Pragmatics of “Memoriality” through the Lens of Museum Criticism

Abstract

The “ruins” of cultural institutions have become the subject of sustained academic interest today. Traditional ideas about the educational mission of museums, the principles of museum exhibits are a thing of the past, are essentially rethought, replaced by new formats. The article aims to analyze the trends that have emerged in museum practice in the last decade. One of them is the actualization of the principles of museum criticism as a developing interdisciplinary field. The gap between museum theory and practice has been considered and discussed many times. The 3rd issue of the journal “Ideas and Ideals” for 2021 published texts united in the heading “Museum in Contemporary Culture” and allowed to speak about the unity of views [3, 8, 16]. One cannot but agree with the opinion of the authors that museum criticism, along with criticism of art, literature, music (as, finally, restaurant or sports), predetermines various cultural priorities and extremely problematizes the sphere of taste preferences. In this regard, the need for critically informed practice takes on a pragmatic aspect. It is on this basis that a new idea is formulated about the possibilities of interaction between a professional museum worker and a modern visitor. The postulation of the significance of the “critical approach” in the professional self-determination of the museum is of fundamental importance. It is internal criticism as a necessary corrective factor that makes it possible to maintain the academic status of museology as an independent field of scientific activity.