FRArt The last archive. Performing the lost heritage of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro. — introduction
- has as creator Carolina Bonfim
- type: Article
- ref: DOC.2021.167
- Date begin: December 1 2021
This project, which is a continuation of my previous research, stems from the desire to contribute, from an artistic perspective, to safeguard the traces of the collection that was destroyed in the fire at the The National Museum of Brazil, in 2018. In order to answer the question « How could a person who has never been to this museum - like me - gain access to a heritage that no longer exists? », the goal of this project is to create an inventory of object traces based on the narrative of the bodily experience, as experienced by by scientists, historians, curators, restorers, anthropologists, archivists, the visiting public, the maintenance, security and rescue personnel who have handled, transported, preserved, watched, cleaned, looked at and spent time with one of the millions of objects in this museum's collection in Rio de Janeiro. Considering that the body as a repository of knowlegde, even as a place of heritage, and as a vehicle capable of interlinking past, present and future, this research will focus on : (1) bringing out objects from the museum's collection by interviewing people who have been in contact with at least one object in the museum; (2) finding mechanisms to transform the material of the interviews (stories, gestures, sounds) into an artistic work; (3) as well as performing an artistic creation through discursive production, articulated with the conceptual and methodological tools of anthropology, history and philosophy, in connection with the topics related to this project (immaterial heritage and culture, body memory and transmission).