This thesis explores the recent success of the severely under-analysed notion of transhistoricity in contemporary curatorial practice. Up until now, the phenomenon was characterized as either a...Show moreThis thesis explores the recent success of the severely under-analysed notion of transhistoricity in contemporary curatorial practice. Up until now, the phenomenon was characterized as either a clever marketing strategy or a substantial ideology-critical instrument. In this thesis, both perspectives are highlighted in order to clarify the notion of contemporary transhistorical curating and to extend and enrich the existing academic discourse on this notion. This thesis can be seen as a first attempt to distinguish the ways in which the concept is used and to make explicit what needs the concept meets.Show less
This master’s thesis focusses on fake objects within a museum context. Theoretical and practical methods are combined to create a complete overview of both proposed views on fake objects as well as...Show moreThis master’s thesis focusses on fake objects within a museum context. Theoretical and practical methods are combined to create a complete overview of both proposed views on fake objects as well as the practical ways fake objects are handled within museums in order to compare theory and practice. Theoretical research focusses on the way authenticity can be determined in archaeological objects, display methods of fake objects, and views on how fake objects should be handled. Practical research took place in the National Museum of Antiquities in the Netherlands, here curators and the director of the museum were interviewed about their stance on fake objects. Would a known inauthentic object be displayed in exhibitions? What prerequisites would a fake object have to meet to be displayed? What ways of determining authenticity take priority? Are fake objects handled in any way different from authentic objects? The museum database has been thoroughly searched for fake objects and whether or not they are mentioned to be fake at all, and in the case that they are, in which category of the database they are indicated to be fake. During research, it was discovered that the use of the database is mostly unstructured which means that the term fake might be in any category. As a result, it was possible to deduce where the employees of the museum thought it was best to mention the object was fake. Comparison between the database within the museum and the one open to the public from the website of the museum also provided insight into how much of this information is available to people outside of the museum. This thesis shows there are some fundamental differences between how authentic objects, and those objects that are seen as inauthentic are handled within the museum. First and foremost, within the database.Show less
Given the growing number of important works over the past two decades that have used the medium of film to produce pieces that can be labeled as documentaries, this study examines recent...Show moreGiven the growing number of important works over the past two decades that have used the medium of film to produce pieces that can be labeled as documentaries, this study examines recent contemporary artists’ use of this approach as well as its impact on contemporary art. This study lays out the different regimes of truth through which the documentary form has evolved throughout film history, as well as their effect on the use of the approach within contemporary art during the past 15 years. In order to examine the current state of the documentary form within contemporary art, an analysis will focus on two recent works: the “Cardboard Walls” video installation by Aernout Mik (2013) and the “Crude Economy” film program by Florian Wüst (2013). Mik’s work is crucial to this study because of its use of reenactment and the documentary strategy, both of which have become increasingly popular among artists since the advent of the new documentary movement in the early 1990’s. By associating this particular work to Jacques Rancière’s concept of the emancipated spectator, it is possible to observe the relation to images that the documentary offers to its viewer and its possibilities to be an alternative to other media sources by combining individual and collective memory. The second case study introduces the film program as a new art form by a questioning of the contemporary role of the curator, as well as the influence of the documentary form in such works created by film montage. The two case studies establish the main esthetic and social characteristics of the current documentary approach by questioning its relation with history and demonstrating its potentiality to be a reflexive artistic form that can rethink and assist in the development of the position of the film medium in contemporary art.Show less
