Muziejus ir genius loci: sąveikos įvairovė

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Vietos dvasia; Genius loci; Muzeologija.

ENThe metaphor of genius loci defines what is living and dynamic, and functions as part of the world inhabited by a certain group. It would seem that the nature of a museum is of an opposite character. The objects that end in a museum lose their link with the primary and dynamic context, with 'living' memory, and are distanced from the world for which they were created. And yet the constructive nature of the spirit of the place makes it possible to speak about the interaction between a museum and genius loci. It is not a spontaneoulsy arising feeling or understanding, but a phenomenon created and maintained by material and immaterial elements, in which its creators and 'consumers' play an important role. In this case a museum could be seen as one of the spaces of creation, nurture and perception of the spirit of the place. The paper highlights diverse links between a museum and genius loci and attempts to answer the following questions: is the spirit of the place created and maintained in Lithuanian museums? Are the methods of traditional museology capable of assuming the role of the nurturer of the spirit of the place? Are the methods of the institutions, which have adopted such practices of Western museums as eco-museum, neighbourhood or regional museum, and the like, more favourable for this purpose? The provided examples of good practice' better represent traditional museology than the modern approaches.The Lithuanian examples, which are presented in a greater detail, lack the complex exposures of reality, inter-disciplinarity, or a wider engagement of local communities in museum activities. Also, the focus of these museum on the present time manifests through the display of continuity (what we have of value today has come to us from the past) or interruption (we have lost a lot), and not through the development of modern society with a critical attitude to and overcoming of its sores and vices as is shown by the activities of eco-museums, neighbourhood, regional, and other communal museums in the West. The popular interpretations in Lithuania are those of valuable past and declining present, therefore the spirit of the place is more linked to the dimension of the past rather than that of the present. It should be noted that the existing interpretation of the interaction between a museum and genius loci refers to just one constituent part of these relations - museums which present the representations of the uniqueness of a place as spaces of creation, nurturing and dispersion of the spirit of the place. Such questions as how the museum concept of genius loci is decoded in the consciousness of the visitor, how the visitor perceives and recreates it, or inserts (or rejects) it in his or her own feeling of the place have not been addressed here. These are the issues awaiting sociological research: their analysis would reveal the actual, not potential, role of a museum as a constituent part of the spirit of the place. [From the publication]