Andrea Delaplace

Since the first manifestations of its genre, art historical texts try to understand the artistic processes of creativity as a process of migration; inventions are understood as mobile processes. The development of the figure of an artist or of a style can be seen as a complex process of migrating individuals or concepts. Migration has also been understood through its historical, political and socio-economic aspects. In addition to this, it has been a fundamental aspect of the human experience since the beginning of the Modern Age, i.e., since the times of the circumnavigation of the world, which provoked displacements of large population groups across all the continents. Even before the creation of art history as a scholarly discipline in the 19th century, art and culture have been construed through the exchange of objects, concepts and practices among a variety of territories and societies around the globe, not only between Europe and their colonies and vice versa, but also between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula or India, or Asia and the Americas. European mass emigration to the Americas, that started in the 19th century and continued throughout the 20th century as a forced migration related to the two World Wars and the many other violent conflicts around the globe, reaches an unprecedented level in the 21st century, when humankind faces new challenges brought about by different forms of transit of peoples, ideas and images.

The Fall 2023 CAMOC Review is dedicated to museums in North America and especially NYC museums as CAMOC's annual conference took place in October 2023 at the Museum of the City of New York. In this issue you will find articles about the Tenement Museum, the Centre des Mémoires Montréalaises and the Museum of the City of New York and many more interesting articles about city museums and CAMOC's activities.

As co-editor of the CAMOC Review, alongside Yvonne A. Mazurek, it is a pleasure to share the Spring-Summer 2023 issue. It explores:

AMSTERDAM MUSEUM
KALAMAJA MUSEUM
MUSEU DO CAFÉ
SICILIAN HERITAGE
REFLECTIONS FROM ICOM PRAGUE 2022
CALL FOR PAPERS
CAMOC 2023 Annual Conference New York City, 16–18 October 2023, etc.

How are city museums integrating migration history as part of the “cities’ tale”? That’s the question I had in mind while writing this paper. It is a central question in our contemporary societies as more and more people are living outside their country of origin.1 Migration history does not need to be exclusive of migration museums – a lot of other museums, including city museums, are already incorporating migration history and memory into their narratives (whether in permanent or temporary exhibitions). By doing so, these exhibitions become more inclusive and multivocal, thus adding a more interdisciplinary approach to the history of the cities. Historians, anthropologists, architects and artists all can contribute to creating this multicultural approach in telling the city’s history.

On 12 May 2022, MUHBA, Barcelona History Museum, organised a workshop dedicated to social housing and immigration in the city. After the Second World War, the need to respond to the growth of European cities led to an unprecedented expansion of a residential building model for the popular classes derived from the postulates of the CIAM.1 In this context, however, the answers have been much more variable than it seems at first glance, and ranged between renting and owning homes, between facilities concentrated within the neighborhood or those scattered, between residential estates near the city or further away. This diversity within an apparent formal unity has led to highly unequal medium- and long-term results.The seminar addressed examples in Paris, with a museum of a new generation about this theme, and in Barcelona, where MUHBA has also been working on how to present the subject in-depth.

Paris has two spaces dedicated to its history and urban development: a city museum called Musée Carnavalet (which closed temporarily in  2016 for renovations and reopened recently, in spring 2021), and a centre dedicated to the history of architecture and urbanism called Pavillon de l’Arsenal. Together they offer an interesting overview of the “city of  lights”: the first one brings a historical perspective by telling the history of Paris from prehistoric times to the present day and the second presents urban challenges and transformations of Paris through time. It’s interesting to compare the two to see what we can learn and how the different approaches can be put into perspective, bringing a richer insight into the complexity of a city’s history, identity and architecture.

RÉSUMÉ En tant qu’institutions mémorielles, les musées jouent un grand rôle dans la construction identitaire. Les représentations du passé et du patrimoine culturel local sont essentielles pour le développement de l’identité nationale ou régionale. La transformation d’anciennes installations qui accueillaient les immigrés - comme Ellis Island à New York - dans des sites mémoriels (lieux de mémoire) qui mettent en scène leurs histoires. Grâce à cette patrimonialisation des mémoires d’immigrés, un nouveau discours sur l’immigration et l’identité se met en place: les mémoires souvent oubliées - un oubli volontaire parfois - trouvent leur place dans les musées et permettent de créer un récit narratif sur l’immigration à partir de récits personnels. Pourtant, la mise en musée de l’histoire de l’immigration reste un défi dans le paysage muséal international. Ainsi, plusieurs questions se posent: En quoi consiste le patrimoine de l’immigration? Comment mettre en musée l’immigration? Les te...

"During the fourth and the fifth webinar, the Babel Tower hosted Obay Al Bitar and Andrea Delaplace. Al Bitar is an art historian and a museologist. He started recalling the book of Nina Simon (2010), The Participatory Museum, and gave the example of the Migration Museum in Brussels. It is a new museum that opened at the end of 2019 created by a non-profit organisation. This museum offers a permanent place for the stories of the first generation of immigrants, with a collection that is constantly renewed, every six or eight months, with a participatory approach. Then, Delaplace – PhD in Museum studies and heritage – presented her dissertation whose goals is to highlight the representation of immigration in permanent exhibitions, through the analysis of three museums of history dedicated to immigration: the Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York, the National Museum of the History of Immigration in Paris, and the Museum of Immigration in São Paulo, Brazil. She focused on the third one, pointing out the importance to ask how do spaces of representation stage the history of immigration. It is not only a matter of communities that share their personal story and their personal objects, but also how the objects of memory are presented in these exhibitions alongside with the local, national and international history." Giusy Papparlad

