European Commission - 7th Framework Programme European Museums and Libraries in/of the age of migrations last updated: February 2015


MeLa Publications

The MeLa editorial activity promotes the widespread use of the advancement of knowledge produced by the Project. Special policies have been agreed by the Consortium Partners in order to guarantee a high open access level to all Project products, and in particular to make publications readable and downloadable.
In this page, you can find a selection of MeLa related documents, and the articles, papers and books produced by the Consortium members within the MeLa Project, which will be available free of charge whenever possible and, in any case, at least in their executive summary.

These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License.

 

The MeLa*Books Series

 

>> Access the series of open-access digital publications which report the main findings ensued from the research activities developed by the different MeLa Research Fields.

 


   


  • MeLa Final Brochure: European Museums in an age of migrations

    MeLa is a four year multi-disciplinary and collaborative research project, funded in 2011 within the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission under the Social Sciences and Humanities. The MeLa Project investigated the role of museums in 21st century Europe, and their ongoing evolution triggered by accelerated mobility, fluid circulation of information, ideas and cultures, and the consequent increase of cultural encounters, cross-fertilisation and hybridisation of societies and identities. By analysing the challenges as well as the opportunities emerging from processes of globalisation, mobility and migration, MeLa identified innovative practices that can support contemporary museums in fostering mutual understanding, social cohesion and a sharper awareness of an inclusive European identity. This booklet presents a synthetic overview on the main findings produced by the MeLa Project, drawing on the critical suggestions, best practices, policies and recommendations proposed by the investigators involved in the different MeLa Research Fields, with the aim to support the scientific community, museum professionals, policymakers and the European Commission in envisioning and fostering the evolution of contemporary museums in this “age of migrations”.

    MeLa Final Brochure: European Museums in an age of migrations Research Field 06 - Document - March 2015 Fd06 Document more
  • MeLa RF05 Final Brochure: Exhibition Design, Technology of Representation and Experimental Actions

    MeLa Research Field 05 exploited a design-based research methodology with the aim to develop new museum practices, and test the theoretical outcomes produced by other MeLa Research Fields. On the one hand, it investigated the potentialities of innovative curatorial approaches and the role of Information and Communication Technologies for contemporary museums and exhibitions. On the other, it explored new research tools for the Social Sciences and Humanities, with the aim to foster the coalescence of theory and practice, to enable inter-disciplinary exchanges and to nurture collaborative models. These tasks resulted in the implementation of several experimental actions, and in the design of different prototypes for the production and sharing of the knowledge produced by the Project, eventually ensuing in the MeLa Critical Archive.

    MeLa RF05 Final Brochure: Exhibition Design, Technology of Representation and Experimental Actions Research Field 05 - Document - March 2015 Fd05 Document more
  • Museums, Migration and Identity in Europe

    Whitehead, Christopher, Katherine Lloyd, Susannah Eckersley and Rhiannon Mason, eds. 2015. Museums, Migration and Identity in Europe. Peoples, Places and Identities. Farnham: Ashgate.

    The imperatives surrounding museum representations of place have shifted from the late eighteenth century to today. The political significance of place itself has changed and continues to change at all scales, from local, civic, regional to national and supranational. At the same time, changes in population flows, migration patterns and demographic movement now underscore both cultural and political practice, be it in the accommodation of ‘diversity’ in cultural and social policy, scholarly explorations of hybridity or in state immigration controls. This book investigates the historical and contemporary relationships between museums, places and identities. It brings together contributions from international scholars, academics, practitioners from museums and public institutions, policymakers, and representatives of associations and migrant communities to explore all these issues.

    Museums, Migration and Identity in Europe Christopher Whitehead, Katherine Lloyd, Susannah Eckersley, Rhiannon Mason - Books - March 2015 Fd01 Document more
  • Cultural Networks in Migrating Heritage

    Innocenti, Perla. 2015. Cultural Networks in Migrating Heritage: Intersecting Theories and Practices across Europe. Farnham: Ashgate.

