Contemporary museums in an age of migrations: The reinterpretation of European cultural heritage

Abstract

Looking at European cultural heritage from the perspective of the twenty-first century, the question of its interpretation and reinterpretation is essential. This especially regards the different ways that societies and individuals use museums or other cultural institutions for the conservation and transmission of knowledge. The MeLa project brings a new concept to the core of this cultural problem. Age of migrations is a key term for thinking through planetary processes that reveal the deep refashioning of economic, cultural and political spheres under the impact of the accelerated mobility of goods, people, ideas and knowledge. In this context, a reconfiguration of existing museums is needed, especially for museums that are devoted to new themes and topics emerging in this contemporary age, when the great narratives of the modernity have left a multiplicity of stories and voices. The four-year interdisciplinary research MeLa aims at envisioning one such development of contemporary European museums. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.