«Vibrations» & «Ordre Compliqué» - Due strategie per immaginare il museo postcoloniale

This paper will be published in Estetica - Studi e Ricerche “Il Museo Postcoloniale”, edited by Lidia Curti (coming spring 2012).

Museum and libraries have undergone profound transformation processes in the last decades. From heralds of national identities and monophonic narratives, they have been turned into supporters of new pluralistic civic communities, capable of answering both to the ever-changing needs of the population and the hunger for «multiplicity» of today’s transnational culture. The paper introduces some remarks on the situation, moving from a shared theoretical panorama and focusing on three key interrelated concepts – migrations, vibrations, multiplicity - with the purpose of defining forms and strategies for the conservation, exhibition and transmission of trans-cultural knowledge. This structure represents a first operative approach undertaken by the research group of Politecnico di Milano within the general framework of the European project MeLA (www.mela-project.eu) – a project that reflects on the future role of museums in the contemporary society.