CONTINUE LISTENING, PLEASE

Abstract

The book published by the Museum of Artin Lodz Continue Listening, Please is the result of a numberof interviews with current and former staff, and alsowith artists affiliated to the Museum, conducted in thecourse of the ‘Tell the Museum’ Project implemented in2018–2022. Their authors methodically applied oral historyto investigate the Museum’s history, following which theycommissioned a non-Museum affiliate to prepare texts onthe grounds of the conversations. The selection of interviewees,encompassing curators, conservators, individualsresponsible for education, or administrative staff allowedto describe the aspects of the operations of the Museumof Art, events, and individuals, previously only marginallypresent in the to-date publications on the Lodz institution.Not really being a monograph, the book signals motifswhich could be tackled in the course of the preparation ofthe future history of the Museum of Art, going beyond theparadigm of the existing stories about the institution’s history,such as its functioning in the times of the political andeconomic crisis in the 1980s, the operations following the1989 transformation, employee relations, or the organic,including the non-human dimension of a museum. It alsoposes questions about functioning of museums, their roleand organization, currently and in the future.