Domesticating the Medusa

 

When working on a long-term creative project such as a PhD, it is fascinating (and also a little scary) to follow the winding trail of one's own thoughts: circling around shifting themes, digging deep in details that might prove useful (or not), drifting away, then drawn in towards the core of the problem again. It is a privilege, and an art to learn and - hopefully - master one day.

Recently, those untamable thoughts of mine have dwelled a lot on Domination and Domestication, and on Control and Power. And, as almost always, an image started it all... This time, it was a blessed moment in the Yerebatan Sarayi, the 6th century "underground palace" in Istanbul, perhaps better known as Justinian's water cistern. 

336 columns, water, fish and coolness: Subterranean Istanbul magic

In the early morning hours of the last day in Istanbul and the ISCH conference, I managed to see this underground kingdom of sweet water, fat fish, stone columns and historical stories and layers literally placed on top of each other. I was amazed by the beauty and the vastness, and by the ingenious idea of a subterranean lake and food supply, accessible through holes in the courtyards of the Byzantine and, later, Ottoman inhabitants in the city.

For those of you who have been there, you know that the typical signs for tourists about Things Of Importance That Must Not Be Missed were there, too - the kind of signs that, I must confess, always make me more curious about what strange and exciting things might dwell in the other direction. This time, however, the notion of Medusa and her petrifying gaze made me actually follow the signs to see the two Antique Medusa stone heads placed as column bases at the far end of the hall. This is what I saw:

Medusa's head, de-charged by not only being used as a column base but also - deliberately - turned upside down. Domination and domestication, hands-on style.

The information signs told me that the two Medusa heads dated from an earlier Classical period, that the reason for why they were used as column bases is a matter of discussion among researchers, but that everyone seem to agree that they were deliberately placed here and in this way, and probably as a way to control and domesticate them. This goes along very well with the ideas in my dissertation project, on heritagisation (in my case, of religion) as an act of control and domestication of the disturbing and dangerous. However, down there, in the cool silence below the busy city and facing the upside down faced domesticated Medusa, yet another dimension of this struggle for power and domination in historiography struck me. Medusa, being the most terrible of three mythological Gorgon sisters, and the one whose mere gaze had the power to petrify any human meeting it, could in fact be a metaphor for the heritagisation process as I perceive it: the beholder (i.e., the museum curator, the heritage bureaucrat, the historian, the tourist guide, etc) has the power - knowing it or not - to petrify living things, environments, immaterial customs etc, and turn them into well preserved heritage with a designed narrative attached to them. 

In Medusa's case, the hero Perseus outsmarted her and cut her head off, and then used it - with its' petrifying powers intact - as a weapon against his enemies before finally giving it to goddess Athena to wear it on her shield (quite a shield..!). In this way, one could say that Medusa's terrible petrification qualities not only worked as harmful, but also in a protective way, to save the hero from harm. Turning to the heritagisation parable, the most frequent arguments and debates in the heritage field are about exactly this: protection, saving, taking aside from the course of time and destruction, and for the sake of memory, humankind and eternity (a little generally put, perhaps, but still). So, using this image to think with, we are dealing with a most powerful process that functions both as a petrifying or even a lethal tool, but simultaneously as a life saver and a protection from time, aging and decay.

This for the Medusa and the petrifying gaze. But what about next layer, the urge to dominate and domesticate this strong power?

The taming of the Beast - recurrent motive in human narratives

The main field of my PhD project, the domestication of religion through heritagisation, is overflowing with motives and drastic actions to dominate and make harmless narratives and beliefs that have come (our were forced) out of fashion. In my Northern territories, the Medieval images are frequent of St. George (Sankt Göran) piercing the dragon - in various contexts representing the Danes or other enemies at the time - or the Norwegian king St. Olav (Sankt Olof), stepping firmly on his enemy's head (which in fact is the head of his heathen brother, in the shape of a half-monster).

St. Olav the Holy stepping on his heathen brother Harald. Tricky thing even for a saint, the Love thine brother...

Here in Rome the cultural layers are, as you know, many and complex - almost like one of my favorite Italian desserts, the Torta Millefoglie: 

Torta Millefoglie, 'Thousand layers' cake'. Divine.

Layer upon layer of history, materiality, narratives - but also of controlling, domesticating, silencing, triumphing, showing who is now in charge. The basilica of San Clemente, one of my favorite churches to visit in Rome, is an example of this multi-layered material history: A Mithras temple, then a Roman house where Christians met secretly, then a 4th century church, then the present Medieval basilica - all excavated and possible to visit. In this case, the perspective of domestication but also of religious and historical continuity is strongly connected to the place: the place itself is a bearer of values and permeated with spiritual charges.

