Muzeum teraźniejszości? Jak w muzeum opowiedzieć o tu i teraz – projekt Współistnienie i refleksje po jego zakończeniu

Abstract

A MUSEUM OF THE PRESENT? HOW DO YOU TELL THE STORY ABOUT THE HERE AND NOW IN A MUSEUM – THE WSPÓŁISTNIENIE PROJECT AND SOME REFLECTIONS UPON ITS COMPLETION

The aim of the paper is to present a critical perspective on the Współistnienie [Coexistence] project carried out by the Museum of Kraków, and on the working methods involved in it. As a result of team effort, a temporary exhibition was prepared and presented at the Museum of Podgórze (a branch of the Museum of Kraków) from 1 July 2021 to 24 April 2022. The goal of the project was to describe the year of the COVID-19 pandemic by using the idiom of a museum exhibition, with the active participation of the local community – the Cracovians. The eponymous ‘museum of the present’ refers to the question about the role of museums in the discourse pertaining to the challenges which society faces on a daily basis, and the issue of tools available for cultural institutions to use in order to live up to that role. The case study of Współistnienie has been placed within a wider research frame of new museology, participation, and above all, the method which made the creation of the exhibition possible in the first place, namely rapid response collecting.