Museum Bronbeek: A Semiotic Analysis
THE NATION IN A “NEVER LAND” CONTEXT
Considering the term ‘national,’ I would like to stress our point of view by defining the term and its usage in connection with Bronbeek. Does the ‘Dutch’ identity stand for an all inclusive nationality, such as to be expected in a modern day super diverse society, or is there still an element of exclusion? “How and why museums are able to act as manifestations of identity or sites for the contested identities requires a ‘denaturalizing’ of the concept of ‘identity’. That is, we need to be able to see our notions of particular identities, including ‘national identity’, not as
universal but as historically and culturally specific. What is entailed in even ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’, ‘the nation’ or ‘the public’?”[1] Perhaps by ‘denaturalizing’ or deconstruction of identity we will be able to gain a better understanding of this notion.In this specific case, the national identity should perhaps be seen not as universal, but instead be placed in a more historical and cultural context. By treating the entire Bronbeek estate in relation to the exhibition, the objects within it, and by selecting one object in particular, we can deepen our semiotic analysis even further. The integrity of this approach will hopefully show the concepts and ideas, as well as the meaning that they might carry.
Historical Background
After the Indonesian independence declaration in 1949, civilians were forced to make a choice; either accept the Indonesian nationality or become a citizen of the Netherlands. Even before the repatriation process was put into action, the question of inclusion and exclusion was already being raised. Who are we and to which ethnic group do we belong? Issues such as social economic diversity, citizenship and identity have all been reoccurring themes that have been used to justify this division process. From about 1946 till 1968 an estimate of 300.000 men, women and children were repatriated to their new adopted country. This group of ‘migrants’ consisted of Dutch colonialists, Indonesians, Indo-Dutch and other Indo-Europeans. In comparison with other migrants they apparently settled into their new life ‘with relatively ease.’[2] However, with such differences in geographical, linguistic and ethnical backgrounds, these people were left without much choice other than making the best of the situation they were in. The need for common roots and a sense of identity probably resulted in the establishment of an Indonesian remembrance center, a place where reflectance and remembrance were (and still are being) shared.
Y.R. Isar sums up this notion by stating; “…spatial or temporal disruptions- war, conflicts or crisis- have an impact on a collectives’ sense of continuity, and are remembered differently by different groups, who might uphold divergent accounts of the ‘historical truth’ or authentic memory of the event.”[3]
Initially a remembrance center was housed in the Hague but had to close its doors due to mismanagement. In 2007 a new site was put forward; the estate Bronbeek- which already had Indonesian roots with the establishment of the KNIL (Koninklijke Nederlands Indisch Leger- Royal Dutch Indonesian Army) retirement home as far back as the 1850’s. Originally a military museum, Bronbeek Museum was troubled with near closure in the 1980’s, but by intervention of the Ministry of Defense and with the backing of the Indo-Dutch community this was obstructed.[4] This backing may have been an important incentive for the center to finally settle here. The focus of remembrance is on the Japanese Invasion and Bersiap period[5] – places in time that still hold many open wounds. As the museum could no longer have a narrative told only from the military perspective, the civilian story had to be incorporated as well. This has resulted in a new exhibition that attempts to show both views of the tumultuous past of colonialisation in Indonesia.
“History is always a problematic and incomplete reconstruction about what doesn´t exist anymore. The memory is always an actual phenomenon. A living link in the eternal present: a representation of the history of the past. Memory doesn´t accommodates to a details that comfort it, it lives from their own remembrances”[6].
The ‘Neverland’ Semiotics of Bronbeek
Some of the aims the Indisch Remembrance center wishes to achieve, is by way of educating a new generation via various up-to-date media through which the historical ‘truth’ of the period of colonialization can be told.
The attempt “memory-boom”[7] resulted in the designing of a web/portal containing written material, video and photography and a virtual exhibition experience. The latest media that has been developed is a pop cultural educational comic book. The comic book offers two options; either finish the chapters and close the book, or become part of it.
What could happen if we go to “Neverland”[8]?
For the purpose of this paper we will use Neverland both as a word and as concept. Neverland is the only place where infinity is possible. It can be treated as space of constant flow of time and the constant interaction of object and meaning. Even dough it brings pleasant association of a fairytale it can be linked to other symbols and meanings. Death can also be treated as a state of continuity. Talking about Broonbeek we should be aware of the fact that it is an artificial space strongly linked with death not only because it consists out of a historical building, retirement home and a cemetery, but also because of the monuments in the park. Their meaning has disappeared in other places and they have been brought to Bronbeek with a hope of reincarnation of their values. Time relations that can be seen in Bronbeek carry in themselves a peculiar quality. With the link of the space with the historical beginnings and at the same with the imperative of not forgetting the sense of time is nullified. Time flow is not existing.