The Mithraic temple below San Clemente's basilica

Returning to Istanbul, and to Hagia Sophia 6th century Cathedral-turned Mosque-turned museum (and now suggested to be turned Mosque again), the need to demonstrate new ideologies and domesticate - though not eradicate or erase - previous ones is more evident. Here, the crosses on the doors and in the mosaics have not been physically removed, but altered to become a non-religious element of decoration.

 

Altered cross on one of the entrance doors, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

Altered mosaic cross, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

Given the many and turbulent changes in the history of the city, mirrored in the changing regimes in Hagia Sophia (where the musealisation/heritagisation in 1934 forms an important chapter), it is interesting that so much of the previous layers are still there, and visible. The gigantic signs with Islamic verses is a dominant visual element in the interior of the building, but some Christian mosaics showing Mary and Jesus are also there and well preserved. And beneath the signs, the previous decorations can still be seen:

Cultural and religious layers, and a heritage preserving scaffolding, in Hagia Sophia

So, how to collect these meandering thoughts on domestication, death and preservation? Elaborating just a little more on the Medusa head in Istanbul, could it be that even the petrifying heritagisation process can be overruled - by something living, by a new power and regime? Continuing that line of thought, what will happen to the rapidly and globally increasing number of appointed heritage items and places and immaterial goods: are they really petrified forever, and saved from the ban of time and change, or can they be awakened again..? I have no answers to this, yet, and I hope you forgive me for letting you into this inner chamber of unfinished contemplations and unresolved problems. But please: feel free to contribute in the comment field below if you like!

For now, let's just remain another instant on this mind boggling topic, in the lucid company of Joni Mitchell and Taming the Tiger...

The Me behind the mask, or The Otherness Gaze

Who would you like to be today? New identities for sale in Venice. 

Back to blogging after long absence; an absence containing two quite wonderful séjours in Venice and its archives, going back and forth to my frozen native grounds up North a couple of times, and a lot of mostly very enjoyable hanging out with books and laptop. Having just started my fourth semester as a PhD student, I think I am starting to get some clue of how this job and the amazing (and frustrating) environment of Academia works. One of the things that are most different from my previous job in public culture administration is that I now am not only allowed, but actually expected, to use my own observations, experiences and conclusions as a starting point and a tool in my work - the Me is, despite the obvious demands on objectivity and contextualization, crucial to my work. No wonder, then, that reflections on the identity as a stranger, una forestiera, here in Italy have been occupying my mind recently. Being constantly reminded of one's otherness, of how one in fact misunderstands, misjudges and messes things up not because of bad intent but due to the fact that there are always new unwritten rules to learn (and break), and when being almost on a daily basis associated with the most famous Swedish contributions to global culture: blondes, IKEA and ABBA (no offense, Björn Borg, but I think your hay days are over...), there is little risk of forgetting the foreign perspective. (And still, nota bene, I am completely in awe over the overwhelming generosity, good will and infinite patience flowing from Italian friends, colleagues and even complete strangers here. It makes the Otherness so much more beareable.)

The merciless Eye of the Beholder

Exploring premodern Swedish travelers in Italy and their perception of Catholicism and Catholic objects, rituals and customs, I have come to reflect a lot about what John Urry calls "the tourist gaze" in his book bearing the same title. It is the gaze, in this case the gaze of a stranger or a tourist passing by, that creates and defines the traveler's image of a place and its life and inhabitants - the gaze is the instrument shaping reality. This presumption also goes for the heritagisation process at the very heart of my project: heritage production is, as defined by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and others, the result of an active decision and agenda, and is (since most often not visible to the eye) performed and perceived by the eye and the gaze - and, eventually, by legal decisions and formalities, of course.

From a theological point of view this concept of "truth lies in the eye of the beholder" gets problematic; a relic bought as an ironic souvenir still contents sacredness, and a musealised Virgin Mary can still function as a valid object of devotion for the believer. But still: The gaze, the eye, the perception.

Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching. Travelling, with all senses wide open...

