Title: From the ideal to the spectacular : Hellenic antiquity and the discourse of authenticity
Variant title:
- Od ideálního k velkolepému : řecký starověk a problematika autenticity
Source document: Museologica Brunensia. 2019, vol. 8, iss. 2, pp. 2-14
Extent
2-14
-
ISSN1805-4722 (print)2464-5362 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/MuB2019-2-1
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/141871
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 International
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
In countries like Greece, where the material remains of the past play a predominant role in fostering a unifying national identity, the inspirational moment is antiquity. The aura of the authentic enlivens the discussion by fostering strong epistemological and political idioms vis-à-vis heritage applications. The present article argues that the quest for authenticity in Hellenic heritage cuts through different styles, aesthetic approaches and technological means in order to put forth powerful stereotypes which can be traced both in speech and in exhibition contexts and affect the contemporary reception of material remnants. In this view, two generically distinct case-studies are discussed: The Parthenon marbles as presented in the speech of the then Minister of Culture, Antonios Samaras, at the Opening Ceremony of the New Acropolis Museum in 2009, and Digital Miletus, a by now classical virtual reality application featuring the reconstruction of the ancient city of Miletus, at the Foundation of the Hellenic World in Athens around the millennium. While the above examples seem initially opposing in terms of the kind of authenticity they invoke, they underline the same core notion, namely the identification of truths and values which travel, as in a time capsule, inside the ancient remnants. If heritage is to be critically assessed we need to move beyond the notion of finite contexts and unbreakable continuities and understand heritage representations more reflexively. We need to rethink both form and content because both carry argumentation and are not just objective, neutral means for entertainment and instruction.
V zemích jako je Řecko, kde hmotné pozůstatky minulosti sehrávají klíčovou úlohu jednotícího činitele v budování národní identity, je hlavním inspiračním zdrojem období antiky. Fluidum autentičnosti oživuje diskusi podporováním hluboce zakořeněných gnozeologických a politických stereotypů tváří v tvář praktické ochraně kulturního dědictví. Autorka v článku uvádí, že při hledání autenticity starořeckých památek se uplatňují různé styly, estetické přístupy i technologie s cílem vytvářet silné a vlivné stereotypy, které je možné vysledovat jak ve veřejném mluveném projevu tak ve výstavnictví a které významnou měrou ovlivňují současné vnímání hmotného kulturního dědictví. Předmětem diskuse jsou v této souvislosti dvě případové studie o různých tématech: Parthenon marbles (Mramory z Parthenónu), prezentovaná v rámci proslovu bývalého ministra kultury Antonia Samarase při slavnostním otevření Nového muzea Akropole v roce 2009, a Digital Miletus (Digitální Milét), klasická virtuální aplikace zobrazující rekonstrukci starověkého města Milétu, prezentovaná na přelomu tisíciletí v athénské nadaci Foundation of the Hellenic World. Uvedené příklady se na první pohled zdají být ve vzájemném protikladu vzhledem k typu autenticity, na niž se odvolávají. Oba však sledují stejný cíl, a sice identifikaci skutečností a hodnot, jež jsou obsaženy ve starověkých památkách a cestují časem společně s nimi. Pokud chceme přistupovat ke kulturnímu dědictví kritickým způsobem, musíme nahlížet za hranice neměnných souvislostí a neporušitelných kontinuit a vnímat projevy kulturního dědictví pružněji. Musíme přehodnotit jak jejich formu tak i obsah, protože obě tyto kategorie v sobě skrývají prvky argumentace a nejsou pouze objektivními, neutrálními prostředky sloužícími k zábavě a poučení.
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[3] BARTHES, Roland. The discourse of history. In SHAFFER, E. S. (ed.). Comparative Criticism: A Yearbook, vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981 [1967], pp. 3–20. Translated with an introduction by Stephen Bann.
[4] BERNSTEIN, Basil. Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity. Theory, Research, Critique. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2000. ISBN 978-0-8476-9576-8.
[5] BOLTER, David Jay and Richard GRUSIN (eds.). Remediation. Understanding New Media. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0-262-26898-1.
[6] Digital Heritage 2018 – 3rd International Congress & Expo. In Digital Meets Culture [online]. 8 March 2018 [accessed 2019-07-19]. Available from www: https://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/digital-heritage-2018-3rd-international-congress-expo/.
[7] ECO, Umberto. Travels in Hyperreality. London: Pan Books, 1986. ISBN 978-0-330-29667-0.
