Instituional Devices

The course will focus on museums as epistemological sites, which allow critical investigation of the spatial, temporal, and ideological assumptions of the public museum

The course's goal is twofold: first, we will study texts and artworks in order to develop a critical discourse on the relations between museums' knowledge and power and as an ideological device of governing. Second, we will experiment with performative and collective methodologies, through which we will rethink the institutional potential to become a vessel for a multiplicity of knowledge and social relations. Each class will be dedicated to one concept: 'the exhibitionary complex'; uncertain collections;  the contactless condition, Syncolonialism, Institutional  "soft tissues" - on liminal spaces; and the guided tour. Through reading and discussion alongside workshops, we will look for the historical and ideological origins of the public museum in the present and its future meanings in an era of algorithmic management.