Fetiš návštěvnost
V nedávné době jsme mohli sledovat různorodé strategie předních kulturních institucí v České republice, kterými se snažily zejména oslovit co nejširší publikum a přitáhnout tak na sebe pozornost.
Koncem února tohoto roku byly též zveřejněny výsledky průzkumu Americké aliance muzeí (AAM), ze kterého vyplynulo, že nejzávažnější překážkou pro potenciální návštěvníky je především markantní úbytek volného času.
Jak se v současné situaci pohybovat a jak kvalitně a kontinuálně komunikovat s návštěvníkem byly otázky, které jsme kladli vybraným muzeologům, ředitelům galerií, kurátorům a odborníkům na PR a komunikaci.
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- Passivity was a characteristic feature of museums in the past,00:00:03.497
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- they set opening hours, sold tickets, provided museum security guards00:00:06.615
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- and by imposing lots of bans and prohibitions00:00:12.921
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- they made the visitors feel as if they were intruders00:00:16.611
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- bothering the museum in its grandness, ceremoniousness and loneliness.00:00:20.659
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- FETISH VISITOR RATES00:00:42.378
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- According to the results of a research00:00:52.878
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- about 20% of the population regularly visit museums00:00:55.670
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- that is perhaps the maximum.00:01:03.155
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- And then there are people who will never come,00:01:08.535
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- despite a British survey from the early 1990s00:01:14.246
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- according to which every inhabitant of Europe00:01:19.210
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- visited a museum at least once in his life.00:01:21.857
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- CHAPTER 1 Statistics of visitor rates: Conception and History00:01:26.602
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- Visitor numbers are monitored very carefully,00:01:34.449
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- and I must say "unfortunately"00:01:37.889
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- because all those statistical data are just a quantity indicator00:01:39.274
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- and says nothing about the quality.00:01:46.348
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- It doesn´t mean that high visitor numbers00:01:49.130
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- reflect high quality.00:01:58.517
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- What I find sad is the fact that these numbers00:02:02.577
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- reflect institutions which hand in the paper with statistical data,00:02:06.922
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- because it´s not based on anything else,00:02:15.033
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- The National Information and Consulting Centre for Culture (NIPOS)00:02:18.510
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- has the right to demand this questionnaire00:02:23.232
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- from museums established by the state or regional authorities,00:02:25.363
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- and the rest of the museums, including private ones,00:02:29.148
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- are also obliged to hand in the questionnaire,00:02:38.604
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- but if they don´t they cannot be penalized.00:02:42.376
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- So only those who want to fill in this questionnaire,00:02:52.381
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- and those institutions which declare themselves as museums.00:02:55.830
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- Now I must say what we mean by the word museum.00:02:57.968
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- This doesn´t mean that every institution called a museum is in fact a museum00:03:00.651
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- because a number of institutions use the word "museum" or "gallery"00:03:05.635
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- for commercial reasons, that´s why I said that unfortunately the visitor-numbers00:03:10.564
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- are monitored and the results are misleading.00:03:17.285
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- Monitoring visitor-numbers started in 1965 by the Central Museological Cabinet,00:03:20.760
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- I´ve been working in museums since 1968 so I remember well filling them in.00:03:26.763
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- Until the revolution it was done by the Central Museological Cabinet,00:03:35.166
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- and I think the statistical data haven´t been shredded.00:03:40.327
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- and they are still sitting in boxes in the archive of the National Museum.00:03:46.135
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- After the revolution, from 1992 or 93, monitoring visitor-numbers became the duty of NIPOS00:03:52.185
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- they took over the original forms and added some minor changes,00:04:00.065
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- and later on a group of people began to delve into the issue.00:04:05.153
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- In comparison with the time after the revolution,00:04:15.280
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- the visitor numbers started to rise dramatically.00:04:18.049
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- Then there was a really sharp fall,00:04:21.104
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- and then the numbers began to gradually rise again.00:04:23.639
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- But even the ten or eleven million we have now00:04:27.523
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- is nothing in comparison with the high numbers in the past.00:04:29.987
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- But what was really behind those high visitor numbers.00:04:33.548
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- In the past political exhibitions were a great success because of number of visitors.00:04:41.837
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- Museum directors did not cheat, the high numbers of tickets were really sold00:04:46.937
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- because schools were forced to go and see such exhibitions,00:04:54.018
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- even today teachers, who remember this,00:04:58.819
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- don´t like taking their students to museums.00:05:02.983
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- Tickets were also sold to factory workers through the Trade Unions,00:05:07.101
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- and nobody cared if they actually went or not.00:05:13.158
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- The important thing was that all the numbered tickets were sold.00:05:16.958
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- That´s where the millions of visitors came from.00:05:19.861
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- I think statistic data are used as a political propaganda,00:05:22.970
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- look at what our government achieved,00:05:30.164
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- or similarly look at what our region achieved...00:05:33.606
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- With view to financial politics I don´t think somebody would use this argument,00:05:40.671
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- and certainly not with view to budgets by regional authorities.00:05:52.113
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- There they ask: How much money did you have last year?00:05:57.162
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- And either you get less or the same amount.00:06:00.189
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- Museums keep track of visitor numbers but not many know who their visitors really are.00:06:06.074
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- When judging the educational effect of visits to museums00:06:18.728
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- we cannot take into account only quantitative indicators in statistical forms,00:06:21.768
