In the face of the climate emergency and the need for an ecological transition, the transformation of the cultural sectors requires a deep overhaul of operating modes and professional practices, especially in the field of exhibition design. This piece of research examines the integration of exhibition-module reuse as a true act of care, reaching beyond technical and budget considerations. It analyses how exhibition designers address these challenges by developing strategies to reuse and optimise resources, thus helping to redefine the discourse and practices of the discipline today. The case study focuses on the exhibition Home Sweet Home (Triennale di Milano, 2023), recognised for its use of existing structures such as exhibit components, tables and modules. The theoretical framework mobilises the inputs of exhibition design, care ethics and maintenance studies, in connection with the concepts of regenerative design and ecodevelopment. In methodological terms, the research is based on the triangulation of data: field observation, documentary analysis and an interview with one of the exhibition’s designers. The findings are intended to enrich thinking on the ecological transition of temporary exhibitions by identifying innovative practices to do with managing, reusing and upcycling exhibition modules – thus contributing to the advent of a new ethics of temporary design.
This article contributes to the literature on the socio-ecological transition in the art worlds, by interrogating cultural third places’ commitment to transforming established practices. The study is based on the assumption that a close link exists between these organisations’ ideological universe and the forms taken by their commitment, which is devised as an iterative process between ‘talking’ and ‘acting ethically’. Using a qualitative methodology applied to six third places (in southeast France and Paris), the analysis brings to light a three-dimensional typology of commitment: prefigurative, adaptive and interstitial. The article describes the structural barriers that still limit the spinoff capability of these ecological-redirection laboratories, while demonstrating that the collective acts as an essential regulator to avoid the trap of purely incantatory performativity.
Amid the growing prominence of environmental issues in cultural institutions, exhibitions of ecological art have increased in France over the past 15 years, interrogating traditional formats for presenting contemporary art. How does an exhibition help to define, structure and institutionalise ecological art in art museums and centres? This article analyses the exhibition’s role as a central device in forming an ecosystem of ecological art, which is understood to be a collection of mutually dependent stakeholders, practices and values that extends beyond the art world. The article draws on a qualitative survey of a corpus of 28 ecological-art exhibitions, as well as interviews with curators and institution managers. The findings highlight how ecological-art exhibitions play a part in gradually structuring a specific ecosystem. This system is characterised by expanded forms of cooperation, high institutional reflexivity and renewed opportunities around museums’ traditional remit, chiefly regarding production, conservation and mediation. The article thus invites consideration of the ecological-art exhibition as a laboratory of museum transformation, put to the test of the socio-ecological transition.
South Africa is home to well-known cultural and memorial museums (such as Mandela House, the Soweto township and Robben Island) that reference significant episodes in the country’s history – particularly the period of apartheid, with its institutionalised socio-spatial segregation (1948-1991), and the post-apartheid era. They play a crucial role in the national story, raising political, social and territorial issues. Although monument-staging aims to resemantise a controversial history by seeking to promote a dissonant heritage (Tunbridge & Ashworth, 1996), it also brings to light a process that is both reconciliatory in purpose and cathartic. By adopting a humanist approach – emphasising an adventure-novelistic memorial dimension and an approach of very close engagement with the population, and particularly Black people during this period – it succeeds in attracting international and local audiences. In our view, these museums have a hybridised heritage. Their characteristics, which we will define in the article, reflect an approach that can be described as multidisciplinary (in terms of mediation devices) and inclusive (in relation to the local population). This memorial museography sometimes develops ties with marginalised or impoverished surroundings.
In a context where traditional museum formats are being challenged in the light of sustainability issues, the museum garden is emerging as a strategic location for deploying a socially engaged management policy. How is it helping to redefine the social, educational and environmental roles of an art museum in a specifically 21st century perspective? This article interrogates how the museum’s green space is making its mark as a new driver of territorial co-construction and of awareness-raising around environmental issues; and, more broadly, as a subject of theoretical study. The article draws on a qualitative survey conducted on two European institutions – the Fundação Serralves (Porto, Portugal) and the Louvre-Lens (Lens, France) – which have integrated a garden into their scientific project and cultural programming. Two methods were used: documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews. The findings – stemming from analytical criteria both internal (management policies, cultural programming, educational and participatory schemes) and external (territorial policies, certifications) – highlight how these gardens are becoming active extensions of art museums in a socially engaged strategy. The art museum’s traditional functions are thus poised to change. The study invites us to consider these spaces as innovative laboratories of shared governance spanning art, science and ecology, at the threshold of a museography of the living world.
This article analyses how the decarbonisation of audience transport modes is considered in the projects devised by the French cities applying to be the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) in 2028. We hypothesise that, in a context where the audience must travel, a focus on the carbon footprint of their transport modes can drive the transformation of cultural programming, and even upgrade the journey into a component of the cultural experience. Using several examples, the article draws up an incremental typology: from incentivising devices, geared to raising audience awareness, through to more-systemic approaches where reducing the carbon footprint of audience transport modes appears transversally (from designing the initiative through to communicating on it). By illustrating the paradoxical framework of the ECOC programme (which juxtaposes the demand for sustainability with a reach-expanding rationale), the article shows how, despite the journey being transformed into a sensory experience, the question of to what extent initiatives can actually promote the decarbonisation of culture-related transport remains open, especially on the large scale.
More than their predecessors, contemporary artworks cause confusion and even rejection. When produced in public space, they intensify this questioning in the eyes of a wider, unfamiliar audience. The wrapped Arc de Triomphe in Paris, a project by Christo and Jeanne-Claude that ran from 18 September to 3 October 2021, offers an opportunity to interrogate its disappointed and critical reception. This article, informed by analysis of the responses to a questionnaire-based reception survey (Elipss system of the CDSP – Centre de données socio-politiques), examines the positive and negative views and the types of artistic judgment expressed by audiences of visitors, but also by “remote” spectators, about an intervention that was at once public, temporary and, what is more, took over a historic monument. The survey made it possible to gauge the change in the artistic sensibility of a representative focus group of French people relative to another intervention: the wrapping of the Pont-Neuf bridge in Paris in 1985, previously analysed by the sociologist Nathalie Heinich.
