Between Nature and Culture

Between Nature and Culture A guide to the Slovene Ethnographic Museum permanent exhibition Between Nature and Culture A guide to the Slovene Ethnographic Museum permanent exhibition Published by: Slovene Ethnographic Museum, represented by Bojana Rogelj Škafar Authors: Igor Cvetko, Ralf Čeplak Mencin, Andrej Dular, Marko Frelih, Sonja Kogej Rus, Daša Koprivec, Bojana Rogelj Škafar, Anja Serec Hodžar, Polona Sketelj, Inja Smerdel, Mojca Terčelj, Nadja Valentinčič Furlan, Janja Žagar and Nena Židov Edited by: Nena Židov Editorial board: Ralf Čeplak Mencin, Sonja Kogej Rus, Bojana Rogelj Škafar Translation: David Limon, Franc Smrke Design: Mojca Turk Layout: T2 studio d.o.o. Printed by: Para d.o.o., Ljubljana Exhibition concepts and contributions: Igor Cvetko, Ralf Čeplak Mencin, Andrej Dular, Lidija Franjič, Marko Frelih, Irena Keršič, Sonja Kogej Rus, Daša Koprivec, Gorazd Makarovič, Bojana Rogelj Škafar, Anja Serec Hodžar, Polona Sketelj, Inja Smerdel, Mojca Terčelj, Nadja Valentinčič Furlan, Janja Žagar, Nena Židov Exhibition and graphic design: Dolores Gerbec, Sanja Jurca Avci, Jurij Kocbek, Jasna Kralj Pavlovec, Matjaž Pavlovec, Mojca Turk and Polona Zupančič Ljubljana, 2009 The publication of this book was enabled by the Ministry of Culture CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji of the Republic of Slovenia Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana 39(=163.6)(083.824) 069(497.4Ljubljana)SEM:39 SLOVENSKI etnografski muzej Between nature and culture : a guide to the Slovene Ethnographic Museum permanent exhibition / [authors Igor Cvetko ... [et al.] ; edited by Nena Židov ; translation David Limon, Franc Smrke]. - Ljubljana : Slovene Ethnographic Museum, 2009 ISBN 978-961-6388-17-7 1. Gl. stv. nasl. 2. Cvetko, Igor 3. Židov, Nena 244302848 CONTENTS Between Nature and Culture – the first permanent exhibition of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum in the third millennium (Bojana Rogelj Škafar). 5 Object of Life, Object of Desire (Inja Smerdel). 9 Water and Earth (Polona Sketelj, Andrej Dular, Daša Koprivec) . 21 Agricultural and subsistence economic activities . 24 Non-agricultural activities. 51 Necessary and Unnecessary (Janja Žagar, Anja Serec Hodžar) . 67 Clothes and textiles . 70 House, home, dwelling . 87 Social and Spiritual (Nena Židov, Igor Cvetko, Bojana Rogelj Škafar). 101 Social groups and socialisation . 104 Common law and measures . 106 Customs and holidays . 109 Beliefs . 118 Folk music . 124 Folk art. 132 Reflections of Distant Worlds (Ralf Čeplak Mencin, Mojca Terčelj, Marko Frelih) . 145 Africa . 147 America . 156 Asia . 166 Oceania . 172 Slovenes and “foreigners” . 176 Stereotypes and prejudices . 177 Ethnoalphabet (Sonja Kogej Rus) . 181 Audiovisuals (Nadja Valentinčič Furlan). 187 Bojana Rogelj Škafar Between Nature and Culture – the first permanent exhibition of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum in the third millennium A museum exhibition is the in- terpretative visual expression of a specific theoretical model of a particular discipline. Its creators and interpreters are museum curators who, on the basis of the model, determine and select what is crucial and character- istic, taking into account the current state of knowledge regarding the available general and specific evidence. This is particularly true of permanent exhibitions, which are by their nature synthetic, but whose permanence is only apparent. They offer an illusion of permanence in time and space, a clearly structured novel made up of countless small stories collected and interpreted by researchers. Until its relocation from the National Museum of Slovenia building to the renovated mili- tary barracks at Metelkova 2 in Ljubljana, the conditions were not right for the Slovene Ethno- graphic Museum, the main ethnological museum with Slovene and non-European collections, to set up a complex and wide- ranging permanent exhibition. At long last, in March 2006, the first such exhibition was opened, with the title Between Nature and Culture. 5 If we compare it to what was originally planned, we can see that from con- cept to realisation certain changes have taken place. One idea was to have an exhibition entitled An Organised World of Objects or an “Encylopaedia of Things” (Smerdel 1996: 36) based on our knowledge of objects and cultural elements. Another proposal, entitled Permanent Set-Up of the SEM – Gallery (Dular 1996: 71), envisaged a presentation of objects and activities that would meet the needs of researchers dealing with the heritage kept by the museum, as well as providing, in an appropriate manner, cultural information to museum visitors. The ‘gallery’ was to have six components: the regional characteristics of Slovene ethnic areas, an exhibition of the museum collections, an exhibition on immovable