Update – the actuality of the archaeological past

I have contributed little to this site Since 2016. I have been writing (Greece and Rome: a new model of antiquity [Link]), running experiments in fieldwork (Project Borderlands [Link]), exploring applied archaeology (with a host of organizations and corporations), asking questions of the proper role of the academic, the researcher, the scholar. In this contemporary…

the future of the museum

The new Collections Depot for Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam is under construction. I visited a couple of weeks ago and had a chat with Sjarel Ex, Director of Boijmans. This is opening the doors of the museum and gallery in a new way – all 150,000 items in the collection will be…

materiality of the invisible

Yesterday I had the great honor to open a remarkable exhibition of artworks at the Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht – multiform institute for fine art, design and reflection Curators: Lex ter Braak, Director of Van Eyck and Huib Haye van der Werf, Head of Artistic Program. The exhibition runs through The Van Eyck Academie, Marres,…

heritage – new definitions

This is one of a series of comments on the 8th biennial symposium “Connoisseurship and the Collectible Car” held at the Revs Institute for Automotive Research in Naples, Florida in March 2015. [Link] Cars are changing – robots are arriving. The car collector is becoming curator [Link] Car collecting is evolving from hobby to heritage…

Cultural heritage and violence in the Middle East

From Fiona Rose-Greenland on openDemocracy war encompasses the old things and places that make us who we are Cultural heritage and violence in the Middle East. Theatres of erasure: Syria and Iraq The violence in Iraq has killed nearly 6,000 civilians since the start of 2014, according to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq. In…