"Al Bitar is an art historian and a museologist. He started recalling the book of Nina Simon (2010), The Participatory Museum, and gave the example of the Migration Museum in Brussels. It is a new museum that opened at the end of 2019 created by a non-profit organisation. This museum offers a permanent place for the stories of the first generation of immigrants, with a collection that is constantly renewed, every six or eight months, with a participatory approach. Then, Delaplace – PhD in Museum studies and heritage – presented her dissertation whose goals is to highlight the representation of immigration in permanent exhibitions, through the analysis of three museums of history dedicated to immigration: the Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York, the National Museum of the History of Immigration in Paris, and the Museum of Immigration in São Paulo, Brazil. She focused on the third one, pointing out the importance to ask how do spaces of representation stage the history of immigration. It is not only a matter of communities that share their personal story and their personal objects, but also how the objects of memory are presented in these exhibitions alongside with the local, national and international history. Still remaining in São Paulo, during the fifth webinar the Babel Tower hosted Gabriela Aidar, who coordinates the Inclusive Educational Programs at the Education Department of the Pinacoteca de São Paulo. Aidar discussed some challenges and opportunities related with developing socially engaged practices in traditional museums through the experience of the Pinacoteca. She presented the example of the social educational practices that the Education Department has carried out with groups of homeless people, with incarcerated people, with schools, and with fragile people carrying physical and mental disabilities. Aidar pointed out how activating inclusive museological practices in traditional institutions is a challenge due to the rigid organisational structures, logics of operation and power within the more traditional museums, but it is worthwhile to try as a matter of social justice." Giusy Pappalard

Lors de l’edition de 2015 du festival Visa pour l’image (Perpignan), la Fondation Carmignac a decerne le 6eme Prix Carmignac du photojournalisme a Christophe Gin, photographe francais ne en 1965[1]. Le theme de cette annee s’interessait aux territoires a l’ecart de l’actualite, en particulier aux zones devenues de non-droit[2] c’est a dire sujettes a des deregulations sociales, economiques et politiques, alors que l’Etat n’arrive plus a maintenir son autorite. Christophe Gin a propose une ser...

Peggy Levitt, professeure de sociologie a Wellesley College, entend donner a voir l’equi­libre subtil qui se joue aujourd’hui dans les musees, entre nationalisme et cosmopolitisme, dans un ouvrage de synthese issu d’une en­quete internationale. Elle part du constat d’un monde en mouvement : aujourd’hui, le nombre de personnes qui habitent dans un pays different de leur patrie d’origine depasse les deux cent vingt millions. Une des consequences en est l’apparition de mecanismes permettant a ce...

La FUNDACION MAPFRE a Madrid presente l’exposition retrospective « Nationalite incertaine », du 10 au 29 novembre 2015, la plus complete jusqu'a ce jour, consacree au photographe tcheque Josef Koudelka. Naturalise francais en 1987, Josef Koudelka (1938) est membre depuis plus de quarante ans de l'agence Magnum Photos. Ingenieur de profession, il s’interesse a la photographie depuis tres jeune mais ce n’est qu’a partir de 1967 qu’il decide de se dedier a temps plein a la photographie. Il devie...

Globalization and the emergence of political issues in the European Union have propelled the topic of immigration into the center of the current political climate. In this contemporary context, museums that are focused on immigration are gaining more importance due to the impetus for preserving and providing visibility for the heritage of immigrants. In Paris during October 2007 the Cite nationale de l'Histoire de l'Immigration (CNHI) opened its doors but in 2013 it changed its name to Musee de l'histoire de l'immigration (MHI). The museum presents a historical and cultural approach to immigration as well as displaying contemporary works of art that deal with the theme of immigration. In this paper we will analyze how this museum is an attempt to integrate the History of immigration as a national heritage.

The objective of this article is to discuss, from a wide perspective, how museums are dealing with contemporary themes such as migration, decolonial initiatives and the COVID-19 pandemic. What is the role of museums in relation to these issues, and
what approaches are they taking? Our societies are experiencing a profound period of change that allow us to think deeply about transformations we would like to see in the museum field.

Due  to  the  refugee  crisis,  immigration  museums  are  gaining  space in the contemporary discussions on heritage and social inclusion. These museums increasingly believe that you empower immigrants by remembering and redeeming their memories, which have often been absent from national narratives. Henceforth, the transformation of old facilities that used to receive and accommodate immigrants – such as Ellis Island in New York – into sites that revive their histories.

This shows a transformation in attitude towards immigration: changing migrants’ relationship with their identity, from overseen and transitory memories to recognition and empowerment.

However, the integration of migration history continues to be a challenge within museum spaces and narratives even though it is an increasingly notable feature of the international museum landscape.

Thus, it raises a lot of questions such as: What is an immigration heritage? How to exhibit immigration? Do attempts at representing migrants mirror a national paradigm?

Avec la mondialisation et l’émergence de nouvelles politiques d’immigration dans la Communauté européenne, la question des migrations est présente au centre du monde politique d’aujourd’hui. Et c’est dans ce contexte historique de pays d’immigration ou d’émigration que se met en place et s’organise l’étude des musées sur l’immigration qui appartiennent à la catégorie des musées d’histoire et de société. En France, la Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration, qui a ouvert ses portes en octobre 2007, se distingue dans ce contexte mondial par l’originalité de son projet et les discussions qu’il a suscitées dans divers domaines (du milieu académique aux réseaux d’associations qui s’occupent des immigrés en France). Le musée présente au public une approche historique et culturelle de l’immigration ainsi que des œuvres d’art contemporain traitant du sujet. Le présent article s’attache à montrer la façon dont ce musée constitue une tentative de reconnaître le patrimoine de l›immigration comme un patrimoine national.