I-TOPIA

Photographer: Leonard Gren

The creation of the own self, the identity, is central in all people´s development. For the youth of today this process seem more complicated than ever. Medial and commercial stereotypes creates a pressure about how to look and what to work with which is hard to shake off. This blog focuses on how the exhibition media can work as a tool in this process of construction – the construction of I-TOPIA.

I mean that contemporary art and the exhibition have a unique possibility to contribute to reflections and discussions on themes and subjects which in their turn contributes to the construction of I-TOPIA. By understanding the exhibition as a meeting place for learning, a social arena for meaning making through active participation and collaboration, we´ve taken a giant leap.

The leap gets even greater if we understand that the learning process, the very meaning making, has shifted from teaching to learning. That the learning process no longer is centered around the teacher but focuses on the pupil. In an exhibitional context this puts the visitor in the centre. To become relevant we also have to turn the visitor into a participant. The visitor as producer and consumer. We have then taken the leap into "Exhibition 2.0".

When I write this I´m participating in an European conference in Bucharest on the theme ”Youth and the Museum”. Here I get reports from fantastic youth projects at the Gulbenkian i Portugal, Musée Bargoin in Clermont-Ferrand in France and at Tropenmuseum och Zeeuws museum in Holland. Listen to stories how framsynta pedagogical perspectives creates space for wonderful activities at the Jerusalem museum and at Tate modern. Projects which puts children and youth in the centre offering new entrances to the museum as a meeting place for learning and meaning making and thus providing new tools for the creation of I-TOPIA.

The creation of the own self is both a project for present times and the future. To create arenas for youth participation and agency, meeting places for dialogue and reflection, is an obligation to the whole society. Even museums must dare to open the doors for youth and let their thoughts and perspectives be heard. More must do as the Police museum in Stockholm and the exhibition “I only wanted respect” or as we have done in “Living in two worlds” or “4U”, offer the exhibition as a tool for juvenile thoughts and expressions. This creates inclusion and will provide the exhibition with a direct speech and relevance for the target group which we, the adults, never can formulate.

I mean, with my 15 years of experience as i grammar school teacher, that the exhibition is an unbeatable forum when it comes to formulating questions about present times and to provide space for reflections, central cornerstones in I-TOPIA.

The question is if we dare!

What do you say, do we dare? Can we?