What are the tasks facing ethnographic collections today and how can the results be presented in exhibitions in an up-to-date manner?
MúzeumCafé 31.
Zoltán Fejős, ethnographer, director of the Museum of Ethnography: The collections are varied, due partly to the type of institute and partly as a result of the history of scholarship and its legacy. There are also changes in the content of collections and the type of analysis, interpretation and display. In Hungary the focus has historically been on collecting and preserving what is of value in traditional peasant and folk culture. Today ethnographic museology is no longer confined to the documentation of traditional society and the modernisation of culture.
Miklós Cseri, ethnographer, director of the Open-Air Ethnographic Museum: Ever since the establishment of the Stockholm Skansen in 1891, similar open-air museums have departed from the traditional methodology of ethnographic museology. They haven’t collected the usual items of the peasant world, but rather unique objects relating to individuals or defining their style of life.
Márta Magyari, ethnographic researcher, museologist, head of the ethnographic collection at the Déri Museum in Debrecen: Ethnographic collections at the start of the 21st century have reached the point where research into their beginnings, development and structure have become a pressing task, along with analysing what has determined the direction of collecting.
Anna Keszeg, philosopher, literary historian, lecturer at the Babeş–Bolyai University (Cluj) and at the Partium Christian University (Oradea): At a time of Sekler regional ‘branding’, ethnographic collections intensively become integrated into tourism relating to Sekler Land. State-of-the-art exhibitions are held in the museums, a museum education specialist works in nearly all the Sekler collections and marketing is done by young people.