Paper short abstract:

The anthropological approach looking at artworks that were donate by individuals to a public museum (Museum of Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium) allows to add a social dimension to curated artworks and anchor their material history in their past and present social contexts and networks.

Paper long abstract:

The paper propose to present the first results of an on-going PhD research project at the crossroads of anthropology, museology, and cultural history (ULB) focusing on the specific public museum collection of modern and contemporary art of the Museum of Ixelles (Brussels, Belgium). The paper gives a concrete case of how the anthropological approach in a museal context answers the main challenges discussed in the panel and helps reimagine and reconfigure the perception one might have of artworks and public museum collections by deepdiving into the material history and provenance of objects that were donated by individuals. By diversifying the sources such as archives or interviews, by curating broader that artworks and including other medium such as correspondence, picture, audio or film material or by allowing news voices, from people extern to the disciplines, or from different communities, the anthropological approach reflects the social and human dimensions of objects, and anchor their material history in their past and present social contexts and networks.

Considering the curation in an art museum context, anthropology and curation as disciplines can enrich one another and propose new answers to their common challenges of the 21st century such as addressing to new publics, opening disciplines to new voices, engaging through collaborative networks that welcome multi-perspectivism and multi-sensoriality.