I think most of us who have traveled to other places or cultures outside of our familiar habitat have experienced how the senses widen, and how even the smallest details are registered with curiosity and care. In the manuscript diaries of the Swedish premodern travelers, lengthy descriptions of price rates, distances, transport systems etc are common. Paying this much attention to practicalities, infrastructures, costs and practical how-to advice is nothing remarkable in this context, nor is it surprising that the notions of reactions and feelings are rare in the material: a travel journal was not primarily the place for sentiments and subjective remarks. However, I ask myself if this "tourist gaze" or Otherness perspective doesn't work a little like the very bad ear phones I bought on the street the other day - suddenly just a few of the instruments and very much treble, but no bass, came through in my favourite music. While sharpening some senses, while (perhaps involuntarily) seeing what we expected to see and confirming our prejudices, a wide range of sensual impressions, events and realities pass by unnoticed. As strangers, tourists, forestieri, we submit the places we visit to our "otherness gaze" as we ourselves are submitted to it by the residents of the visited place. An "othernessification" that, obviously and most importantly, goes both ways.

Venice in cold December dawn

Following the footprints of my 17th century travelers, a visit to St. Mark's or San Marco basilica in Venice is an obvious must. Here, where an abundance of highly prestigious relics are on display since centuries, it comes naturally to reflect upon the heritagisation of sacredness and its contexts. When studying the Swedish 17th century accounts of the basilica and its treasury, before re-visiting and seeing what these travelers saw (if this is ever possible), I was struck by the massive materiality in the descriptions: gold, jewels, colours, gems, holy bones - all of unmeasurable sacred or financial value, which is often noted specially. The value and the aesthetic aspects dominated the 17th century descriptions, and I (mis)took it for a lack of interest in or an intentional neglect of the sacred values depending on the Lutheran Tourist gaze. However, when faced with this rather non-sacred, musealising and highly materialized display in real life, and also learning that this material-aesthetic narrative was applied - at least - since the end of 16th century in Francesco Sansovino's guide to Venice and its monuments, Venetia, Citta nobilissima et Singolare (1581), I must take a new position. I must consider that the relics of Venice, and the display in St. Mark's basilica, have a history of musealisation and instrumentalisation that dates back to long before the Reformation - though being simultaneously used in sacred practice.

St. Mark's basilica in Venice

If musealising and heritagising, and thus creating fragments separated from their original context, can be performed in the eyes of the beholder, it can obviously also be done quite hands-on, as in the case of this icon:

Sacred matter deconstructed in the treasury of St. Mark's basilica

No matter whose gaze or what gaze, the sight of a mummified hand on display is probably more spectacular and exotic than immediately inviting to pious contemplations to today's visitors. But in 17th century, when relics had a more established position and function for Catholic viewers, and a more negative and, perhaps, political charge to Lutheran viewers - what was the gaze then, and what context was created?

The mummified and saintly hand relic of St. Mark, St. Mark's basilica

On my daily walk from my apartment in Trastevere to the Vatican or Istituto Svedese, I cruise through huge numbers of salesmen offering me umbrellas, rosaries, guided tours of the Vatican, photos of Pope Francis, and loads of items and souvenirs more or less loosely connected to the sacredness associated with the nearby sanctuary and the Eternal City as a whole. Everyone spots in an instant that I am a foreigner, and as such a potential customer. I wonder what goods and services were offered to my 17th century travelers, and what of this they actually brought home with them..? 

The mysteries of souvenir aesthetics: De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum

Dwelling on this Otherness, and the possibility of assuming another identity when in foreign land (though the 17th century young men were warned by their fathers not to dress too extravagantly and assume strange habits when abroad - this could prove dangerous when returning to Sweden and the Lutheran Orthodox standards), I have come to understand that the initial starting point for my PhD project was partly wrong, since it presumed only the Swedes looking at the Italians and their Catholicism. I have, very much thanks to generous help from Italian colleagues and friends, learned that one thing I must take into account in my work, except for the importance of The Gaze itself, is the reciprocity of this gaze: The foreigner is not only observing, s/he is also being observed, and is - wanting it or not - affecting the daily life in the visited community. Traveling gives an opportunity to, at least temporarily, becoming another - and becoming the Other - but it also subjects the visited community to Otherness. Foreignness goes both ways. 

Or, to summarise in Aretha Franklin's wise words in her 80's tune: Who's zoomin' Who?

When did Saint Lucy team up with the Gingerbread Men? How to recycle a Saint.

Being a temporary resident in Rome, not much of mine and my family's everyday life and routines are the same as back home in Sweden. One thing though seems hardly impossible to escape as a Swede, no matter where in the world one reside or travel: the annual celebration of Saint Lucy, or 'Sankta Lucia' as the Swedes put it.
Lucia was, according to legend, martyrized in Syracuse in 304 during the Diocletian persecutions and after several dramatic events: a failed attempt to burn her alive, an equally unsuccessful attempt to make her walk naked through a brothel, and according to later traditions even after having her eyes gouged out. She is celebrated in Sweden as in Italy on December 13th, but - when these two are compared - in most different contexts and interpretations.