    This book is a study of the role of cultural and heritage networks and how they can help institutions and their host societies manage the tensions and realise the opportunities arising from migration. In looking at past and emerging challenges of social inclusion and cultural dialogue, hybrid models of cultural identity, citizenship and national belonging, the study also sets out to answer the questions 'how'. How can cultural institutions leverage the power of cross-border networks in a contested place such as Europe today? How could they elaborate approaches and strategies based on cultural practices? How can the actions of the European Commission and relevant cultural bodies be strengthened, adapted or extended to meet these goals? Cultural Networks in Migrating Heritage investigated those questions, offering a be of interest to scholars and students in museum and cultural heritage studies, visual arts, sociology of organisations and information studies. It will also be relevant to practitioners and policymakers from museums, libraries, NGOs and cultural institutions at large.

    Cultural Networks in Migrating Heritage Perla Innocenti - Books - March 2015 Fd03 Document more
  • Advancing Museum Practices

    Lanz, Francesca, and Elena Montanari, eds. 2014. Advancing Museum Practices. Turin: Allemandi.

    The volume is aimed at giving voice to a selection of innovative practices which are currently being experimented and planned by some major European museums, enhancing their approach towards contemporary multi-cultural societies. By responding to the challenges posed by accelerated mobility and demographic flows, the layerisation and fragmentation of identities, and the augmented movement of information, ideas and cultures through new technologies and media, these museums are going through a profound transformation, both as cultural spaces as well as physical places. The book intends to depict an overview of the revision of contemporary museums’ mission, strategies and tools, by presenting the museologic and museographic practices which are fostering this evolution through the words of the directors and curators who are conceiving and promoting them.
    With contributions by: CÈcile Aufaure, Luca Basso Peressut, Richard Benjamin, Peter Bjerregaard, Christoph Bongert, Pierangelo Campodonico, Bambi Ceuppens, Denis Chevallier, Alexandre Delarge, Angela Jannelli, Vito Lattanzi, HÈlËne du Mazaubrun, Marie Poinsot, Cathy Ross, Michel Rouger, Ramzi Tadros, Sonja Thiel.

    Advancing Museum Practices Francesca Lanz, Elena Montanari - Books - October 2014 Fd06 Document more
  • Transfigurations: Curatorial and Artistic Research in an Age of Migrations

    Walsh, Victoria, Paul Goodwin, and Pamela Sepulveda, eds. 2014. Transfigurations: Curatorial and Artistic Research in an Age of Migrations. London: Royal College of Art.

    The volume marks an important research milestone in the investigation led by the Royal College of Art about the relevance and strategic value of the Curatorial and Artistic Research in this “age of migrations”. The book explores how globalisation, digital media and changing patterns of migration affect our understanding and experience of the contemporary work of art, how artists are engaging with curators to think about the condition of the contemporary through their work, its display and collection, and how curators are working with new forms of artistic production, display, collection and archive. In particular, these issues are investigated through the outcomes of five collaborative projects – by artists Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Leo Asemota, Kader Attia, Camille Henrot and Quinsy Gario – which were staged at MACBA (Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona) in June 2014.

    Transfigurations: Curatorial and Artistic Research in an Age of Migrations Victoria Walsh, Paul Goodwin, Pamela Sepulveda (eds.) - Books - June 2014 Fd04 Document more
  • Museum Multiplicities: Field Actions and Research by Design

    Basso Peressut, Luca, Cristina F. Colombo, and Gennaro Postiglione, eds. 2014. Museum Multiplicities: Field Actions and Research by Design. Milan: Politecnico di Milano.

