The Return of Absence: Loss, Visibility, and Museological Presence in Museums
Abstract
This article examines absence as a museological condition as well as a curatorial category rather than as a mere lack of objects. Through diverse cases of displaced heritage, destroyed sites, damaged artworks, restoration practices, and loaned objects, it analyzes how museums render loss, exclusion, and displacement visible to the audiences. The article distinguishes four main modes of absence: institutional absence, produced by regimes of classification and power; historical absence, generated by disaster, violence, and temporal loss; curatorial absence, deliberately maintained as a strategy of exhibition display; and mobility absence, caused by the circulation of objects through loans, conservation, and transport. By reading these cases through relevant theories of memory, authenticity, and the distribution of visibility, the article further argues that absence in itself can function as a form of presence, insofar as it does not only signify emptiness but actively and concretely participates in shaping visitors' perception of history and cultural value.
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