За границите на музейната презентация в България: „Селото Девица“ срещу „Градът Блудница“
Re-considering the limits of museum presentation in Bulgaria: “The Village like Maiden” vs. “The City like Scarlet”

Summary/Abstract: Since their birth museums have been given the power to draw imaginary borders of ethics, ethnicity and religion defending the communities which they serve. So museums as institutions mirror the development of these communities – “we” show “us” and express our ambitions in the exhibition space. Having slightly different dimensions, the museums in Bulgaria have always admittedly tried to supervise and educate people of all ages and social statuses. A clear will for shift in the museum policies became visible in the new millennium when some curators staged provocative exhibits breaking the moral limits of museum’s public image. One of them the so-called “erotic” exhibition, made by a team of ethnologists from the Rousse Regional museum of history, attracted attention in terms of museum management principles, ethnology and museology. The article offers analysis of the building up an exhibit, the process of communication and setting the goals and dimensions of the presentation as well as its effects over the target groups: host-institutions and curators, media and visitors. The case study demonstrates the transformation of Museum’s public image as well as the will and means for change. The research relies both on anthropological methods (interviews with authors, host-curators and visitors) and qualitative content analysis of the museum presentation, PR messages and media reactions. The museological interpretation attempts to indicate key factors for curators’ emancipation and education in terms of contemporary museographic trends. Through a particular case study the article reviews the features of communication in the Bulgarian museum environment.

• Details
• Contents