Crossroads and Itineraries of the Multivocal Writing of Exhibitions at the National Historical Museum (Brazil): In Favour of What and/or Whom?

Abstract

This article discusses the participation of historically invisible or subalternized social segments in museums. The National Historical Museum in Brazil and, more specifically, the exhibitions Decolonial Brazil: Other Histories, 10 Objects: Other Narratives and Îandé: Here We Were, Here We Are, are observed as the study and analysis scenario. The exhibition statements are investigated as the fruit of processes of institutional experimentation that seek to break with the absolute and celebratory perspective of National History. First­ly, it presents the problem of social participation in the context of museums based on the transformations of their role over time. The question is: for what and/or for whom are the processes of so­cial participation in museums mobilized? Subsequently, it seeks to summarize the trajectory of the National Historical Museum, which gave rise to movements to revise and reformulate institutional narra­tives that led to the production of the three exhibitions under anal­ysis. Finally, we look at the three exhibition statements mentioned.