«Ma­te­r­i­al Mem­o­ry» and Post­mi­grant So­ci­ety

Pro­pos­als for col­lec­tion de­vel­op­ment and in­ter­pre­ta­tion at the Swiss Na­tion­al Mu­se­um

National Museums claim authority in defining ‚cultural heritage’. Migration histories, as relativisations of national commemorative cultures, usually have a marginal position in such materialised narratives with their mechanisms of in- and exclusion. Based on the term of a postmigrant society, this contribution thus asks how the Swiss National Museum could take into account postmigrational realities, and with which consequences for the institution itself. Starting from the present collecting practices, recommendations for new strategies are developed by means of analysing international case studies. In doing so, issues of representation, criticism of objectifications as well as the question ‘who is collecting?’ play an important role.

Short CVs of the authors: