Discussion on Musealisation of Migration

The Museum of Yugoslavia, in cooperation with the Austrian Cultural Forum, is organizing a discussion On the Musealisation of Migration with museum workers from Austria and Serbia on Friday, April 26 at 1 p.m.

For a decade, the Museum of Yugoslavia has been dealing with the musealisation of migration through projects concerning guest workers. In 2016, the exhibition Yugo, my Yugo – Gastarbeiter Stories was realized in Belgrade, and additional research resulted in the exhibition of Gastarbeiter Stories – On the other side of the Pliva in Sarajevo in 2023 in cooperation with the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Further, in 2019, the Museum of Yugoslavia hosted the exhibition The 1990s: Dictionary of Migration. All these projects have opened new questions regarding the challenges we face in the process of musealisation of the phenomenon of migration.

In the discussion, we shall examine how to preserve and how to interpret the history of people on the move. How could experiences of professionals, scholars and activists from Vienna be relevant for the domestic museum scene? What are the experiences of placing this important and hot topic, relevant to both Balkan and Western European societies, within the institutional framework and initiating the process of musealisation? Specifically, how could the experience from Austria be of use to local museums, and vice versa?

The topic of this conversation raises issues of key importance for heritage institutions: from conceptual and ethical to organizational and practical ones. 

Participants of the program:

Ljubomir Bratić, philosopher, social worker, curator, MUSMIG (Museum of Migration)

Elena Messner, University of Vienna (Department of Slavic Studies), coordinator, MUSMIG (Museum of Migration)

Matthias Beitl, director, Volkskundemuseum Wien (The Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art)

Eva Meran, Head of Education Department, Haus der Geschichte Österreich (House of Austrian History)

Elma Hodžić, curator, Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The discussion will be conducted solely in English and will be moderated by Aleksandra Momčilović Jovanović, senior curator of the Museum of Yugoslavia.

After the discussion, we invite the guests to walk through our core exhibition Museum Laboratory where we will hear more about the Sample Hall an artistic intervention by Jelena Micić, a Vienna-based artist from Serbia and artistic director of Wienwoche, who in her creative work problematizes immigration issues.

The entrance is free of charge!