MUNDANEUM KOT SEMIOTIČNI KONDENZATOR: IZZIVI INTERPRETACIJE KULTURNE DEDIŠČINE V KONTEKSTU NJENE HIBRIDIZACIJE
The Mundaneum as a Semiotic Condenser: Challenges of Interpreting Cultural Heritage in the Context of its Hybridisation

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses certain heritage interpretation challenges posed by both the hybridisation of heritage institutions (the blurred boundaries between libraries/museums/ archives) and the visitor’s increasingly mediatised experience of heritage. The Mundaneum – a Belgian archival, museum and exhibition centre – is used as a case study. It is analysed as a semiotic condenser – a heritage object that actively reinforces and develops its symbolic status as a ‘paper Google’, thereby emphasising its significance for the past, present and future. I offer narratological analysis of the genesis of this symbolism in scientific discussions and focus on heritage interpretation in the context of the Mundaneum’s archive of 30,000 optical lantern glass slides in order to highlight the challenges such symbolic and conceptual approaches to heritage bring to its responsible interpretation.

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