Paper short abstract:

In this paper the focus is on a temporary photo-exhibition that was launched at the National Museum of Iceland in January 2018. The exhibition deals with questions of home and personal objects, belonging, identity, exclusion and migration. In my paper I focus in particular on audience engagement and visitor views regarding the exhibition.

Paper long abstract:

In recent years focus on migration, immigration and mobility has continued to develop and cultivate within the field of museum studies. Many museums are experimenting with new curatorial practices – such as co-curating, participative collecting, international and interdisciplinary networking or artistic co-operations. Diverse museum have been reorganizing and reinterpreting their collections and renovating their galleries, with the aim of considering migration and cultural diversity as part of the story they tell. As I will discuss in the paper limited research has however been done on how visitors actually engage with migration themes. The paper emerges from my recent examination on the photo-exhibition "The Long Apartment Block in Upper Breiðholt" that was launched in January 2018 and exhibited until June 2018 at the National Museum of Iceland. The exhibition was a collaboration project between the museum and the photographer, David Barreiro, and it engaged with themes such as mobility, home and personal objects, exclusion, belonging and migration. In my investigation I interviewed the photographer and museum staff but the main focus of my study was on visitor responses in relation to the exhibition. My aim was to shed light on how the exhibition was contextualized within the museum narrative and also if and then how it changed visitor ideas or attitudes in relation to immigrants in Iceland.