The mortal remains of Saint Lucy in Saint Jeremiah church, Venice

Saint Lucy is a popular saint in Italy, and is celebrated in various ways in different Italian cities (an overview in Italian Wikipedia here) though always in a religious Catholic context. In Sweden, however, saints are generally not celebrated since the Reformation in 16th century, and if their pictures for some reason still were around in the churches after that, they had to be clearly washed from all religious and (as the general view on Catholic practices was) 'superstitious' connotations. And yet: The magnitude of Lucia celebration in Sweden equals that of Christmas Eve (which is when Swedes celebrate Christmas. On Christmas Day most Swedes just relax in comfy clothes, eat fudge and cookies or - possibly - have friends and relatives over for dinner). How can this be? And how should this Swedish and very beloved, yet not religious, Lucia be understood?

Saint Lucia, or Lucy, in traditional saintly pose: Holding the palm of martyrdom, and her own gouged eyes on a plate.

The Swedish Lucia celebration became popular and widespread as late as in the early 20th century, but existed already in the 18th century high society. Crucial to understand Lucia's popularity and role in Sweden is the fact that Sweden is a very dark country in December, and the fact that Lucia is celebrated on the day of the Winter Solstice; her function as 'Bearer of Light' ('ljusbärarinna'), the many candles and songs about the returning light in the midst of darkness, and the accentuation of the original saint being burnt at the stake (however unsuccessfully) all go back to this popular Darkness-Turned-Light tradition.

Traditional Swedish Lucia procession with Lucia, her maids, and the boys called "Star Men", alluding to S:t Stephen but wearing cone shaped hats of 'magi', magician's. Be warned: This gang is likely to show up in a church, a school, a retirement home, an office, by a Nobel Prize winner's hotel bed, in a Swedish embassy or an IKEA warehouse near you on December 13.

Lucia in Sweden appears traditionally with a crown of candles in her hair, dressed in white and with a red band around her waist - 'to symbolize martyrdom!' someone sometimes state, despite the general non-religious context. She is surrounded by maids, also in white and with glitter in their hair, and Star Men or 'S:t Stephen's Boys' ('Staffansgossar'), and here we go again: The legend of S:t Stephen following the star of Jerusalem and pointing to it before King Herod was the subject of a popular play in Sweden at least as early as 17th century, and the legend was performed by young theology students going from house to house with big paper stars, sometimes also with Virgin Mary, S:t Joseph, S:t Jude, the Three Kings and other characters from the Bible. We know of this custom not only through appreciating descriptions, but also through court protocols stating that the young boys sometimes were paid in strong drinks and became less pleasant after a number of performances. This led to a prohibition of S:t Stephen's plays in some parts of the country, but as we have seen this tradition, too, was re-installed and re-interpreted within the cultural and non-religious frames of the Sankta Lucia celebration.

A reenacted S:t Stephen's play in Vallentuna, Sweden, early 1980's. King Herod, his soldier, Stephen with the largest star, the Three Kings (or Wise Men), and Virgin Mary. (The latter with slight resemblances to this blogger...)

Today Lucia is celebrated in all possible places and contexts, from pre-school to retirement homes and hospices, in private homes and on national television. Not uncontested, though. In recent years, debates on various political and xenophobic topics have turned up in mid-December. For exemple: Should the National Lucia have blonde hair, or can she have brown complexion and black, curly hair (as was the case in 2012 TV broadcast Lucia celebration)? Can one of the traditional songs about S:t Stephen, in same TV broadcast, really be performed as a rap by a famous artist from an immigrant family? And does the National Agency for Education permit this quasi-religious performance in a school context, when public schools according Swedish law should be non-religious? (The answer to this question was that most of the traditional Lucia songs, despite being about saints, Jesus and other religious matters, were declared non-religious since they were, instead, part of Swedish cultural heritage. As a researcher on heritagised religion I get happy goose bumps by declarations like this.)

What all Swedish parents ask their children some days before Lucia: 'Do you want to be Lucia, Maid, Star Man, Gnome or Gingerbread Man?' Keeping Lucia equipment up to date is no piece of cake.

