Memory and Migration
Moscow, Russia | Museum of Moscow
“Memory and Migration” will be the title of the 10th anniversary conference of ICOM’s International Committee for the Collections and Activities of Museums of Cities (CAMOC), to be held in Moscow in September 2015.
Moscow is an ideal place to debate on issues concerning city museums, migrant memory and migrant identity – all themes closely related to MeLa Project research fields – by virtue of an history deeply characterised by the gathering of different cultures and identities to create a vast, dynamic and diverse world city.
Memory and Migration are crucial aspects in contemporary societies. Migrants created cities and they continue to give cities shape and meaning. People may have been born and brought up in the city, but they are all in one way or another the children of migrants, migrants from the rural hinterland or from another country, who found the lure of the city irresistible.
Migrants bring memories of their past, their culture and their habits with them. Sometimes they preserve them in another environment, maintaining evidently their identity; other times they are absorbed and integrated into their new home, but they still bring a former life with them. Diversity and difference give, hence, a city its own unique character.
Migration continually redefines a city’s heritage and narrative, and social media now have the power to create new “places” for discussion on the city and its people, their histories, their human rights, their lives. No city museum therefore can be indifferent to the impact of migration.
A selection of papers will be presented, focusing on the following themes:
Migration and city museums
In this session the focus will be on the role of migrants from the hinterland or from another country in giving shape to the unique characteristics of the city throughout its history.
City museums as places of debate and social involvement in the changing city
How are city museums dealing with migration and memory? What are the issues and the challenges for city museums? What is the role of migration in the creation, history, culture and development of a city? How does the museum involve the migrant?
The City museum as a Memory Centre and a Place of Inclusion
What is memory? Whose memory does a city museum represent? Every place in our cities has both collective and individual memory and each develops different narratives. What is cultural exclusion and who is excluded? Is it possible to escape exclusion and what is to be done? This session will focus on different ways of working with memory.
City Museums – 10 years together
A number of presentations on exciting and original projects in city museums.
Does your museum have a project that it is really proud of? Do you think it can be inspiring and interesting for the CAMOC community? Is the topic something many museums around the world are faced with? It is time to present this project to us, sharing efforts, challenges, weaknesses and strengths with colleagues.
The conference will be held at the Museum of Moscow.
A registration is required to participate to the event.