Hans Dam Christensen – författare

Few institutions are warier of copies than museums. Few fields of knowledge are more prone to denounce copies as fake than the heritage field. Few discourses are as concerned with authenticity, aura, originals and provenance as those concerning exhibiting and collecting. So why is it that these are institutions, fields and discourses where copies proliferate and copying techniques have thrived for hundreds of years? Museums as Cultures of Copies aims to make the copying practices of museums visible and to discuss, from a range of interrelated perspectives, precisely what function copies fulfil in the heritage field and in museums today.

With contributions from Europe and Canada, the book interrogates the meaning of copies and presents copying as a fully integrated part of museum work. Including chapters on ethnographic mannequins, digitalized photos, death masks, museum documentation and mechanical models, contributors consider how copying as a cultural form changes according to time and place and how new forms of copying and copy technologies challenge and expand museum work today. Arguing that copying is at the basis of museum practice and that new technologies and practices have been taken up and developed in museums since their inception, the book presents both heritage work and copies in a new light.

Museums as Cultures of Copies should be of great interest to academics, scholars and postgraduate students working in the fields of museum and heritage studies, as well as visual studies, cultural history and archaeology. It should also be essential reading for museum practitioners.

Few institutions are warier of copies than museums. Few fields of knowledge are more prone to denounce copies as fake than the heritage field. Few discourses are as concerned with authenticity, aura, originals and provenance as those concerning exhibiting and collecting. So why is it that these are institutions, fields and discourses where copies proliferate and copying techniques have thrived for hundreds of years? Museums as Cultures of Copies aims to make the copying practices of museums visible and to discuss, from a range of interrelated perspectives, precisely what function copies fulfil in the heritage field and in museums today.

With contributions from Europe and Canada, the book interrogates the meaning of copies and presents copying as a fully integrated part of museum work. Including chapters on ethnographic mannequins, digitalized photos, death masks, museum documentation and mechanical models, contributors consider how copying as a cultural form changes according to time and place and how new forms of copying and copy technologies challenge and expand museum work today. Arguing that copying is at the basis of museum practice and that new technologies and practices have been taken up and developed in museums since their inception, the book presents both heritage work and copies in a new light.

Museums as Cultures of Copies should be of great interest to academics, scholars and postgraduate students working in the fields of museum and heritage studies, as well as visual studies, cultural history and archaeology. It should also be essential reading for museum practitioners.

Hur förhåller vi oss till monument och statyer i offentliga rum? Och hur förändras våra uppfattningar när historien ställer oss inför nya insikter? I kölvattnet av Black Lives Matter-rörelsen 2020 hamnade många monument och statyer över hela världen i fokus för intensiv debatt. Några revs, några täcktes över och andra granskades med nya ögon, i ljuset av inte bara kolonialt och rasistiskt förtryck, utan också de könsstrukturer som de symboliserade. Den här boken undersöker hur vi fysiskt och symboliskt interagerar med dessa offentliga konstverk genom både syn och beröring. 

Med utgångspunkt i historiska exempel och samtida protester utforskar Glances and Hands on Public Art hur offentliga monument formar vårt kollektiva minne och vår identitet. En rad kontrasterande och kompletterande perspektiv på denna fråga ges här av konstnärer, forskare, museichefer, kritiker och tjänstemän. Tillsammans ger författarna vad som kan kallas en kalejdoskopisk blick på den offentliga konsten i dess dubbla roller, både som påminnelser om det förflutna och som ett slagfält för dagens upphettade kulturdebatt. 

Medverkande författare: Patrick Amsellem, La Vaughn Belle, Cecilia Cassinger, Hans Dam Christensen, Jeannette Ehlers, Linda Fagerström, Rikke Lie Halberg, Elisabeth Högdahl, Peter Johansson, Friederike Landau-Donnelly, Marie Ledendal, Jens Peter Munk, Karen Sivebæk Munk, Håkan Nilsson, Johanna Rivano Eckerdal, Terne Thorsen, Ulrika Wennersten, Ulf Zander

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How do we relate to monuments and statues in public spaces? And how do our perceptions shift when history confronts us with new insights? In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, many monuments and statues across the world became the focal point of intense debate. Some were torn down, others covered up, and others were re-examined in light of not only colonial and racial oppression, but also the gendered structures they symbolised. This book delves into how we physically and symbolically interact with these public artworks through both sight and touch.   

Drawing on historical examples and contemporary protests, Glances and Hands on Public Art explores how public monuments shape our collective memory and identity.   

A range of contrasting and complementary perspectives on this issue are provided here. Artists, researchers, museum managers, critics and civil servants contribute their first-hand experience of tackling these questions, but from very different starting points. Together, the authors provide a kaleidoscopic view of the role of public art as both a reminder of the past and a battleground for present-day societal struggles and cultural discussions. How can we understand our changing attitudes toward these monuments, and what do they mean for the future of public art?