As a conclusion to understand what Swedish Lucia really is, I strongly recommend Swedish Lucia for Dummies on YouTube. Despite being narrated in a satirical and joking mode, the details are most accurate.

Needless to say, the Swedish re-interpretation of Lucia also generates numerous interior decorating items, such as this lamp.

So, is the case of S:t Lucy unique as an example of a recycled saint in a Protestant context? Well, certainly not. The previously mentioned S:t Bridget of Sweden has been through many different labels and interpretations since her hay days in 14th century, and in the 1920's a large scale celebration of her in Vadstena, Sweden, was strongly debated in local press. It was considered most inappropriate to celebrate a Papist saint and to risk letting the luring Catholicism into Swedish society. On the other hand, it was stated, S:t Bridget was a 'valuable part of our Swedish Cultural Heritage'. Today, the shrine holding parts of her remains is in focus for pious prayers as well as for front edge DNA research; both piety and science can make use of an old saint, it seems.

S:t Bridget's shrine in Vadstena convent church. Materiality, or holy matter, as an object of devotion.

S:t Bridget's shrine and relics carefully examined and analyzed by researchers. Materiality, or holy matter, as an object for research and knowledge.

Sacred, heritage, or a hybrid? The more I follow the clues in these matters, the harder it gets to formulate an accurate answer. The step from a martyrized virgin in 4th century, via centuries of Christian devotion, to where the Gingerbread Men start showing up in IKEA can seem very long, but when regarded as series of interpretations and re-charges, responding to cultural premises and moral and legal conditions, the picture changes. And: in all its integrity, the eye of the beholder is an ever present and non-negotiable factor. Be there Gingerbread Men or not.

What's in a kiss, anyway?

Just at the end of Spring semester this year, I was preparing a paper for a workshop I was co-organizing on Gender, Emotions and Material Culture in Scandinavian History. The workshop was hosted by UGPS Umeå Group for Premodern Studies, UCGS Umeå Centre for Gender Studies (both Umeå University) and ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (University of Western Australia), and it was an intimate explorative workshop with specially invited participants. My paper put forward some reflexions and questions on the theme 'The sulking saint and the headless Jesus: Aspects of materiality and emotions on material sacredness and sacred heritage in post-Reformation Sweden', and while researching and putting together my presentation I was struck by the number of kisses and sensual gestures that (unexpectedly, to me) emerged from my material. 

'Kissing the Relic', oil painting by Joaquín Sorolla (1893)

In the implementation of the Reformation in Sweden, and particularly after the parliament of Västerås in 1544 where a number of Catholic items and practices - lighting devotional candles, burning incense, the use of monstrances and Holy Water, etc - were explicitly forbidden, a new and dramatically different approach to sacred materiality developed. These changes also mirror quite well the heritagisation effects on holy matter: from touching to no touching (if not with white gloves), from sensuality to material preservation, from interaction and communication to one-direction information, from dialogue with material sacredness to cultural or historical admiration. And: from kissing to respectful distance. 

Devotional kissing of the relic of Virgin Mary's girdle while on display in Moscow (normally to be found on Mount Athos)

Facing all those examples in written sources, paintings, satires etc on a sensual past long gone and replaced by a more intellectual view on holy matters, where control of the body, senses and general appearance were major virtues, I had to ask myself: What does it do to a culture when sensuality is banned - in religion, or elsewhere?

Mocking the kissing of the Pope's foot. Satire woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Elder from 'Passionary of the Christ and Antichrist', early 16th century.

The sources for my Master thesis in History of Ideas and Science touched upon this a little. In the Swedish national inventories for antiquities, performed by order of the King from 1666 throughout the century and mostly executed by the local clergy, Catholic practices are mentioned and mocked. One example are the monks said to have been dancing in a field every year before a pilgrimage to Trondheim in Norway, and so violently that the marks in the ground could still be seen decades later. Or another, where the priest giving the report in late 17th century describes how the boards of a liturgic coffin where a wooden Christ was laid during the Holy Week liturgies, were 'licked with the lips so that it was smooth and worn'. I wonder, and presently without a clear answer, where all this kissing and devout relationship to sacred materiality went after 1544 and the eventual establishment of the Reformation?

 Girl kissing a relic of S:t Clare on the Saint's feast day in Monastery of Poor Clares, Laguna, Philippines

Were the physical means of expressing emotions all intellectualized with the change of religious teachings? And in any case, for my research interest: How did the travelers from this (in a religious context) non-kissing country up North react to the physical and emotional expressions in Italy and in Catholic practice? Fact is, I have already found a number of sources giving interesting information on this... but I won't give away every juicy part of my dissertation before it is finished, so I'll get back to you on that topic. Stay patient!