    Museum Multiplicities: Field Actions and Research by Design collects experimental works led by several research teams involved in the MeLa Project—gathered in the first section of the volume, titled “actions”—as well as scholars and students in Architecture attending the Politecnico di Milano—organised in a section called “Research by design”— all of whom share the common purpose of challenging the traditional idea of exhibition and introduce participative practices able to promote a better cultural integration and dialogue. The theme running throughout the essays presented in the book relates to finding applicative strategies and promoting practices which enhance the awareness of a collective identity of people living in Europe—whether they be part of communities historically rooted in a certain territory or groups of recent immigrants—and the understanding of differences. The adoption of a transcultural perspective, however, may be the key for a further enrichment of the material and immaterial heritage of the continent, as well as a more effective conservation and enhancement of this patrimony, and a real social integration.
    With contributions by: Rachele Albini, Jamie Allen, Jakob Bak, Chiara Baravalle, Luca Basso Peressut, Giuseppe Biscottini, Rita Capurro, Dario Cieol, Anna Chiara Cimoli, Sara Chiesa, Cristina F. Colombo, David Gauthier, Giulia Grechi, Eleonora Lupo, Elisa Mansutti, Elena Montanari, Gennaro Postiglione, Alessandro Raffa, Davide Spallazzo, Raffaella Trocchianesi, Christopher Whitehead.

    Museum Multiplicities: Field Actions and Research by Design Luca Basso Peressut, Cristina F. Colombo, Gennaro Postiglione - Books - October 2014 Fd05 Document more
  • Folding the Exhibition

    MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona. 2014. Folding the Exhibition. Barcelona: MACBA.

    The MACBA Study Center – in the context of Research Field 04 "Curatorial and Artistic Research" of the MeLa Project – has carried out research into the protocols of archiving and the methods of classifying documentation produced by exhibitions in the field of contemporary art, as well as investigating how these practices impact upon the writing of art history. The main aim of the research project is the identification of these and the production of a proposal of recommendations for putting in motion and managing archives of exhibitions. The present publication presents a preliminary analysis and theoretical reflection surrounding methods and systems for documenting exhibitions and other activities in the field of the art practices of our time.

    Folding the Exhibition MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona - Books - June 2014 Fd04 Document more
  • MeLa Research Field 04 Final Brochure: Curatorial and Artistic Research

    How are globalisation, digital media and changing patterns of migration changing our understanding and experience of the contemporary work of art, and how are contemporary artists engaging with curators to think about the condition of the contemporary through their work, its display and collection? How are curators working with new forms of artistic production, particularly non object-based practices of making, that fall outside of conventional modernist forms of display, collection and archive? These are some of the questions examined by Research Field 04, led by the Curating Contemporary Art Programme at the Royal College of Art in London, and outlined in this brochure. Reflecting on the challenges and opportunities of current curatorial and artistic practice, the research highlights areas of museum practice and organisation that are still rooted in the 20th century and urgently need reconsidering to ensure the cultural relevance and vibrancy of museums of modern and contemporary art in the 21st century.

    MeLa Research Field 04 Final Brochure: Curatorial and Artistic Research Research Field 04 - Document - July 2014 Fd04 Document more
  • The Ruined Archive

    Chambers, Iain Giulia Grechi, and Mark Nash. eds. 2014. The Ruined Archive. Milan: Politecnico di Milano.

    The essays in this volume circulate in the constellation of cultural, postcolonial and museum studies to propose a series of intersecting perspectives promoting critical responses to this ongoing interrogation. Memory, the archive, and the politics of display, are unwound from their institutional moorings and allowed to drift into other, frequently non-authorised, accounts of time and space. Called upon to negotiate unplanned encounters with unsuspected actors and the obscured sides of modernity, the museum becomes an experimental space, a laboratory for a cultural democracy yet to come.
    With contributions by: Fernanda Albuquerque, Chiara Baravalle, Giuseppe Biscottini, Francisco Cabanzo, Iain Chambers, Maria Iñigo Clavo, Lidia Curti, Alessandra De Angelis, Beatrice Ferrara, Jessica Fiala, Giulia Grechi, Celeste Ianniciello, Jan-Erik Lundström,Olga Fernández López, Mark Nash, Mariangela Orabona, Claire Pajaczkowska, Michaela Quadraro, Elizabeth Stanton.