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- in which we count heterogenous individuals00:06:26.635
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- to get an abstract picture of an average visitor.00:06:32.420
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- We need to apply also quality criteria00:06:36.243
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- which can show us how effective a visit to a museum really was.00:06:39.262
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- There is no doubt that the final effect of a visit to a museum00:06:44.578
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- to a certain degree depends on the ability of the visitor00:06:50.092
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- to perceive the exhibited objects,00:06:54.354
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- how well he understands the language of objects,00:06:55.999
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- if he is able to take advantage of the offered stimuli.00:06:58.720
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- In this respect, there are great differences among people,00:07:01.732
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- which should not be underestimated.00:07:04.085
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- That is why we speak about different types of visitors.00:07:06.784
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- CHAPTER 2 Statistics of visitor numbers and selected institutions00:07:13.442
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- Visit figures are in a way a quantified success of a gallery.00:07:19.619
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- But of course we know this is not right.00:07:25.517
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- We should be interested in the content regardless of of visitor-rates.00:07:27.708
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- This is just one criterion,00:07:30.336
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- and it does not mean that the higher numbers of visitors00:07:31.778
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- the better the quality of the exhibition.00:07:36.503
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- It´s not that simple.00:07:39.423
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- It surely is a criterion which should be taken into account,00:07:42.511
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- and to a certain extent it does tell us how popular the actual institution is.00:07:46.368
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- Visitor rates are an important criterion for sponsors.00:07:53.150
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- It was quite interesting that when I mentioned last year´s visit figures00:07:57.133
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- - which was 380 000 -00:08:04.505
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- everybody was surprised because they all expected a much lower number.00:08:07.653
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- Of course, we would like the visitor numbers to at least double.00:08:11.566
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- Especially when we compare our museums and galleries with those abroad.00:08:16.544
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- We keep track of the visitor numbers,00:08:22.457
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- but I cannot judge how sponsors assess these figures.00:08:28.603
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- For them it is just a piece of information without context.00:08:36.558
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- All statistics need to be seen in context00:08:40.779
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- because, to be honest, numbers can be easily changed.00:08:46.060
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- I keep comparing and even that can have an effect on the statistics.00:08:48.870
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- Either I compare myself with the better ones or the worse ones.00:08:57.317
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- And this itself brings some kind of results.00:09:00.638
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- Visitor numbers certainly have an influence on financing of the National Gallery.00:09:05.578
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- Visitors generate the income from admission.00:09:09.836
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- Naturally, our target is free admission,00:09:15.552
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- which we have achieved at least in case of youth under 26.00:09:18.772
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- But it does not influence the financing of the National Gallery from the Ministry of Culture00:09:22.349
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- because the Ministry wants us to gain profit from admission,00:09:29.074
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- but it doesn´t have an influence on the money we get from the Ministry.00:09:33.756
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- We deal with the data ourselves,00:09:39.216
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- and we are obliged to provide our organizer00:09:43.112
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- with these data for processing.00:09:48.133
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- However, this does not have much of an effect on our following work.00:09:51.014
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- We do not prepare exhibitions to attract hundreds of thousand viewers,00:09:58.839
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- there are many themes that only a limited number of people are interested in,00:10:04.955
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- but the theme deserves our attention,00:10:09.692
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- so we are trying to find the right balance00:10:13.123
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- between themes attractive for the general public00:10:21.633
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- and themes that the general public doesn´t find so appealing.00:10:27.614
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- It is mostly our favorite theme that is less popular with the general public.00:10:35.020
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- But I still think it is the duty of the institution to prepare specialized exhibitions.00:10:47.181
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- We try to work with statistical data as much as we can,00:10:53.295
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- and this perhaps led to the fact that if there are too many exhibitions00:11:00.780
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- we fail to inform about them effectively.00:11:10.488
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- It´s as if you kept producing something and had no purchasers,00:11:13.162
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- or in our case visitors to exhibitions.00:11:19.398
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- So the processing of statistical data leads to certain management decisions -00:11:21.608
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- we´d like to cut down on the number of exhibitions,00:11:31.827
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- and devote more attention to details and advertising.00:11:33.791
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- We want to spend more money on programs and events accompanying exhibitions,00:11:39.599
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- and on promotion of our exhibitions.00:11:47.386
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- Our decision to enable free admission to the permanent collection was like a kind of awakening00:11:49.038
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- because suddenly we realized that many things don´t work right.00:11:55.367
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- During this experiment, which lasted three months,00:12:00.399
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- we found out that the public was interested in the permanent collections,00:12:05.666
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- and the visitor numbers in the given months increased manifold00:12:10.718
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- in comparison with the previous period.00:12:15.452
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- We also tried to eliminate everything from the statistic data that made the figures look better.00:12:17.951
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- The institutions are under pressure in relation to grants or cultural politics,00:12:27.197
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- or the fact that they receive for instance public funding,00:12:33.877