So. What's in a kiss, anyway? Beyond doubt a kiss is so much more than the general romantic kiss between lovers, but is it even always a good thing? It can be soaked in symbolic meaning, far beyond the visual, like the kiss of peace, the kissing of a ring or the feet of someone as an act of subjection, or it can be a kiss of betrayal.

Humble and symbolically charged kissing. Pope Francis kissing the foot of an inmate at juvenile detention centre of Casal del Marmo in Rome, Holy Thursday liturgy 2013. (Photo: The Globe and Mail)

Betrayal kissing. The kiss of Judas, oil painting by Caravaggio (1602)

I would like to wrap up these thoughts on kisses, kissing and sensual experience of strongly charged objects, and the possible effects when this dimension is removed, by giving you some lines from a favorite poem. It is by e e cummings, voices to voices, lip to lip (Read the whole poem here, and a short interpretation here. I recommend it.):

(While you and i have lips and voices which

are for kissing and to sing with

who cares if some oneyed son for a bitch

invents an instrument to measure Spring with?

each dream nascitur, is not made...)

why then to Hell with that: the other; this,

since the thing perhaps is

to eat flowers and not to be afraid.

Come closer! Creating improved access

Coming closer: Dr. Cecilia Lindhé at Umeå university HUMlab using digital visualizing methods to approach medieval images of Virgin Mary in new ways. Learn more about the project here.

When setting up this blog a little more than a month ago, I mentioned that the whole blogging adventure was initiated by the PhD course in Digital History I am following this semester. Within this course, we are required to design and build a visualization project related to our dissertations, and this is why my thoughts now and then have moved beyond my regular 17th century source material to dwell upon the Why's, What's and How's of this task. (For this reason, and general technology nerdiness, of course.)

The coming two weeks I will be a guest blogger at K-Blogg, the blog of Swedish National Heritage Board (have to warn you, though: It's in Swedish). The National Heritage Board is working with and collaborating in many digitizing projects to improve access to cultural heritage, like Kringla (Swedish collective museum search), K-samsök or SOCH, and Europeana. Digitizing what is labeled as the national heritage has been a priority in Swedish cultural politics for almost two decades now, and the primary aim is to create an improved access to this shared physical and immaterial fund of (imagined) shared memory for a broad audience. 

These efforts, corresponding to similar projects internationally, have created a possible overview and countless entries to collections, databases and categories that were accessible only to specialists before. However, I believe that a true and equal access of this kind not only requires efforts concerning the range of databases and on-line availability, but also concerning the receiving part, i.e. the users. Many questions pop up in my head: 

- What prerequisites with the user are necessary for her/him to actually benefit from and make use of all these new and almost unlimited possibilities? Basic knowledge of Swedish and European history and geography? Basic knowledge of culture and religion(s)? Knowledge of colonialism, cultural influences, art history, etc..? Or no prerequisites at all?

Coming closer to the material medieval Marys, here placed in a circle as if talking to each other, in Swedish History Museum's exhibition on Virgin Mary in 2008. Physically closer, but also fragmented, and further from the original content and understanding. (Photo: Christer Åhlin/SHM)

- What do we actually mean by 'improved access'? Is it the possibility to look at and come closer to objects and environments that are normally locked away or closed to visitors? Is it going closer, and aided by digital tools on screen seeing details that were previously - when locked up behind glass in a museum counter - invisible to the eye?

- What values does the digital exhibition (potentially) add, and what values are (potentially) lost with the loss of the physical encounter? An example of an, in my opinion, interesting and innovative on-line exhibition is the Metropolitan Museum's (New York) blog 82nd & Fifth, where the knowledgeable experts in the staff each have picked an item and talk about it. Close-ups of the object are showed, but the strongest impression is, I think, hearing the voices and very personal stories told by people who know their subject well and has a vibrant passion for it. So - judging from this example, at least true passion can be mediated through the web.

- What are the relations between digital exhibitions/digitized objects, the Real McCoy (i.e., the real objects and environments), and authenticity? Is it at all possible to experience authenticity when encountering objects etc. on a screen and not in physical reality, or is the authenticity actually perceived as stronger in a close-up perspective - and will this question be totally irrelevant for coming generations..?

The unsurpassed way to coming very, very close: Touching.

