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Symbolic Machines

Institutional Transformation through Exhibitions
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Brief Description
With contributions from artists, scholars, and curators, this book examines how exhibitions not only reflect but can also challenge and reshape a museum's relevance to its audience. Artistic critiques have long revealed the gendered, classed, and colonial power structures embedded within institutions. Recently, however, there has... Read More
Format: Hardback
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How does a changing understanding of the museum’s public role influence the way exhibitions are created today? In what ways can exhibitions transform, discuss or revise the art institutions from within?

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With contributions from artists, scholars, and curators, this book examines how exhibitions not only reflect but can also challenge and reshape a museum's relevance to its audience.

Artistic critiques have long revealed the gendered, classed, and colonial power structures embedded within institutions. Recently, however, there has been a shift toward institutional self-critique, with even major museums increasingly addressing their practices and narratives in public dialogue with audiences. By integrating historical context with contemporary analysis, Symbolic Machines explores these transformations and shows how museums and exhibitions can actively engage with societal change.

Edited by Pernille Lystlund Matzen, curator and PhD, and Jacob Lund, associate professor of Aesthetics and Culture at Aarhus University, this volume presents a diverse range of perspectives on the changing practices and critical functions of museums and exhibitions. Contributors include Nora Sternfeld, Yvette Mutumba, Cem A., Kim West, Giulia Bellinetti, Lucia Pietroiusti, and James Voorhies.

Distributed for Aarhus University Press in association with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9788775976430

Publisher: Aarhus University Press

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 09 September 2025

Country: Denmark

Imprint: Aarhus University Press

Illustration: 29 color + b-w illus

Contributors:

  • Contributions by Giulia Bellinetti
  • Contributions by Lucia Pietroiusti
  • Edited by Pernille Lystlund Matzen
  • Edited by Jacob Lund
  • Contributions by James Voorhies
  • Contributions by Kim West
  • Contributions by Cem A.
  • Contributions by Nora Sternfeld
  • Contributions by Mutumba Yvette

Audience: Tertiary education

DIMENSIONS

Width: 191.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 160

Collections

Arts & Culture Education & Reference Non-Fiction Science & Nature

About the Author

Pernille Lystlund Matzen is a curator at Medicinsk Museion. Jacob Lund is an Associate Professor in Aesthetics and Culture 

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