Publish at October 12 2022 Updated October 12 2022
In a "big" museum such as the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, the Musée de la Civilisation de Québec or, even bigger, the Louvre Museum in Paris, any visitor is taken aback by the abundance of works that are offered to where to begin? In front of which ones to stop? How much How much time to devote to each room?
And yet we are speaking here only of the works on display and not the reserves, infinitely more important. The treasures amassed by museums over time indeed far exceed what each of them is able to show.
More and more museums are providing access to their collections online. This means that thousands or tens of thousands of works that are offered to us, at home. Here again, how to find our way around? How not to How can we be satisfied with looking at what we already know?
The paradox of this abundance is that many visitors to physical or online the paradox is that many visitors to physical or online museums feel they have "already and are eager to visit temporary exhibitions to quench their thirst for novelty. thirst for novelty. Yet, the collections are full of little-known works, with a strong capacity to amaze. But where to put your eyes? How to know where to find the moving detail, the charming attitude, the transparent sky of the twilight?
This is where the scenario of collections comes in.
Museum collections carry an infinite number of stories, which are just waiting to be staged and exploited by the visitors. This scenarization imposes, as in the cinema, connections in space and time in space and time, close-ups on certain details, acceleration and slowing details, acceleration and slowing down. All operations difficult to carry out in the physical space of the museum, but easier to organize online.
And yet, few museums take advantage of their digital space to their digital space to script their collections, to integrate the works into to real narratives. The exceptions are all the more worth noting.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam offers a series of stories grouped under the title "10 things" ("10 things," no French version for the moment). Each story is actually a theme, explored through 10 works, presented in full page. There is little to read, much to look at. So you can savor a story of witches, monsters and ghosts, discover 10 cats hidden in the collections, but also access 10 representations of the history of disability. The immersive effect is real.
But the pieces thus accessible only tell us about themselves. To access and engage with them, one must first engage with the artworks. This seems obvious and yet! Many people do not spontaneously come to explore the online collections of museums. It has indeed been shown that the audiences of virtual museums are the same as those of physical museums physical museums, and that the level of education remains high:
"a (...) survey conducted in 2018 on the cultural practices practices [of the French] already revealed that online visitors were the same as those in situ and that their majority profile remains that of an executive higher education graduate. In fact, if online content can attract more people to the the museum walls, it does not diversify it." in Museums: what business models in the digital age?
To give an air of novelty to the pieces in a
collection, as well as to invite those who are not accustomed to approaching them, the
to invite those who are not accustomed to approaching them, storytelling is a very interesting strategy.
Indeed, the narrative inscribes the works in a history, it gives meaning to what we are going to see.
that we are going to see. In this way, it opens up the works to the everyday, reveals new meanings in them.
Educart, the digital device brought online in 2022 by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, is exemplary in this regard.
On the home page, not a work of art, but spinning planets. Each one bears a name: heart, tomorrow, freedoms, body... which appears on mouseover.
The theme presentation page first offers a text, from which colored words emerge. A click on one of them and here is a work, inscribed on a timeline.
A click on the work, and one accesses an educational sheet. The information associated with the works does not address, as it is too often the case, to those who already know a lot about art history. of art.
The questions that follow this information prove invaluable for learn to observe and analyze a work, well beyond the "I like - I don't like don't".
The works thus incorporated into the tours are surprisingly varied. One moves seamlessly from the portrait of an English nobleman from the 17th century to the interview of a krump dancer. Connections are thus established, which constitute the basis of a renewed, non-hierarchical renewed, non-hierarchical vision of art.
This device for consulting works belonging to the collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has been designed for use in school environment. Each thematic path was in fact co-constructed with a school . But everyone will enjoy getting lost for hours. Because Educart facilitates access to works that are little known, difficult to access or not in the air of time; and above all, it gives works a legitimate place in the place in the reflections on the great contemporary stakes.
Art joins thus joins life, outside the walls, outside the narrow circle of specialists. An initiative from which it is strongly encouraged to draw inspiration!
Illustration: Gabrold, Deposit Photo
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal: https://www.mbam.qc.ca/fr/
Educart: https://educart.ca/fr/
Rijksmuseum: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/fr/visitez
10 things: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/stories/10-things/
Museums: what business models in the digital age? For Eco, 2021
https://www.pourleco.com/consommation/musees-quels-modeles-economiques-lere-numerique
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