These questions are debated in the museum world, for educational as well as for financial reasons, and a key issue - I presume - must be the future role of the costly storage, care and displaying of authentic objects and environments. Whatever the outcome of these discussions, the importance of education and knowledge with the presumed beneficiaries of the great digital and conservation efforts being made in the growing heritage field is crucial. If basic knowledge is not there, a visitor to the Bode Museum in Berlin will not see a Pietà, the emblematic scene of Virgin Mary mourning her dead son, also according to Christian belief the Son of God who has died to save mankind from eternal condemnation and who will resurrect and conquer Death after three days - s/he will see what is actually physically there, and only that: Two old heads on a wall. The improved access in this scenario can be debated, I think. 

Opinions on this?

(Update 24/10/2103:)

I remembered I wanted to link to this article in The Independent, Tuesday 22 Oct, touching on the subject of basic knowledge and education. The bottom line is that a film like Monty Python's 'Life of Brian' (a film where I have to admit I know most of the lines by heart) would have been impossible in Britain of today. Why? According to the article, because this film is based on references to the Bible and Christian history, and people today would not catch a fragment of the jokes being made since they are religious illiterates. If this is the case, I will safe guard my old Monty Python collection with extra care, since it appears to be on the endangered species list.

Close-up on a fragmented Pietà in Bode Museum, Berlin. The parts left out are filled in by our imagination - given that we have the required knowledge. If not, the two heads make very little sense.

Roman Workday

Yes. I wish this were the regular work look for a Museology researcher in Rome, but, alas: Sweating, no regular motorino driving, sadly no Gregory Peck, and good walking shoes is more like it.

Installed in - at least to a Scandinavian - hot and humid Rome, all children safely arrived as is my research material. Renting an apartment that turned out to be without wifi, we were reminded of how large a part of our lives that is dependent on internet: communication, school, work, banks, information, newspapers, timetables, ticket offices, data storage, and so on. Quite annoying, but we will work it out and try to remember what we used to talk about before smartphones and ipads entered our lives.

Installed also in what will be my work desk until May next year: a table in the beautiful and quiet library of Istituto Svedese di Studi Classici, the Swedish Institute for Classical Studies, in Northern Rome near the Villa Borghese park. Here, the foreign research institutes for art, archaeology, history, architecture, and other humanistic fields are flocking in what was once the outskirts of Rome, but now is regarded as rather central and elegant quarters. The history behind the accumulation of foreign institutes here is quite spectacular; Mussolini decided he wanted foreign states to establish research institutes in Italy, and he offered a piece of land in this Northern part of town to states who promised to build a beautiful and prestigious building and fill it with scientific activity, and also to offer a correspondent piece of land in their respective capitals. The Swedish Institute in Rome was founded in 1925, supported by the Crown Prince Gustav Adolf (later King Gustaf VI Adolf) who had an ardent interest in archaeology. In 1939 the present building in Via Omero, designed by famous Swedish architect Ivar Tengbom, was inaugurated and decorated with furniture and art signed by the most prominent Swedish designers and artists at the time.

Istituto Svedese in Via Omero, 14

Starting out with a classical profile in archaeology and classical studies, the Swedish Institute now has broadened its scope and houses also researchers in Art history, Architecture, Philology, as well as Heritage Studies and other more recently emerged disciplines. Working in this environment means a lot of benefits; first and foremost, a possibility to work in a beautiful and calm environment specially designed for this kind of work, and near the rich sources of historical layers, archives, libraries, buildings, art collections and other such things that make a nerd's eyes sparkle. But also, and not less important, a possibility to meet and talk with a vast range of other researchers from all over the world. In the few days I have been here, I have already met a couple of very good scholars working on journeys to Rome in Premodern time, i.e. with interests quite close to mine - where else would we meet, but here?

Work desk in 1930's design, carrying 2012 computer showing a 17th century diary. A Roman Mille Foglie ('thousand sheets') cake of historical layers.

And then, finally, the magic of authenticity, touching, following the footsteps of... We live very close to the Porta del Popolo, which was the regular entrance to Rome for travelers from the North in 17th century. Though surrounded by cars, motorinos, restaurants, trams and electric light, it is still there. From dusk til dawn and late night, I like to take a walk there just to imagine for a while what it was like to arrive there at different times of the day (as described in the 17th century diaries I study), after what was sometimes a hard journey, and after weeks and months of anticipation - finally there. 

And for me: Finally here.

