Bodies objects rituals

A one-day interdisciplinary workshop

The workshop brought together artists, curators, scholars, and scientists to explore the significance of objects in relation to the body and body rituals addressing issues on the communication of knowledge through exhibitions and museum displays. By looking at artefacts linked to diverse practices (from dance to quilt making), the workshop explores the relation of the body with the environment, the rituals and narratives that surround it.

A primary purpose of the workshop was to create a platform of discussion around the ways we understand, work with, and present the objects of everyday life. What are the different ways we have of conceptualizing artefacts from the past? What are the different intellectual problems in thinking about objects, from the point of view of curatorial, artistic, neurological and anthropological research? How do objects inform our understandings of the rituals of existence and the construction of individual and collective narratives? How do we translate such knowledge within museum practice?

The workshop addressed issues concerning curatorial practice in terms of the communication of cross-disciplinary ideas, modes of display and the perceptions of the visitor that can also be defined as a ritual of interchange between bodies and objects.

It brought together specialists in different fields in an original way fostering exchanges that have continued for some of the participants beyond the workshop.