    The Ruined Archive Iain Chambers, Giulia Grechi, Mark Nash - Books - June 2014 Fd02 Document more
  • MeLa ResearchField 03 Final Brochure: Network of Museums, Libraries and Public Cultural Institutions

    MeLa Research Field 03 Network of Museums, Libraries and Public Cultural Institutions (RF03) aims to leverage the power of cultural networks, for supporting European cultural institutions to better address contemporary challenges of globalisation, mobility, migrating heritage and cultural dialogue, and the use of Information and Communication Technologies. Desk and field research activities included several real-life case studies, surveys and interviews with scholars and practitioners, meetings with stakeholders and policy makers, an international workshop and an international conference, and various publications.The brochure offers an overview of the emergence of migrating heritage and the changing landscape of cultural networking. MeLa RF03 expectation is these findings and recommendations will support an increasingly transnational and transdisciplinary cultural networking across museums, libraries and public cultural institutions, policy makers, European Commission and government officials, in Europe and beyond.

    MeLa ResearchField 03 Final Brochure: Network of Museums, Libraries and Public Cultural Institutions Research Field 03 - Document - May 2014 Fd03 Document more
  • MeLa Newsletter #09

    The MeLa Staff is pleased to launch the new issue of the MeLa Newsletter, providing updated news about the Project outcomes and activities. Don't miss in this issue: the launch of the first MeLa Final Brochures​, offering an in-depth focus on the outcomes and recommendations from Research Fields 01, 02 and 03, and an outlook of the MeLa Midterm Seminar​; the implementation of the in-progress MeLa Experimental Actions, promoting and testing innovative practices and tools; the presentation of the forthcoming MeLa publications and seminars, and the launch of the art exhibition in Barcelona.

    MeLa Newsletter #09 MeLa Newsletter - Document - May 2014 Fd07 Document more
  • MeLa Research Field 02 Final Brochure: Cultural Memory, Migrating Modernity and Museum Practices

    The scope of Mela Research Field 02, investigating "Cultural Memory, Migrating Modernity and Museum Practices," is that of exploring the complex interactions between the cultural formations of memory, belonging and contemporary museum practices in the light of migration. Researchers analysed the emerging cultural debate on the historical nature and contemporary sense of the museum through study and field work in diverse European localities and institutions. Given the crucial role that museums have played in narrating national identities and cultural belonging, the research has brought to the surface the difficulties faced in registering and exhibiting histories that tend to be excluded or marginalised in existing understandings of modernity. Here, the recovery or archaeology of unregistered histories lead the research to reconsider the role and potential changes that the museum could promote as a social and political actor. These questions are subsequently advanced in the research profile through considering the more extensive and multilateral impact of existing museum practices in addressing, directly and indirectly, comprehension of civic interaction and citizenship. The research leads to proposing a series of critical suggestions, in both perspective and practices, organised around the perceived limits and possibilities of the present-day European museum.

    MeLa Research Field 02 Final Brochure: Cultural Memory, Migrating Modernity and Museum Practices Research Field 02 - Document - April 2014 Fd02 Document more
  • MeLa Research Field 06 - Midterm Seminar Brochure: Envisioning 21st Century Museums

    Two years and a half after the MeLa Kick-off Meeting held at at Musei Capitolini and MAXXI in Rome, which inaugurated the beginning of the MeLa Project activities, the Midterm Seminar has represented an important milestone fostering introspection, dissemination, collection of new stimuli and planning of further tasks, as well as gathering new key findings through the coalescence of theories and practices. By triggering a multi-disciplinary and multi-perspective critical debate about the transformation of the contemporary museums, the Seminar aimed at capturing the complexity of these processes by facilitating a cross-fertilisation between the scientific outcomes developed by the scholars involved within the MeLa Project and the innovative experiences promoted by some pioneering museums, illustrated through the words of the directors and curators who conceived and actualised them. Accordingly, the program of the Midterm Seminar included a morning session, devoted to the presentation of the ongoing results of the activities developed within the MeLa Research Fields 1, 2, 3 and 4, which are currently being completed, and two afternoon sessions aimed at reporting about the advanced practices promoted by several new or renovated European institutions, in order to evaluate the outcomes and new perspectives they produced. The selection of the invited museums was led by a plurality of tasks, on the one hand drawing on the consistence and the quality of the experiences intended to foster the involvement of new audiences and enhancing the role of museums as agents for social change, on the other highlighting the wide and transversal interest for these issues, which are at the core of the revision of a variety of museums. The panel was indeed characterised by the differentation of the focus and mission of the presented museums and their distribution across several European Countries. The heterogeneity of the reported experiences highlighted the richness and the variety of the approaches, tools and strategies which are being experimented to afford the challenges posed by this “age of migrations.”