Neverland has a magic landscape it changes by the power of inhabitants will, if you wish for a mountain a mountain appears, if you wish upon a tree it grows in front of your eyes and Bronbeek has transformed the magic into power of creation and cultivation. Here objects do not magically appear they are premeditated for the sake of creating the opportune landscape.
After creation of landscape and altering the sense of time the most convenient tool for achieving the preferred mindset of the visitor is active imagination. As Baudelaire said, the creative imagination or fantasy is the wonderful sense that we can substitute in every sense, is the prophetic vision of absolute reality, and is the queen of the human faculties.
Once the visitor is standing in this sensitive landscape of activation it becomes easy to manipulate with concepts like “national”. Treated as a concept that can be understood only in special combination of time and space, national exists only in fantasy complex.
This paper will treat the Bronbeek Military museum both as a fantasy complex and as tool for enhancing the perpetum mobile of imagination. The museum can be considered for and treated as an optical tool that allows the process of distancing from time and space. Beside detachment from real, museum is able to create the atmosphere of moral distancing from past, present or future reality. It can be used for alteration of the spectators view and enhance the creation of manipulated understanding of narrative[9].
The Bronbeeks’ ‘NATIONAL’ complex
The layout of Bronbeek can be viewed as a hierarchal paradigm- with the exhibition in its center. The outermost layer gives the visitor a taste of what is to be expected in its inner core. It is however necessary to think within the concept of the surrounding as a whole with attention paid to the ways in which the configuration of outer space is reflected on the creation of the internal interaction of the objects. Both, the outside and inside function as heterotopias[10] and would not exist without the interaction between time and space, and space and object. They are the space of virtual reality with a specifically designed framework and rules of survival within it. Museum is laconically presented as a sort of place that, by its setup, refers to intricate networks of “othertimes”[11].
With entering into this “Neverland” space, a visitor, the potential participator, is transformed into a spectator that will be hypnotized by all the wonders of battles, heroes and innocent victims, with its smells and colors – a sense of beautiful togetherness.
The narrative tries to reset the spectator’s mind by implanting a sense of initial peacefulness and dignity by the placement of the remembrance monuments in the green cultivated landscape. The idea of cultivating could be understood as a re-landscape of the time and space where its inhabitants with uniforms, mustaches and slow movements start to take the role of “avatars in this game”. This idea of cultivate park understanding as a common place of the cultural branch where the objects of remembrance and devotion, are in fact a pilgrimage to the “Neverland” of national identity.
The sense of proudness is intensified by effect of intimidation and superiority as seen in the architecture of the building. Evocation of the great national styles of Romanticism corresponds to other museum buildings that have the same purpose. Graceful arches and side wings enhance the greatness and power of a nation. Also, the centralized position within the estate emphasizes the domination of an artificial manmade object over nature.
This type of domination could be recognized in the way power relations and tensions were made in the architectural layout of the complex and how they are exhibited inside of the museum. The relation between the dominant and the subordinate is strongly visualized by difference of design and the type of physical relation between the powerful monumental building of the Military Museum and the former barn house that shelters the Indishe Remembrance center. The almost lyrical scenery of the brick house can have a seriously different connotation, having in mind the today purposes of these two objects.
Exhibition
The order of the exhibition’s line narrative tells the story that gives a narrow framework for interpretation. Object and meaning are separate autonomous entities; meaning appears only within the interaction of viewer with the object. Historical displays operate as power plays in which plays of power circulate with the movement of viewers trough their curated space, in which we can see without having to be seen and reflect on our own place in the designed story line[12]. We are costumed to analyze things in nation state way, however today this nexus of cultural and nation no longer dominates. The notion of national is possible only artificial conditions using history as the primary tool that is embodied in particular sacred object.
Inside of the historical narrative of the military museum embodied in the exhibition ‘The Story of Indonesia’, the power relations within the national story line can be seen in the symbolism of the a large colonial four-poster bed .The marriage bed could be seen as a symbol of creation of unified nation bind with collaboration. But at the same time it could be interpreted as an object that bears controversial symbolic tension of gender. The oppression of divided roles in marriage is rooted in the traditional idea of binary relation between man and woman, with the man as a powerful one. Instead of using the physical strength, determined by gender, “man” turns from powerful to oppressive. Two institutions, marriage and museum, mirror each other in object itself and the interrelation is enhanced by the ideal scenery surrounding it. Power plays of traditional roles of consensual unity can be transposed to the museum as a whole.
