54th Annual Conference
International Association of Labour History Institutions
La Contemporaine, Paris (Nanterre)
September 12-14, 2024
Dealing with «activist artefacts» (products of the workers' movement and social movements):
Conservation, valorisation, history
Call for papers
Since the 1970s, the well-known visual turn has been accompanied by a shift in the focus of museums and archives towards collecting and exhibiting objects. Especially the way of representing society in museums has changed fundamentally, so that nowadays the material history is a major trend. This development has affected museums as well archives dealing with the history of labour movements. A real effort is being made to make icons of activism and the protest movement accessible in museums.
Safeguarding, collecting, conserving, describing, making them available for researchers, promoting them and writing their story raises questions. These concern us all as archivists, museum curators, librarians and researchers of various disciplines. In France, the MATOS project (Mémoires, archives et transmission des objets militants; Memories, Archives and Transmission of Activist Objects) has for several months been engaged in a collective reflection on this subject.
More information, also in French and Spanish, in the attached PDF and here !