    MeLa Research Field 06 - Midterm Seminar Brochure: Envisioning 21st Century Museums Research Field 06 - Document - April 2014 Fd06 Document more
  • MeLa Research Field 01 Final Brochure: Museums & Identity in History and Contemporaneity

    What are the relationships between places, peoples and identities? How are these relationships represented in museums and how does this relate to the experiences of visitors? Should museums’ representational practices regarding people-place relations are changing and/or should change, and if so how? These are some of the questions that are investigated in Research Field 01: Museums and Identity in History and Contemporaneity. Researchers analysed key displays in numerous European museums as well as interviewing staff and audiences in order to understand how and why museums develop such displays and how visitors, including those with migrant backgrounds, respond to them. Migration has inevitable connections with some of the most pressing issues in European societies, such as the mobility of people, multiculturalism, diversity, equality of opportunity and social cohesion or division. Museums have the potential to play an important role in exploring these issues. This research builds on existing work in museums to develop ideas for responsible and thought-provoking practice that can have a positive impact on society.

    MeLa Research Field 01 Final Brochure: Museums & Identity in History and Contemporaneity Research Field 01 - Document - March 2014 Fd01 Document more
  • The Postcolonial Museum. The Arts of Memory and the Pressures of History

    Chambers, Iain, Alessandra De Angelis, Celeste Ianniciello, Mariangela Orabona, and Michaela Quadraro, eds. 2014. The Postcolonial Museum. The Arts of Memory and the Pressures of History. Farnham: Ashgate.

    This book examines how we can conceive of a ‘postcolonial museum’ in the contemporary epoch of mass migrations, the internet and digital technologies. The authors consider the museum space, practices and institutions in the light of repressed histories, sounds, voices, images, memories, bodies, expression and cultures. Focusing on the transformation of museums as cultural spaces, rather than physical places, is to propose a living archive formed through creation, participation, production and innovation. The aim is to propose a critical assessment of the museum in the light of those transcultural and global migratory movements that challenge the historical and traditional frames of Occidental thought. This involves a search for new strategies and critical approaches in the fields of museum and heritage studies which will renew and extend understandings of European citizenship and result in an inevitable re-evaluation of the concept of ‘modernity’ in a so-called globalised and multicultural world.

    The Postcolonial Museum. The Arts of Memory and the Pressures of History Iain Chambers, Alessandra De Angelis, Celeste Ianniciello, Mariangela Orabona and Michaela Quadraro - Books - March 2014 Fd02 Document more
  • Migrating Heritage Experiences of Cultural Networks and Cultural Dialogue in Europe

    Innocenti, Perla, ed. 2014. Migrating Heritage. Experiences of Cultural Networks and Cultural Dialogue in Europe. Farnham: Ashgate.

    Bringing together an international forum of experts, this book looks at how museums, libraries and further public cultural institutions respond to the effects of globalisation, mobility and migration across Europe. It puts forward examples of innovative practice and policies that reflect these challenges, looking at issues such as how cultural institutions present themselves to and interact with multicultural audiences, how to support networking across European institutions, and share practice in core activities such as archiving interpreting and exhibiting artefacts. Academics, practitioners from museums and public institutions and policymakers explore theoretical and practical approaches from a range of different disciplines such as museum and cultural heritage studies, cultural memory studies, social anthropology, sociology of organizations, cultural heritage management and cultural heritage informatics.

    Migrating Heritage Experiences of Cultural Networks and Cultural Dialogue in Europe Perla Innocenti - Books - March 2014 Fd03 Document more
  • MeLa Newsletter #08

    The MeLa Staff is pleased to launch the new issue of the MeLa Newsletter, providing updated news about the Project outcomes and activities. Don't miss in this issue: the insights on the MeLa Seminar at the Cité Nationale de l’Histoire de l’Immigration in Paris; the presentation of the latest MeLa Experimental Action at the Diocesan Museum in Milan; the reports from the LEM final event, the EMEE second general meeting and other MeLa related conferences and events.

