Can the Museum Liberate Us?

An invited paper presented at the symposium "Art and Decolonization" held at the Museu de arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) on 18th and 19th October 2018.

During the early 1970s calls to revise, resist or transform the nineteenth century European model of the museum as it expanded itself throughout the world gathered significant momentum. The 1972 International Council of Museums (ICOM) roundtable in Santiago de Chile, inspired by the Latin American political project of “liberation” called for a museum that was integral to the communities it served. The legacy of these debates, now gathered under the label of “New Museology”, has expanded at the same rate as it has been depoliticised. This presentation attempts to distil a different legacy out of the writings of Brazilian museologist Odalice Priosti and her elaboration of a “Museology of Liberation”. Drawing from her insights, the presentation asks what resources such an understanding of what a museum should do could offer to contemporary attempts to “decolonize” art institutions.