Published: 2024-12-17

Exhibition/city as an open work? The case of Gdynia

Michał Grabowski
Journal of Urban Ethnology
Section: A city in a museum - a museum in a city
DOI https://doi.org/10.23858/JUE22.2024.002

Abstract

The main intention of text is to to present an attempt at a museological interpretation and the author’s interpretation of the permanent exhibition illustrating the history of the city at the Museum of Gdynia. The analysis is presented by means of the open work formula posed by Umberto Eco. The exhibition, which opened to the public in 2017, offers a number of micro-histories based on the lives of anonymous inhabitants of the city and uses objects/exhibits that until recently belonged to private owners to create the narratives. The “open work” is not only a paraphrase of the phrase “open city”, but first of all an encouragement to create one’s own sightseeing path and combine one’s own independent image of the city and its “imagined potential”. The anthropology of daily life, presenting the fortunes of anonymous residents of Gdynia, and the interpretation of numerous linear, network and hipertext clues are important elements that constitute the primary assumptions of this project. In addition to the analysis of visual and verbal discourse, the text presents the model of an exhibition that makes use the assumptions of a narrative exhibition in a slightly different way.

Keywords:

museum of the city, open work, Gdynia, city, permanent exhibition

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Grabowski, M. (2024). Exhibition/city as an open work? The case of Gdynia. Journal of Urban Ethnology, 22, 25–39. https://doi.org/10.23858/JUE22.2024.002

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