heritage, an A to Z of economic and other activities, an exhibition on Slovenes and the world, and a research room (Dular 1996: 72–74). During its realisation this ambitious conceptualisation, in which the gallery of the collections dictated the order of study collections equipped with precise details (geographical, temporal, typological, functional, formal-aesthetic classification) and descriptions (size, material, extent) (Dular 1996: 71), acquired a form that encompasses all of these elements, but in a somewhat different, less studious way, more approachable for the average visitor. There is now on view an exhibition that talks about the dynamics of the relations between nature and culture: about the natural environment in which we were born and the socio-cultural environment that co-determines who we are. It tells of the universal human striving to control the environment and survive within it – a striving expressed through ways of making a living and being creative. The exhibition familiarises visitors with the material and non-material heritage of the Slovenes, as well as some non-European cultures. It draws attention to the temporal, geographical and social heterogeneity of the cultural heritage and its close connections with wider European and world processes of constant change. In 900 square metres of space, around 3000 objects are displayed, which represents a tenth of the museum’s collections. At the forefront of the exhibition, which is the result of work by the museum’s curators, groups of designers, other museum staff and external collaborators, are objects and their stories. Most of the objects are in display cases, but some are displayed within settings (such as the chupa seagoing canoe and craftsmen’s workshops). The narrative thread connecting the displayed objects is depend- ence on the material world of nature, which is emphasised by under-floor display cases. Thus the dormouse skins in the under-floor cases accompany the dormouse traps in the display case on hunting as a means of survival in the same way that under-floor honeycomb connects with the beehives in the display case on beekeeping. The exhibition is made up of a number of logically determined sections, while the presentation of Slovene material is in line with established ethnological principles. The introductory section Objects of Life, Objects of Desire tells of the relations between man and object, and of how the museum’s collections came about. The museum objects are located on a “time line” of events in the world and the visitor’s attention is drawn to items that are characteristically Slovene; there is also a multimedia presentation of the characteristics of the Slovene ethnic region. The part entitled Earth and Water deals with resources and ways of life 6 based on agricultural and subsistence activities (gathering, hunting, fishing, arable farming) and non-agricultural ones (crafts, trade, transport, economic migration). The section Necessary and Unnecessary presents objects connected with the basic functions of the home, as well as clothes and other textiles, while Social and Spiritual is concerned with those aspects of life which connect the individual with society (socialisation, social groups, popular law, measures, customs) and with the spiritual world (folk beliefs, folk instruments, folk art). Non-European cultures are presented in Reflections of Distant Worlds: the fea- tured objects from different continents were largely obtained by the museum from Slovenes who encountered foreign cultures (such as Friderik Baraga, Ignacij Knoblehar and Anton Codelli). Finally, the EthnoAlphabet, in the form of a maze, is designed so that younger visitors can interact with it: children can have direct contact with objects from the Slovene and non-European cultural heritage. The exhibition addresses the visitor on many levels and in different ways: through objects – the “traditional” museum medium – or through modern media. The objects are carefully selected so as to represent regional, temporal, social and formal variations. The oldest date from the 16th century, but there are also completely contemporary items. Like everything else, this exhibition is affected by spatial restrictions, but it is organised in such a way, in terms of both form and content, that the collections, because of the greater accessibility of the museum’s stock, can easily be changed. In only a few instances are objects replaced by replicas, while large objects (such as buildings and hayracks) are represented by scale models. Visitors can come into direct contact with the objects, touching or holding them so that they get a feel for the materials used, their function and so on; this is particularly the case in the EtnoAlphabet section. The exhibition is enriched by audiovisual

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