The power relation exists only in the realm of object. Moving from the space of the object meaning disappears. Based on the reasoning of Jacques Rancière, the marriage bed can be considered as an image «naked», only doomed to witness. Because the testimony always looks something beyond what it presents. There are always images which are not shown, which take us to a second interpretive and critical look[13]. The strategy of design is fulfilled with the repeating motion of military artifacts. The atmosphere of absolute truthfulness of the space is hypnotizing the audience that co-plays[14] with the context.
The historical narrative of glory and greatness is supported and shaped by usage of colors, the insignia of greatness and iconic images and the way they play with the visitors senses enhance the overall feeling of power and pride. The Museum can alter the perception of the spectator by manipulating it[15]. Museum displays may transform, but the cultural influence can linger indefinitely.
“The tendency of the memory of power celebration is responsible for the construction of ethnocentric and personalistic collections, treated as if they were expressions of the totality of things and beings or the museological reproduction of universal, as if they could express the real in all its complexity, from which conflict is banished by means of magic thinking”[16].
Even today present relation between new, different or created identities and “national” defines the everlasting mindset that frames the position of perceiving and interpreting the content of exhibitions story line. The question of genetic root of creating the”other” is in this case justified. Domination principal of constant production of “otherness” and distance from space surrounding it is found in the one dominant reading of the narrative that emphasize the Dutch “national” and creates a “flexibility” of incorporating all the ”other” that can be related to the story line.
The politics of symbols are quite powerful, because they invoke ideals, recast realities, and manufacture meanings. Museum exhibits may not change public policies, but they can change other larger values and practices that in turn could transform a policy[17]. Therefore the scope of Impact museum and his exhibition could have on the society can have immeasurable consequences. “The lost treasure is not in the past is lost in the present, but it is important to remember (or do not forget) that it may arise suddenly and burn the living «[18].Power plays between military and civil, history and contested history, memory and deliberate forgetting, that are readable in almost every part of Military complex in Bronbeek could have a serious impact.
Power plays are readable in every segment of Bronbeek, from the complex itself to the canonized narrative and establishment of a retired former KNIL military living on its’ ground. Domination is emphasized, from the way the power of man over nature is stressed and then transposed to the relation between the “otherness” inside, in the exhibition and the object itself. From spatial perspective cultural determination of the place can be seen as departed from its essential meaning.
Once we make a step back and see this giant complex we can start to understand this museological game. Seen from the outside it is nothing more than a construct, a pattern within a pattern. Objects interact and their relations exist only as a stage performed power circle. If all objects are a part of a smaller or even larger pattern, then it is possible that the game, which creates `national` can only occur and later exist inside of the heterotpical corpus.
The dominant forces in this space could be seen as a combination of organic relations and artificial produced relations of heterotopia. Under this premise is valid then ask who carries the power, organic or constructed? Who is the one with ability `to see and not to be seen`?
“Through objects, the symbolic construction of a common history around which a national or a local sense of identity can be forged is played out in museums. Linked to this is a sense of place formed trough the layering of social cultural historical economic natural and personal associations that together give locale its special character and meaning”[19].
Including an object on different paradigms of life we can interpret and have critical relation to the meanings it carries, and judge the way it is used as a symbol inside of a museum. Connotations of previous associations connected to the symbol can shape the way the massage is understood and thus can be an ideal tool for shaping of one-minded spectator.
Is it possible to deconstruct the `Neverland`?
When applying our ability to create relation and a different meaning connected to each object we lose our power to see and perceive the Neverland. The magical construct gives the spectator the feeling of comfort and security. It is not necessary to control the time and space flows, because they are preset for the consumption.
Bronbeek is a Neverland. It is a theme park describing a serious and sensitive historical topic. Choice of using the expirience design exhibition can be interperted in more than one way. Intent could be seen in wanting to create unified perception of history that could become the new historical narrative. The exhibition is talking to the spectator but the question remains what is it saying?
Maybe the domination principal of colonizer and colony has now shifted into the realm of creating the unified historical truth that is more accessible to the new, in reality, multi-divers society. By implementing the ludic idea of “national”, both military and civil, in the approachable and easy understandable media of graphic art with simplified story line, they are designing just a new remembrance and not a memory.
