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ABSTRACT
Migration museums and, in particular, the Museu da Imigração do Estado de São Paulo, represent a variant of the museum of society. By constituting a local heritage dedicated to immigration, the museum develops a participatory approach with communities of immigrant origin, highlighting its memorial character and facilitating the institution’s more inclusive identity. These museums often favour an interdisciplinary approach to the subject These new perspectives challenge museum experts’ and visitors’ own paradigms about the represented group or society. This article puts into perspective the constituent characteristics of immigration museums with those of society museums. The problematization presented in this article was done based on my doctoral thesis with a focus on museum history, archive analysis and interviews.
Notes
1 Contemporary art appears more and more in museums or exhibitions dedicated to the theme of migration. The argument here is that through the artist's gaze we encounter a more subjective point of view regarding the questions of migration, exile and belonging.
2 A network of migration museums was created in 2019 as a way for these museums to collaborate and exchange knowledge on the subject. For more information, check the official website: https://www.sitesofconscience.org/en/migration-museums-network/
3 These museums were based on individuals’ memories and stories from different ethnic groups that migrated to find a new life path in a different country or even continent.
4 The symposium ‘Où se cache l’oubli dans la fabrication du patrimoine?’ was organised with the intention of discussing these subjects.
http://hicsa.univ-paris1.fr/page.php?r=58&id=617&lang=fr&date=2013-06-14
5 Here it is important to highlight that the main objective of the discourse vehiculated by migration museums is that the actual national identity is composed of a multitude of ethnic identities. The concept of multiculturalism (here understood as the presence of, or support for the presence of, several distinct cultural or ethnic groups within a society) is hence deeply connected to these museums.
6 Here we are using the term other because there is a clear separation in between the ‘us’ of a national culture and the ‘other’ that is trying to integrate it. The migrant can be viewed as someone that is other or different than the individual that was born and raised in the same culture. The quality or state of being other or different from the majority is at the heart of the definition of words like alien, étranger, foreign to designate this intricate quality of being other to the mainstream culture.
7 We would like to add the concept of ‘multiterritorialization’ explained by Rogério Haesbaert. He identifies the limitations of the concept of deterritorialization and emphasises the characteristics of territory in the era of globalisation. According to the Brazilian geographer, the idea of ‘multiterritorialization’ more than that of ‘deterritorialization’ would account for the challenges posed by the national territory in the present times. The decline in the role of the state to regulate the case of refugees or migrants who are excluded from the new territory or precariously included in capitalist relations. This perspective assumes that territorial construction is not only a power of national states, but that different social groups, classes or institutions can also configure territories on the basis of their exercise of a material and symbolic control over spaces.
8 Why do we value the need to reproduce that only values the performance of immigrants? The celebratory approach that many migration museums present showing the success stories of many migrants is also criticised because it doesn’t really question the actual status of what being a migrant really means when facing social and economical hardship. It is also important to highlight that this article is presented as a summary article of a doctoral research work where the objective is to highlight the theoretical framework in which this research fits as well as to highlight the points highlighted of the exhibitions on the history of immigration without going into a detailed analysis of these exhibitions. The more detailed analysis of the exhibitions can be read in my doctoral thesis.
9 The term 'heritagization' (patrimonialisation in French) emerged in the late twentieth century, to denote a transformative and historically contingent process, by which historic artefacts and places (lieux de mémoire) turn into objects of display and exhibition with an effect in the present: the creation and recreation of cultural and historical meaning and identity. This is done by different actors and at different periods of time. Considering ‘heritage as a process’ or heritage as an ‘intangible event’, the cultural heritage discourse shifts from what heritage is to what heritage does and brings to the different communities to which it belongs.
10 The theme of the latest ICOM general Conference in Prague was dedicated to ‘The Power of Museums’. Many museum professionals today highlight that museums are not neutral and they play an important role as centre of power and institutional legitimation.
11 Here I would like to mention the MeLa Project conducted from 2011 to 2015 (https://www.mela-project.polimi.it/) and the Migration cities Project by ICOM-CAMOC from 2017 to 2019 (http://www.migrationcities.net/resources/show/27).
12 The Centre d’Histoire de Montréal presented a permanent exhibition on the history of Montreal, integrating the history of immigrants with that of the city through the centuries. Today, the museum is closed and will reopen in 2022 with a new permanent exhibition. The name change is also significant of the place given to memories and personal stories in museum discourse. The Centre des Mémoires Montréalaises is engaged in a participatory process to create a polyphonic discourse on immigration and the city. The travelling temporary exhibition dedicated to the memories of immigration entitled ‘Windows on immigration’ (2019-2020) is also one of the examples of the projects developed by the museum in a participatory manner with local communities. These initiatives therefore give the right to the city to all those who have made Montreal their hometown.
For more information:
http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=8757,97305573&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
13 It is possible to find in the archives of the museum several letters from immigrants where the description of the poor working conditions and the impossibility of paying their debts to the owners of coffee plantations is alarming.
14 For more information on this we recommend reading of the master’s dissertation of Kátia Cristina Petri: http://livros01.livrosgratis.com.br/cp151308.pdf and the following article in journal of the official archives of São Paulo: http://www.historica.arquivoestado.sp.gov.br/materias/anteriores/edicao25/materia02/
15 The Hospedaria 130 exhibition, presented in 2017, highlighted this conflicting nature of the building's history and some of the actual group of migrants that passed through it but are ignored in the general literature of the building. For more information : https://museudaimigracao.org.br/exposicoes/temporarias/hospedaria-130 and http://museudaimigracao.org.br/blog/bastidores/hospedaria-130-roteiro-educativos
16 The same is the case for the building at Ellis Island, New York. It also served as a detention centre for political prisoners, but this part of its history is very little developed.
