1st Edition

The Radical Democratic Museum

By Nora Sternfeld Copyright 2026
144 Pages
by Routledge

144 Pages
by Routledge

144 Pages
by Routledge

In this revised and updated translation of Das Radikaldemokratische Museum , Sternfeld offers a timely critique of museums as they exist today and instead calls for museums to be reconceptualised as contested spaces for debate and new forms of political activism. Drawing upon approaches from museum studies, education and critical theory, this volume challenges past and present exhibitions and... Read more

Acknowledgements; Introduction: How Do We Imagine a Museum of the Future?; I Inside the Post-Representational Museum; II Playing by the Rules of the Game! Participation in the Post-Representational Museum; III Deprovincialising the Museum. What would a Museum be if it were not a Western Concept?; IV Doesn’t Quite Fit: The Unspectacular Resistance of Material; V The Object Effect. What is the Thing about Materials in Exhibitions?; VI Contested Memories. Memorials as Contact Zones; VII Where does Mediation stand? An Introduction that Confronts its Scepticism; VIII Sailing: In Search of Radical Education, Don’t Take the Next Turn; IX "Give her the tools, she will know what to do with them!" How Can We Learn Something that Doesn't Yet Exist; X Showing Each Other Something that Does Not Exist Yet: Thoughts on the Representation Practice of Büro trafo.K; XI Why Exhibit at all? An Answer from the Year 2030; Index.

Biography

Nora Sternfeld is an art educator and curator and Professor of Art Education at HFBK Hamburg, Germany. Her work explores contemporary art, educational theory, exhibitions, radical democracy and anti‑racism.