OMA*AMO Hermitage 2014 Symposium
5 July, 4:30pm - 6:30pm
The Great Hall
King's College London
Strand
London, WC2R 2LS
In light of the radical expansion of globalized systems, social interests and attending market forces, cultural institutions are at a critical point of (re)definition within the contemporary era. As repositories of cultural histories, creativity, productivity, alliances and invention, Universal museums face particular challenges and hold particular potentials within this scheme. This symposium aims to probe these potentials and complexities within the context of the current (and anticipated) political, economic and cultural moment - posing such questions as: 'what does it mean for the Encyclopedic (or Universal) Museum to be 'universal' today?', 'how has, and will, the role(s) of such museums continue to shift into the 21st century?'. 'how can the layers of history contained within the Encyclopedic Museum become active agents in contemporary developments?', etc.
Such interrogations and discussions are believed to be critical to the understanding of what modernizing roles such institutions might play in the coming decades, and in turn, how their 'modernization’ might then be reconceived in this light.
London and Russia’s vanguard of cultural figures will assemble to hold a series of closed presentation and discussion sessions. This “polyphony of speeches” and comment will comprise the crux of the symposium, the results of which will be publicly presented at the end of the colloquium, followed by a moderated discussion.
This symposium is conceived as the foundational event in a summer series that will culminate with a fall event at the Hermitage, in which key figures will reassemble - this time in Russia - to examine the critical themes, ideas, and discussions of this symposium, specifically in light of the Hermitage museum.
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Posted at 2008/06/06.