The museum of the mind : art and memory in world cultures
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The museum of the mind : art and memory in world cultures
British Museum Press, c2003
Available at 4 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 152-156) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This thought-provoking book accompanies an exhibition which will draw together some of the Museum's most important objects in the context of its 250th anniversary. It addresses questions such as how, when and why people or events are commemorated, at the same time examining how the British Museum itself is celebrated and remembered. Institutions such as the BM, devoted to collections of cultural objects, provide extensive insight into the ways in which memory operates in a wide variety of different social and historical circumstances. Commemorative items of many sorts are their stock in trade, as illustrated widely here: painted or sculpted portraits, medals, coins and banknotes, sepulchres, reliquaries, inscriptions, souvenirs and memorabilia, photographs and archives, and diaries. Beyond its collection, the Museum itself has necessarily become a place of memory, from its architecture to the naming of its parts. This catalogue addresses fundamental questions concerning the linkage between the creation of objects and the creation of memory as an aspect of human culture in general.
Ultimately, memory is tied up with the complex question of identity, personal identity and social or cultural identity. As the surrealist film-maker Luis Bunuel wrote: 'You have to begin to lose your memory, if only in bits and pieces, to realise that memory is what makes our lives. Life without memory is no life at all.'
Table of Contents
- Preface by Neil MacGregor
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The British Museum and other theatres of memory
- 2 In the mind's eye
- 3 Mnemonic devices
- 4 Memori populi
- 5 Remembering and forgetting events
- 6 In memoriam
- 7 Memorabilia
- Bibliography
by "Nielsen BookData"