At 21:05 28/04/98 +0100, you wrote:
>Sorry, I am not a museum specialist but a multimedia-producer.
>
>> There is a record on the 'Ecomusée de la Région Fourmies Trélon' at
>> http://eur-heritage.com, where they explain to some extend the aims and the
>> contect of an ecomuseum.
>Actually there is no information concerning ecomuseums in this site ...
>
There is indeed an internal link that isn't working yet... sorry
I give you hereby part of the (french - sorry, most of ecomuseum literature
is still in french) text on ecomuseums by André Desvallées, published in
'Ecomusées en France. Premières rencontres nationales des Ecomusées'
(Grenoble, 1987, pp. 51-52: I think this book is still available at the
address of the federation of french ecomuseums) - or if you like I'll send
a copy of this text by s-mail to your address:
"a) Ce qui distingue _un_musée_d'identité_ (les notions de temps et
d'espace + celles du miroir), d'un autre musée, c'est la notion du
_territoire_. La racine _eco_, il ne faut pas l'oublier, exprime à la fois
l'ecologie du _milieu_naturel_ et l'écologie du _milieu_social_.
""C'est un miroir où cette population se regarde, pour s'y reconnaître, où
elle recherche l'explication du territoire auquel elle est attachée, jointe
à celle des populations qui l'ont précédée, dans la discontinuité ou la
continuité des générations. Un miroir que cette population tend à ses
hôtes, pour s'en faire mieux comprendre, dans le respect de son travail, de
ses comportements, de son intimité.
""C'est un musée de l'homme et de la nature. L'homme y est interprété dans
son milieu naturel. La nature l'est dans sa sauvegarde, mais telle aussi
que la société traditionnelle et la société industrielle l'ont adaptée à
leur usage. (Définition, 10.12.1976)""
(...)
"b) Ce qui distingue un écomusée de n'importe quel autre musée, c'est la
notion de _participation_:
""un écomusée, c'est une institution qu'un pouvoir et une population
conçoivent, fabriquent et exploitent ensemble. Ce pouvoir, avec les
experts,les facilités, les ressources qu'il fournit. Cette population, avec
la participation de ses forces vives de toutes générations, selon ses
aspirations, ses savoirs, ses facultés d'approche. (Définition, 10.12.1976)""
(...)
"Si on veut être rigoureux, on ne peut:
1) que demander un changement de titre, ou une réorientation, à ceux qui
visent à couvrir une matière ou une technique et non pas à une territoire.
2) et que s'interroger pour savoir si sont bien des écomusées - et tirer
les conséquences qui s'imposent - ceux qui ne sont constitués que d'un
bâtiment et d'un personnel fixe, sans que la population soit autre chose
que clients"
(...)
"Il ne suffit pas toutefois de titrer sur un territoire pour que celui-ci
devienne l'axe de l'opération et que sa population en soit l'acteur
principal. Car il y a aussi ceux qui trichent un peu et se parent du titre
d'Ecomusée tout en se contentant d'animer une maison de pays, un petit
musée d'identité, *un musée de plein air*, un musée de l'écologie où la
simple conservation d'un bâtiment traditionnel."
I apologize for those who aren't familiar with the french language, but the
idea of ecomuseum was born in France in the late sixties, and developed
much on the waves of 1968-1969, certainly in France.
It's clear that the *real* participation of local/regional population (not
only as 'volunteers' or 'coolies') is fundamental in the concept of
ecomuseums. Population has to be involved right from the start to the final
management of the ecomuseum - in fact it even should be 'the' population
that conceives the ecomuseum.
I agree that very few "ecomuseums" are obedient to this starting-point and
that in most so-called "ecomuseums" the involvement of population has been
reduced, is limited or absent.
Another important part of the ecomuseum concept - as I remember from the
very stimulating and interesting conferences and meetings that were held in
the mid 1970's, for axample at the Ecomusée at Le Creusot - was the aim to
keep original buildings, fittings and fixtures in their original
surroundings. I remember an important dispute between ecomuseum people and
open air museum people (I think it was in 1976) about moving buildings and
bringing these together in an "open air ecomuseum". This was not thought to
be the right solution, as the link between the original 'natural'
environment thus was broken (and by 'natural' was meant not only 'nature'
but also the social, economic, political, etc. environment). There was
heavy resistance against against what was called 'the zoo of buildings and
artifacts'.
The ecomuseum was an enormous valuable concept of the late 60s, but for
different reasons (not at least the problems of financing and managing
them), and because of the attraction of the term "ecomuseum" in itself, I
fear that actually most of the "ecomuseums" have little to see with the
original ideology as formulated by G.H. Rivières, H. de Varine, A.
Desvallées, and many other - nor with the definitions that were approved
during the ecomuseum conferences of 1976, 1977 and 1979.
Good examples of theory and practice of ecomuseums are still the ecomuseums
of Le Creusot, and of Fourmies-Trélon.
But they also were at the craddle of the idea of ecomuseum.
Greetings,
Adriaan Linters
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Adriaan LINTERS
scientific director
Conservare nv The European Heritage Forum
Vlamingstraat 4
B-8560 Wevelgem
Flanders - Belgium
tel.(+32)56.253373
fax (+32)56.417636
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