Paper short abstract:

I propose to observe the inclusion of ethnographic artifacts, re-categorized as works of art, in the National Gallery of Canada in the light of the concept of "artification". This process has to be read as one of the forms of the decolonization of museum spaces begun in the 1990s

Paper long abstract:

The beginning of the 21st century, Canada is showing itself to be both vital and restless with respect to museology and museum exhibitions. Many indigenous cultural centers have opened autonomous museum spaces in various parts of the country. Those "tribal museums" of which Clifford had offered a glimpse of at the end of the 1990s have therefore "exploded" and the important "majority museums" are showing great unease, changing names, for example, but also more radically, their narratives and displays. The most important art museums in the country have begun to include historical indigenous artifacts in their narratives and galleries. In my paper I propose to observe the inclusion of ethnographic artifacts, re-categorized as works of art, in the National Gallery of Canada in the light of the concept of "artification". This process seeks not to define what art is nor how it should be considered, but how and under what circumstances it comes about. The artification process, in my opinion, has to be read as one of the forms of the decolonization of museum spaces in post-colonial contexts, begun in the 1990s. In particular I propose to interpret the processes of displacement and re-categorization of ethnographic materials as one of the forms of the broader restitution process to indigenous communities; a process which includes: land ownership, stories, rights to fishing and hunting, repatriation of objects, etc..