Symbolic Machines: Institutional Transformation Through Exhibitions

With contributions from artists, scholars and curators, this book examines how exhibitions not only reflect but can also challenge and reshape a museum's relevance to its audience.

Artistic critiques have long revealed the gendered, classed and colonial power structures embedded within institutions. Recently, however, there has been a shift toward institutional self-critique, with even major museums increasingly addressing their practices and narratives in public dialogue with audiences. By integrating historical context with contemporary analysis, Symbolic Machines explores these transformations and shows how museums and exhibitions can actively engage with societal change.

Edited by Pernille Lystlund Matzen, curator and PhD, and Jacob Lund, associate professor of Aesthetics and Culture at Aarhus University, this volume presents a diverse range of perspectives on the changing practices and critical functions of museums and exhibitions. Contributors include Nora Sternfeld, Yvette Mutumba, Cem A., Kim West, Giulia Bellinetti, Lucia Pietroiusti and James Voorhies.

Distributed for Aarhus University Press in association with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.