    MeLa Newsletter #08 MeLa Newsletter - Document - November 2013 Fd07 Document more
  • European Museums in the 21st Century - Vol. 3

    Basso Peressut, Luca, Francesca Lanz, and Gennaro Postiglione, eds. 2013. European Museums in the 21st Century: Setting the Framework - Vol. 3. Milan: Politecnico di Milano.

    This book grew out of the earliest work of the MeLa Research Field 6, “Envisioning 21st Century Museums,” aimed at exploring current trends in European contemporary museums. Analysing their ongoing evolution triggered by this “age of migrations” and with specific attention to their architecture and exhibition design, the volume collects the preliminary observations ensuing from this survey, complemented by the some paradigmatic examples, and further enriched by interviews and contributions from scholars, curators and museum practitioners.
    With contributions by Florence Baläen, Michela Bassanelli, Luca Basso Peressut, Joachim Baur, Lorraine Bluche, Marco Borsotti, Mariella Brenna, Anna Chiara Cimoli, Lars De Jaegher, Maria Camilla De Palma, Hugues De Varine, Maria De Waele, Nélia Dias, Simone Eick, Fabienne Galangau Quérat, Sarah Gamaire, Jan Gerchow, Marc-Olivier Gonset, Klas Grinell, Laurence Isnard, Marie-Paule Jungblut, Galitt Kenan, Francesca Lanz, José María Lanzarote Guiral, Vito Lattanzi, Jack Lohman, Carolina Martinelli, Frauke Miera, Elena Montanari, Chantal Mouffe, Judith Pargamin, Giovanni Pinna, Camilla Pagani, Clelia Pozzi, Paolo Rosa, Anna Seiderer.


    Volume 3 includes: Introduction, Chapter 6: Local Museums, Chapter 7: War Museums, Chapter 8: Temporary Exhibitions

    European Museums in the 21st Century - Vol. 3 Luca Basso Peressut, Francesca Lanz, Gennaro Postiglione - Books - March 2013 Fd06 Document more
  • European Museums in the 21st Century - Vol. 2

    Basso Peressut, Luca, Francesca Lanz, and Gennaro Postiglione, eds. 2013. European Museums in the 21st Century: Setting the Framework - Vol. 2. Milan: Politecnico di Milano.

    This book grew out of the earliest work of the MeLa Research Field 6, “Envisioning 21st Century Museums,” aimed at exploring current trends in European contemporary museums. Analysing their ongoing evolution triggered by this “age of migrations” and with specific attention to their architecture and exhibition design, the volume collects the preliminary observations ensuing from this survey, complemented by the some paradigmatic examples, and further enriched by interviews and contributions from scholars, curators and museum practitioners.
    With contributions by Florence Baläen, Michela Bassanelli, Luca Basso Peressut, Joachim Baur, Lorraine Bluche, Marco Borsotti, Mariella Brenna, Anna Chiara Cimoli, Lars De Jaegher, Maria Camilla De Palma, Hugues De Varine, Maria De Waele, Nélia Dias, Simone Eick, Fabienne Galangau Quérat, Sarah Gamaire, Jan Gerchow, Marc-Olivier Gonset, Klas Grinell, Laurence Isnard, Marie-Paule Jungblut, Galitt Kenan, Francesca Lanz, José María Lanzarote Guiral, Vito Lattanzi, Jack Lohman, Carolina Martinelli, Frauke Miera, Elena Montanari, Chantal Mouffe, Judith Pargamin, Giovanni Pinna, Camilla Pagani, Clelia Pozzi, Paolo Rosa, Anna Seiderer.


    Volume 2 includes: Introduction, Chapter 4: Migration Museums, Chapter 5: City Museums

    European Museums in the 21st Century - Vol. 2 Luca Basso Peressut, Francesca Lanz, Gennaro Postiglione - Books - March 2013 Fd06 Document more