Materializing the past. Mannequins, history and memory in museums. Insight from the Northern European and East - Asian contexts

Abstract

What are the rationale, significance and implications of the use of reproductions of the human body in contemporary historical museums? This article probes this question through a critical analysis of diverse uses of body simulacra– specifically mannequins and life-size figures – in historical museums in Taiwan and China. The discussion of the East-Asian case study is set against examples from historical representations of the body in Northern Europe as a way to offer a comparative perspective that casts light on the uniqueness and similarities among these geo-cultural areas. This material enables me to reflect on the changing and diverse roles of mannequins in historical displays – in Western (North European) and non-Western contexts – ranging from materializations of the national past, its heroes and martyrs, aiming to canonize History as distant and authoritative, to display devices that strive to generate personal understandings of the past through memories and emotions.

Clothed wax effigies: construction materials, challenges and suggestions for preventive conservation

“…Wax effigies represent important historical, political or artistic personalities and replicate activities and historical moments for educational or commercial reasons. Historical, Natural History and other types of museums use wax mannequins in dioramas as exhibition tools to spur the feelings of the museum visitors and enhance the museum experience, motivating them to become part of the depicted scene and take pictures among the free standing wax models [39]. At the Melody World Wax Museum in Mysuru, India, wax figures are used to display musical instruments, rather than the instruments being displayed in showcases, enabling visitors to see the cultural context within which the instruments were played.…”

“…At the Melody World Wax Museum in Mysuru, India, wax figures are used to display musical instruments, rather than the instruments being displayed in showcases, enabling visitors to see the cultural context within which the instruments were played. As it has been beautifully expressed by Varutti [39] Creating an effigy does not always require a large amount of wax, since only the body parts visible to the audience are made of this material. The materials of the non-wax parts of the effigies vary.…”

Facing skeletons. Reflections on three Stone Age portraits

“…This also highlights how the body becomes a prime site of construction, of contestation and negotiation of individual and collective identities, as museologist Marzia Varutti emphasizes in her article "Materializing the past. Mannequins, history and memory in museums", in this issue (Varutti 2017). (Fig.…”