Memory could be constructed by turning the spectator into a participator. When participation takes place the invisible understanding of time and space becomes visible.
The rules of the game are changed, now seeing is touching and only believing in images[20] and symbols is not good enough any more. The participator needs to define the time and space in which he can freely interact with objects. They change and memory cannot exist anymore, when it is not threatened by the notion of forgetting. Power relations and power demonstrations tend to disappear. The hierarchy of roles is shifted, dominant becomes subordinate. Where there is a memory there is forgetting and where there is power there is resistance[21].
This hierarchy puts the museum under pressure of a celebratory concepts of nation and military. This strong constructions create predestination of infinity for the museum but at the same time provoke participator to deconstruct its narratives by connecting them with the present. With taking a step out of Neverland, participator questions not only these concepts of museum, but also the memory.
With struggles of the ‘national’, of the reality and fantasy and ability and disability to see, is it possible to construct `Netherland`?
Bibliography:
- Factsheet Indisch Herinneringscentrum Bronbeek, april 2011
- Isar, Y.R., Viejo-rose, D. and Anheier, H.K. ‘Introduction’ Heritage, Memory & Identity, SAGE Publications Ltd, London, 2011
- Keppy, P. and Kemperman, J. ‘Wetenschappelijke Onderbouwing voor het inrichten van het Indisch Herinneringscentrum Bronbeek’ Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie,Amsterdam: 2 oktober 2008
- Kreps, C. ‘Changing the Rules of the Road: Post-colonialism and the New Ethics of Museum Anthropology ‘The Routledge Companion to Museum Ethics’ Routledge, London and New York, 2011
- 5. Verhoeven, P. ‘Orde op Zaken- Interdisciplinair Conserveringsproject van Museum Bronbeek’
CR 1, 2006, blz.26-29.
[1] Macdonald,S.J., Museums, national, postnational and transcultural identities, in: Museum and Society, Vol. 1, Leicester, 2003
[2] Keppy, P. and Kemperman, J. ‘Wetenschappelijke Onderbouwing voor het inrichten van het Indisch Herinneringscentrum Bronbeek’ Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, Amsterdam, 2008
[3] Isar, Y.R., Viejo-rose, D. and Anheier, H.K. Introduction ‘Heritage, Memory & Identity SAGE Publications Ltd, London, 2011
[4] Verhoeven, P. ‘Orde op Zaken- Interdisciplinair Conserveringsproject van Museum Bronbeek’ CR 1 2006, blz.26-29.
[5] Factsheet Indisch Herinneringscentrum Bronbeek, april 2011
[6]Knevel, P. Les Lieux de Mémoire or a Plea for More Historiography in city and history museums
[7] Memory- boom can be understood as a deliberate choice of forgetting and creating of remembrance instead of memory and passing of this new form to next generations, concept of Raj Isar; used from: Isar, Y.R., Viejo-rose, D. and Anheier, H.K. Introduction ‘Heritage, Memory & Identity’, SAGE Publications Ltd London 2011
[8] ”Neveland” is a fictional world where residents refuse to grow up, and it is often used as a metaphor for eternal childhood (and childishness), immortality, and escapism, created by J.M. Barrie.
[9] van der Duin, M., Does Place Matter in Museology?An inquiry into Michel Foucault’s heterotopia for expanding current museological theory with a theoretical element of place, Reinwardt Academy, 2009
[10] For Foucault the word heterotopia is a construct of other (hetero) and places (topos) wish means otherspaces
[11] van der Duin, M., Does Place Matter in Museology?An inquiry into Michel Foucault’s heterotopia for expanding current museological theory with a theoretical element of place, Reinwardt Academy, 2009
[13] Jacques Rancière, O destino das imagens, Orfen Negro, Lisbon, 2011
[14] Hans Gadamer said, that objects exist only when spectator look at the objects. Objects In space have a relation with one another. The create their own game. The spectator is only a co-player, who adds a new dimension to the already existing playground. In: The Relevance of the Beautiful and Other Essays, Cambridge University Press, 1986.
[15] Does place matter in Museology?
[16] Chagas, M., Memory and Power: two movements
[19] Scot, C., Measuring social value,in: Museums, Society, Inequality, edited by: Richard sandel, London, 2002
[20] Michel Foucault, in: van der Duin, M., Does Place Matter in Museology?An inquiry into Michel Foucault’s heterotopia for expanding current museological theory with a theoretical element of place, Reinwardt Academy, 2009
[21] Michel Foucault, in:
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