17 Refers to the processes and dynamics of creating and recreating cultural and historical meanings and identities. This can be done by several actors and agents, at different scales.
18 The concept of lieu de mémoire (place of memory or memorial site) is a historical concept highlighted by the book Les Lieux de Mémoire, published under the direction of Pierre Nora between 1984 and 1992.
19 The Ellis Island main building that hosts today the migration museum, served not only as an official processing centre but also as a detention centre for migrants that were not allowed entry in the United-States (until they got the boat back to their original destination) but also for political prisoners. It is important to highlight that the buildings where the hospital and quarantine centre of the processing facilities in the island were never restored and are still in ruins. In 2015, French contemporary artist JR made an art installation with photographs and documents from the museum archives and created a short film called Ellis that was filmed in these abandoned facilities.
20 They published a series of report available on their website: https://museudaimigracao.org.br/blog/conhecendo-o-acervo/30-anos-do-mi-introducao
21 I would like to highlight here the work done by the research department of the museum from 2012 to 2021. The exhibition Hospedaria 130 was intended to bring this deeper perspective on the different actors and conflicts involved in the history of the building (from its creation to the patrimonialization process): https://museudaimigracao.org.br/exposicoes/temporarias/hospedaria-130
22 Patrimoine et immigration : Ellis Island Immigration Museum, Museu da Imigração et Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration – le rôle du musée comme médiateur dans la construction de l'identité (1980-2020). https://www.theses.fr/2020PA01H065
23 It is important to note here that as soon as the Hospedaria do Imigrante closed in 1978, unofficial projects were developed for the creation of a museum dedicated to the history of immigration. A first exhibition on the subject will be presented from 1986 but it will only be in the decade of 1990 that a real museum creation project will be implemented by the State of São Paulo.
24 The building was in need of major restoration work as well as an update of the security settings and the spaces for the preservation of the collections.
25 In São Paulo, public museum institutions are managed by social organisations (SO). The latter consist of cultural organisations that send projects to the Secretariat of Culture of the São Paulo State Government. If one of the projects is approved, the OS signs a contract for a given period, which can be renewed at the end of this period.
26 The Festa do Imigrante, which takes place every year at the end of May or the beginning of June, brings together all the different communities of immigrant origin in São Paulo (Italians, Poles, Russians, Portuguese, Bolivians, Japanese, etc.). It is a celebratory moment (certainly folkloric) but which remains important since it maintains this direct link with the various immigrant communities who come to present their gastronomy, traditional dances and music, etc. It’s a big hit with museum visitors too.
27 For more information, please check the museum’s website: https://www.saopaulo.sp.gov.br/spnoticias/na-imprensa/memorial-do-imigrante-guarda-as-raizes-da-cidade-cosmopolita/
28 Exhibitions such as Direitos migrantes: nenhum a menos (2016) or Costurando Dignidade (2019) among others are examples of the museum's desire to talk about the issues of contemporary migrant rights in São Paulo: https://museudaimigracao.org.br/exposicoes/temporarias/direitos-migrantes-nenhum-a-menos
29 The Brás and Mooca neighbourhoods, where the museum is located, are places in the city that have been the scene of major transformations and important social movements: the emergence of industry and the first demonstrations of unionised workers. These are also areas strongly marked by Italian immigration, and internal migration from the northeast of the country. The museum is thus in dialogue with the society in which it is inserted and, like other museums of society, intends to establish a direct exchange with the different communities and groups that make it up.
30 Renata Motta's contribution during her management of the Secretaria da Cultura, from 2011 to 2016, had a significant impact on local cultural policies in Sao Paulo. From 2011 to 2016 she worked in the Museum Area of the Department of Culture of the State of São Paulo, as Technical Director of the State Museum System (SISEM-SP) and Coordinator of the Preservation Unit of museum heritage (UPPM). She is currently linked to the University of São Paulo, as an advisor to the office of the presbytery in the field of museums and collections. She is the president of ICOM Brazil.
31 Marília Bonas, director of the Museu da Imigração from 2011 to 2017, has also been an important influence for the development of this contemporary component within the museum as well as several initiatives to integrate the reflections and activities of the Museu da Imigração into an inclusion policy. social status of less privileged communities.
32 When reading some of the interviews made by the research team of the museum with some of the educators of the museum and the Arsenal, I could understand how deeply involved they were in the activities and how making the museum accessible
33 The online course A Hospedaria de Imigrantes e os tijolos do racismo estrutural no Brasil: Deslocamentos indígenas, which was entirely developed online, works on decolonial and migratory themes from the point of view of indigenous communities.
34 Of this total sum, 480 interviews were collected by the former management of the institution and 97 by the current one. Oral history has been one of the strong axes of the scientific project of the Memorial do Imigrante which has developed a great work of collecting personal stories from former immigrants who have passed through the Hospedaria.
35 It was also decided to transform this rich subject into a new series of publications in the coming months: it is a way of linking the different historical themes of the coffee museum and that of immigration.
36 The Museu da Pessoa is developing an entirely virtual collection based on the collection of oral testimonies from inhabitants of the city of São Paulo. This project, in which the former director of the Memorial do Imigrante works today, represents the desire to create a vast collection of oral archives, part of which is dedicated to the history of immigration.
37 The concept of ‘cosmohermeneutics’ is put forward by the author who defends the need for a cosmopolitan system of interpretation created through exhibitions dedicated to human migrations.
38 For more information please check the official website of the museum: https://museudaimigracao.org.br/exposicoes/temporarias/nonni-di-sao-paulo