[8] FORTE, Maurizio. About Virtual Archaeology. Disorders, Cognitive Interaction and Virtuality. In BARCELO, Juan A. (ed.) et al. Virtual Reality in Archaeology. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2000, pp. 247–259. BAR International Series 843. ISBN 978-1-84171-047-1.
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[10] GREENHALGH, Paul. The Modern Ideal. The Rise and Collapse of Idealism in the Visual Arts from the enlightenment to postmodernism. London: V&A Publications, 2005. ISBN 978-1-85177-469-2.
[11] HAMILAKIS, Yannis. The Nation and its Ruins. Antiquity, Archaeology, and National Imagination in Greece. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-19-957290-8.
[12] HEIN, Hilde. The Museum in Transition. A philosophical perspective. Washington: Smithsonian University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-1-56098-396-5.
[13] Hellenic Cultural Heritage through Immersive Virtual Archaeology. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia, Ogahi, Japan, 3–6 October 2000. 2000, pp. 57–64.
[14] HOBSBAWM, Eric and Terence RANGER. The invention of tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. ISBN 978-0-521-24645-3.
[15] HVIID JAKOBSEN, Michael. The Search for Sociological Truth. A History of the Rise and Fall of the Reign of Positivism in the Social Sciences. Sociology Working Paper, 1999, no. 1.
[16] JAY, Martin. Downcast eyes. The Denigration of Vision. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. ISBN 978-0-520-08885-6.
[17] Jorvik Viking Centre [online]. [accessed 2019-07-14]. Available from www: https://www.jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk/about/#CmjOhKhCxCKEt8bh.99".
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[19] LOWENTHAL, David. The Past as a Foreign Country. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0-521-29480-5.
[20] MCQUIRE, Scott. Visions of Modernity. Representation, Memory, Time and Space in the Age of the Camera. London: Sage Publications, 1998. ISBN 978-0-7619-5301-2.
[21] PANOFSKY, Erwin. Perspective as Symbolic Form. New York: Zone Books, 1977.
[22] PEARCE, Susan. Museums, Objects and Collections: A Cultural Study. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1992. ISBN 978-0-7185-1442-6.
[23] PLANTZOS, Dimitris. Behold the raking geison: the new Acropolis Museum and its context-free archaeologies. Antiquity, 2011, vol. 85, pp. 613–630. | DOI 10.1017/S0003598X00068009
[24] PLANTZOS, Dimitris. I Kivotos kai to Ethnos: ena sxolio gia tin ipodochi tou Neou Mouseiou Akropoleos. Sichrona Themata, 2009, vol. 106, pp. 14–18.
[25] PLANTZOS, Dimitris. Il n'y a pas de horstexte: to Mouseio tis Akropolis kai ta aponera tou idealismou. Tetradia Mouseiologias, 2010, vol. 7, pp. 23–29. ISSN 1790-0980.
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[27] POTTS, Alex. Flesh and the Ideal. Winckelmann and the origins of art history. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. ISBN 978-0-300-05813-0. President's message. In Acropolis Museum [online]. [accessed 2019-11-22]. Available from www: https://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/en/content/organisation.
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[29] SENNETT, Richard. The Fall of Public Man. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1974. ISBN 978-0-393-30879-2.
[30] SPENCER, Hugh A. D. Supercharging the Cultural Engine: Advanced Media at Heritage and Educational Attractions. In DODSWORTH, Clark (ed.). Digital Illusion. New York: ACM Press/Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1998, pp. 489–500. ISBN 978-0-201-84780-2.
[31] TZORTZAKI, Delia. Myth and the Ideal in 20th century Exhibitions of Classical Art. In TYLER, Jo Smith and Dimitris PLANTZOS. A Companion to Greek Art. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2012, pp. 667–682. ISBN 978-1-4051-8604-9.
[32] TZORTZAKI, Delia. Plaisio, Morfi, Periehomeno. Politismiki proseggisi mias efarmogis eikonikis pragmatikotitas. In Minutes of the 1st International Conference in Museology: Museology and New Media. University of the Aegean, Mytilini, 2004, pp. 51–63.
[33] TZORTZAKI, Delia. The chronotopes of the Hellenic past. Virtuality, edutainment, ideology. In DAMASKOS, Dimitris and Dimitris PLANTZOS (eds.). A Singular Antiquity: Archaeology and Hellenic Identity in Twentieth-Century Greece. Athens: Benaki Museum, 2008, pp. 141–161. ISBN 978-960-8347-96-0.
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