Belgium). Another remarkable museum in the town that stood in the way
of the German army and was totally destroyed during the war. A museum full of
human stories, where the visitor may take up the identity of one of the town’s
inhabitants and follow his/her story during the war. The one thing that marked
me the most, and that I never encountered in another museum since, was the most
simple way of showing that one object could be many stories. By exhibiting a
pile of white handkerchiefs, the museum told the story of the multiple uses of
that one object: it could be a sign of surrender; or a way to protect oneself
from lethal gases covering one´s nose; or something to cover one´s eyes when
facing the death squad.
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| In Flanders Fields Museum |
From Ypres, my mind crossed
the boarder and went to France, to the Musée de la Grande Guerre du Pays de Meaux and its amazing project “Léon Vivien”. Good
museums can find imaginative ways of putting their collections in good use,
bringing them to life and connecting them with people. Léon Vivien is a
fictitious character, a soldier, whose story is told on a special Facebook page
through a number of objects, followed and commented by thousands of people.
Good museums can do well both in the real and virtual word.
Eventually, the issue of
remembrance came up in the debate. Lieutenant-General Mário de Oliveira Cardoso
was another speaker on that panel and he quoted philosopher, essayist and
writer George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
repeat it”. Remember the past, preserve historical knowledge. Yes, that´s the
aim of a number of insitutions, including museums. But why? What’s the purpose?
Is it being achieved? Are the stories preserved and remembered just for their
own sake or rather because they can be a link to the present, to current human
stories, not only our own but those of others too? Can the stories preserved
and remembered help me connect to the Other, make his/her story my own?
Europe is full of military,
history, first and second world war, holocaust museums. They all aim to
preserve the historical past and show the importance of rememberance. “Never
again” is the motto we encounter in many of them. Are these museums aware that
recently, following the atrocities that took place in Gaza, the cry “Death to
Jews” was heard once again in some European cities? Have they reacted? Have
they taken the opportunity to put their collections in good use and to show
what is the purpose of preserving the historical past and remembering? Isn´t it
precisely in a moment like this that museums should intervene publicly and
contribute towards clarifying and shaping public opinion? Otherwise, preserving
for what?
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