Porta del Popolo, late 18th century engraving by Giuseppe Vasi

It all started with a headless Jesus

Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. 15th century sculpture in Strängnäs cathedral (Sweden)

Every so often in the enigmatic world of Academia, when confronted with the arduous work of clever colleagues, a question springs to mind: How on earth did s/he come up with this topic? And what in it was so thrilling, so tickling, so calling out to be explored that it was considered worth spending at least four years of hard work on? Not that it doesn't seem interesting (it often does), it is just the level of specialization that might have a deterrent effect on the non-specialists in the field in question - i.e., sadly, almost everyone.   

For me, it all started with a headless Jesus. The time and place were the end of the 1990’s in the medieval brick cathedral of Strängnäs, Sweden, and I was presented to an image showing Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. The sculpture was medieval, made of wood and displaying clear signs of neglect and being out of fashion during the past centuries - not a unique state for Catholic objects that for some reason were spared after the Reformation. Now, however, the image not only was given a prominent position in the cathedral, but even honored with a fresh rose and a living candle placed before it on a small altar. All in all, the signs were clear: This was a living relation, a devotion of and an interaction with the divine. ”—We have brought Mary back into the church!”, the Lutheran parish priest stated. It was when I approached and actually looked more closely on the Virgin that I discovered the headless state of baby Jesus. In an instant I discovered that I reacted in a number of habitual ways: as interested in the heritage field and historical matters in one way, as a former museum emplyee in another, and as a frequent visitor to Catholic churches in yet another way. 

The worn, historic image of Mary with a headless baby Jesus in her arms and candles and a flower placed before it sent out, at least to my mind, mixed signals: Was this a historical object to be regarded with nostalgia, was it part of a national or ecclesiastical heritage to be interpreted as sheer materiality, or was it the sacred image it was once made to be, and – despite the headlessness – still a relevant object for devotion? Or, I asked myself, could it actually be all these things at the same time – a state of hybridity, dependent on the beholder and its gaze, prerequisites and convictions? Standing there in the dusky church, a process started that eventually led to studies in Heritage politics, to a Master thesis in History of Ideas and science, and to the topic for the dissertation I am presently working on.

Skokloster Castle 17th century library, Sweden. (Photo: Bengt A Lundberg)

A clue to the ambiguous relationship to materiality, authenticity and sacredness that I became aware of when meeting the headless Jesus might be the years I worked in the rare book collection at Skokloster Castle. When being bought by the Swedish state in 1967 and transformed into a museum, Skokloster also formed a practice and a view on conservation that is still valid in heritage environments. Here it was actually possible to follow and understand the original building process from start to finish, through the books in the library, through letters ordering tools from Holland and other countries, through the same tools still preserved, and through the woodworks, ceiling constructions and lime mortar that were produced on the building site. Conservation was performed by using these original and authentic methods, and the golden rule was to add as little as possible - just to keep the old parts together. How this practice, with the carefully re-glued flakes of paints on the walls, sometimes clashes with the expectations of the visitors is quite vividly illuminated by the crass statement by an American tourist: "This place needs fixing.".

Being educated in this view, the supremacy of material authenticity, I had no problems with heritage objects looking really scruffy - as a matter of fact, the scruffiness just added to my belief in the authenticity. No, the problem with the headless Jesus was something else: it touched upon sacredness and the claims of being "alive" in its original function, as a devotional object. Could this work, even without a head?

In an article, presently under publication (November 2013, Gotländskt Arkiv), I explore the use of medieval religious materiality and practices on Gotland, Sweden, in premodern time and up to now. Without giving away too much of the article, it can be said that the general attitude towards sacred matter presently out of fashion has been severely unsentimental, down-to-earth and utilitarian, and that the appreciation of immaterial values in this category emerged with Romanticism, Piranesi's etchings of Roman ruins and the entrance of the Artist as a major character.

Today, authenticity and sacredness seem to merge in a highly subjective narrative, not primarily based on historical or theological facts, but on what might very well be the most influential currency of our time: Emotions. In this perspective it is hardly surprising that many visitors to the medieval church ruins of Visby, Gotland, express that they experience a particularly strong authenticity during the annual Medieval Festival ('Medeltidsveckan') when the former Franciscan church of S.t Catherine is filled to the brim with reenacting visitors watching jesters performing a fire show. The former sacred building has transformed into a live scene for medieval reenactment, and the result is experienced authenticity and - for some - even a sense of sacredness.

Returning to Mary and her headless baby Jesus, one question seems inevitable: Sacredness - is it objective, or is it all in the eye of the beholder?

Jester from performance group 'Trix' performing a fire show in S.t Catherine's church ruin, Visby. (Photo: Helen Simonsson)