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Article published In: Museums as Spaces of Cultural Translation and Transfer
Edited by Sophie Decroupet and Irmak Mertens
[Babel 70:5] 2024
► pp. 727–758

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The ethnographic museum as a sensitive translation

The case of the AfricaMuseum in Belgium

 | Ghent University
 | University of Tartu | KU Leuven | Stellenbosch University
Published online: 28 May 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00399.spi
Abstract
This article analyzes the recently renewed, permanent exhibition of the Royal Museum for Central Africa (AfricaMuseum) in Tervuren, Belgium. The museum is seen as a translational space, considering the parallels between, on the one hand, curatorial strategies to represent cultural otherness and, on the other, processes of cultural and interlingual translation (Sturge, Kate. 2007. Representing Others: Translation, Ethnography and the Museum. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). We draw on an interdisciplinary mindset of translation as change and choice, as a multimodal and multimedial activity, and as an inevitably meaning-transforming process. Pressured to keep pace with the rapidly evolving public debate on decolonization, the curators-translators of the AfricaMuseum are aware that they are dealing with “sensitive texts” (Simms, Karl. 1997. Translating Sensitive Texts: Linguistic Aspects. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and have, accordingly, adopted a set of strategies to reduce perceived “translation risks” (Pym, Anthony, and Kayo Matsushita. 2018. “Risk Mitigation in Translator Decisions.” Across Languages and Cultures 19 (1): 1–18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). The article explores these strategies at three levels of translation operating in the museum: cultural, intersemiotic, and interlingual. In particular, we reveal the inherent tensions in the current display by discussing scenographic interventions that undermine the decolonization efforts in a number of galleries. These tensions are conceptualized as incomplete or incoherent forms of translation and illustrate the “work in progress” in the AfricaMuseum.
Résumé
Cet article présente une analyse de l’exposition permanente et récemment renouvelée du Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale (AfricaMuseum) à Tervuren, en Belgique. Le musée est considéré comme un espace de traduction (translational space), compte tenu des parallèles qui existent entre, d’une part, les stratégies de conservation visant à représenter l’altérité culturelle et, d’autre part, les processus de traduction culturelle et interlinguale (Sturge, Kate. 2007. Representing Others: Translation, Ethnography and the Museum. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Nous nous appuyons sur une vision interdisciplinaire de la traduction en tant que changement et choix, où le processus traductif apparaît comme une activité multimodale, multimédiale et transformatrice de sens. Dans un souci d’être en phase avec le débat public sur la décolonisation, les conservateurs·trices/traducteurs·trices de l’AfricaMuseum, conscient·e·s de la « sensibilité » de leurs textes (Simms, Karl. 1997. Translating Sensitive Texts: Linguistic Aspects. Amsterdam: Rodopi. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), recourent à un ensemble de stratégies permettant de réduire les « risques de traduction » perçus (Pym, Anthony, and Kayo Matsushita. 2018. “Risk Mitigation in Translator Decisions.” Across Languages and Cultures 19 (1): 1–18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Notre article propose d’examiner ces stratégies à trois niveaux de traduction opérant dans le musée – culturelle, intersémiotique et interlinguistique. En particulier, l’analyse montre les tensions inhérentes à l’exposition actuelle en mettant en évidence certaines interventions scénographiques qui compromettent le travail de décolonisation initié ailleurs. Ces tensions, qualifiées de traductions incomplètes ou incohérentes, illustrent bien le « work in progress » dans l’AfricaMuseum.
Article outline
  • 1.Museums as resemiotized and sensitive translations
  • 2.Analytical value of translation concepts in museums
  • 3.The renovated AfricaMuseum
  • 4.Translating the cultural other: Risk mitigation strategies
    • 4.1Collective workflows
    • 4.2Enhanced visibility
  • 5.Intersemiotic translation: Contradictions and disjunctions
    • 5.1The provenance problem
    • 5.2Time, culture and nature
    • 5.3The aestheticized fragment
  • 6.The actors in the interlingual translation process
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
References (57)
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