Metabolic museum

In 2010, Clementine Deliss wins the competition for the post of director of the museum of ethnography of the peoples of the world in Frankfurt. For five years, with the assistance of artists, designers, writers, anthropologists and lawyers, she is trying to initiate shifts within the institutional structure of museums, rethink how the institution works, what are the priorities of its activities - both internal and in relation to visitors. In this essay, Deliss talks about his unique experience in the transformation of the modernist understanding of the museum and its activities.

"Ethnographic museums, which are sometimes called museums of culture of the peoples of the world, are the most striking example of institutions in which the colonial presence is still preserved. My work is devoted to the crisis in this museum segment, but I expect to touch on other types of institutions with collections that are aware of the need to reconsider their format in the 21st century. If museums intend to move forward, fight with routine, stereotypes and conservatism, what model of critical and reflective methodology should be applied in relation to existing, forgotten, stained or unclaimed collections? ”