An Exhibition Revisited (12th March 2002 - 2nd February 2003)

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An Exhibition Revisited
Or: The Exhibited Exhibition, Musings of a Museologist

The Alimentarium Food Museum - a Nestlé Foundation - seized the opportunity afforded by the complete redesigning of its permanent exhibition to take a curious look at its past. The result is not the nostalgic trip down memory lane you might expect but a highly instructive ramble through selected fragments of the original 1985 exhibition. The subtitle says it all: a museologist shares his views on the challenge of presenting food and nutrition in a museum setting.

From 28 February 2002, the second floor of the Alimentarium invites visitors on a rather unusual tour. In this "exhibited exhibition" connoisseurs will find a lot of old friends from the original presentation, but they will be intrigued to find the exhibits arranged differently or even split up in order to underline the role played by the various objects and the ways of staging them in an exhibition.

In the setting of a temporary storage depot, fragments of the three distinct sectors (science, ethnology and history) that defined the Alimentarium from 1985 to 2000 are illuminated by museological commentaries which explore the close relationship between the visitor and the exhibited object.

This unique exhibition guides visitors through part of the first floor where conversion work is still in progress. As a result, until the inauguration of the fully renovated museum on 28 June 2002 visitors will be able to see the new permanent exhibition taking shape before their eyes and perhaps reflect on the significance of the staging factors mentioned earlier.

CARNET DE NOTES SUR L'ALIMENTARIUM

A brochure tells you all about this fascinating "Exhibition Revisited" in clear, easy-to-follow language.
87 pages, illustrated, in English, French and German
Fr. 18.- (can be ordered at the Alimentarium or bought at the bookshop of the museum)