ICOM UK Student and Emerging Professionals online event – New Museology in China: Three Independent Exhibitions

Museum Talk

New Museology in China: Three Independent Exhibitions

The term “New Museology” refers to a shift in the critical discourses in curatorial practices and museum management across the globe. It is also the guiding principle behind a small exhibition brand “Not Too Important, Yet”, based in Beijing China, pushing boundaries of exhibition-making in the urban and digital space. Projects include “Our Home” (2021, Beijing, China) an exhibition held in the apartment where the curator lived himself“Our Beijing 2008”(2022, Beijing, China ) an online video exhibition of ordinary people looking for their personality memory and heritage, and “Us”(2023, Beijing, China) an exhibition of 64 different items provided by ordinary people of different ages and backgrounds.

The person behind the brand and these exhibitions is the upcoming curator Xi Muliang. In his talk, he will share his experience working on these different case studies, discuss the limited conditions he is working under and what role his own creative process plays in it. Although these exhibitions cannot represent the mainstream of the Chinese museum industry, Muliang will give us a brief introduction to the cultural landscape in China and highlight how his curatorial work is committed to change, embracing the “New Museology” discourse.

Speaker: Xi Muliang @ Not too Important, Yet 还没太重要

Born and living in Beijing, China, he is a curator and PhD candidate at the School of Archeology and Museology of Peking University. He founded the new media “Dig What” (挖啥呢) an online platform for archaeology and museology collaboration. His research interests are the relationships between archaeology, cultural heritages and contemporary society, committed to opening up people’s “imagination of archaeology and cultural heritages”. In 2020 he established the exhibition brand “Not too Important, Yet” following “New Museology” approaches, focusing on the history around us and contemporary heritage. Recent curatorial work includes “Our Home”(2021, Beijing, China), the online exhibition “Our Beijing 2008”(2022, Beijing, China) and the exhibition “Us”(2023, Beijing, China).

Call for Speakers

To support the ICOM’s engagement with younger generations, we welcome all people, regardless of their personal fields, to create this community together, including different voices, sharing research progress and developing cooperative projects. Museum Talks embraces a broad range of audiences from different backgrounds. The purpose of this project is to create a friendly environment for conversations. The speakers’ role in our events is pivotal to bringing a focused topic, provoking thoughts and bridging ideas from different professionals with focused practices. If you are interested in participating in the Museum Talks project,

Contact

Geonyoung Kim: gyk20@cam.ac.uk

Katharina Bock: K.Bock@qub.ac.uk

Huaiyuan Ren: hr262@kent.ac.uk