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- or that the international trend is changing somehow.00:12:38.489
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- Of course, this is not a completely new discussion,00:12:42.293
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- related to the public and that we should work with the public.00:12:45.220
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- Naturally, this has been dealt with in a different context a long time ago00:12:49.257
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- and in our context it was a different story again, in the era of socialism.00:12:54.369
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- So there is a certain pressure on the one hand,00:13:03.440
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- which, I think, the representatives of the institutions are not really interested in,00:13:09.874
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- it isn´t really connected with their work, to communicate with the viewer..00:13:15.753
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- I think that for most curators, it shouldn´t be this way,00:13:21.876
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- and many people try to think in a different way,00:13:28.815
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- in fact it comes last... it´s similar with artists,00:13:31.648
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- they come up with a project, tune it up00:13:39.976
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- with view to place, space and content,00:13:45.558
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- everything has been solved,00:13:47.421
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- and a number of other steps taken,00:13:49.936
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- and mostly at the very end you feel that somebody should come there and see what it´s like.00:13:53.400
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- On the other hand, you can´t think of everything from the very start,00:14:03.268
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- this is not a matter of supply and demand.00:14:08.536
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- it can´t be done this way.00:14:16.498
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- I think that it´s an extreme situation here,00:14:19.236
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- because the viewer is taken into account only when we apply for a grant00:14:25.734
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- we have to fill in a form and state the visitor numbers00:14:30.657
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- and we find out that nobody really saw it.00:14:33.827
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- This kind of pressure doesn´t cause a proper dialogue with the viewer.00:14:35.750
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- It is perhaps more about a shift in thinking.00:14:39.994
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- Opening hours in museums are the same as usual working hours.00:14:47.922
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- So in fact museums are available only for those who are not at work.00:14:51.231
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- For retired people, tourists, holiday makers and groups of school children.00:14:57.215
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- This logically increases concentration of people at weekends and holidays,00:15:02.512
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- while during weekdays exhibition rooms are nearly empty.00:15:07.772
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- Extended opening hours, which might attract people00:15:10.515
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- to go to museums after work, do not exist.00:15:14.980
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- In that case museums would have to offer programs00:15:18.344
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- comparable with a theater or concert hall,00:15:21.358
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- something more attractive than just viewing an exhibition or collection00:15:23.962
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- and to ensure an effective promotion of such a novelty.00:15:29.748
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- CHAPTER 3 Problems in communication00:15:38.554
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- In general, I think, a gallery has to function as one organism.00:15:44.902
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- I understand that everybody has his own role,00:15:51.326
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- but in order to work well, the gallery´s departments have to be connected better.00:15:56.569
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- I can even imagine a kind of open-space00:16:16.500
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- where the people constantly talk together00:16:21.728
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- and I think it makes sense00:16:28.204
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- because now everybody works on his own thing00:16:31.052
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- and then he presents his work and looks for connections.00:16:34.780
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- This can be avoided, we are not a factory.00:16:38.047
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- Those guys are creative, a public relations person can say something interesting,00:16:45.221
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- that can be used in the educational and exhibition department,00:16:51.082
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- leading to an integrated approach, which is the only way to do it.00:16:58.640
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- And this isn´t happening here, because it´s inconvenient,00:17:09.559
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- you have to be "there" all the time,00:17:13.528
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- the people can clearly say what they are working on,00:17:16.834
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- but they should work for the gallery as a whole.00:17:24.212
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- This is also related to the basic question:00:17:28.326
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- What should an exhibition look like and who is it intended for?00:17:32.288
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- According to me this question has to be completely relooked.00:17:35.421
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- This is the way it works nowadays:00:17:39.534
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- a whole team works on an exhibition - an architect,00:17:43.367
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- a curator, a graphic designer, an installation group -00:17:47.501
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- and then they leave it there and people are expected to come and see it00:17:53.963
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- but the people don´t come or just a few.00:18:00.300
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- So all those people put in the work, it´s on show for four months,00:18:05.115
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- other people are sent in to guard the exhibition.00:18:13.288
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- Is that the result of the work?00:18:17.228
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- No, I don´t think so.00:18:21.208
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- We are only half way through the work.00:18:22.895
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- And the institution has to see it this way.00:18:25.480
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- We have done half the work,00:18:30.170
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- the exhibition is ready and now we want to talk about it.00:18:31.502
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- Exhibitions provoke questions, an exhibition is a live thing, not a dead body,00:18:36.606
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- but they tend to embalm it like a dead body00:18:45.915
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- and we are supposed to look at it but we want to talk to it.00:18:48.643
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- Ok, there are guided tours of exhibitions, workshops in galleries,00:18:52.799
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- those are common things nowadays,00:19:01.405
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- but I think even this is becoming a bit outdated,00:19:05.899
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- everybody must feel it, and this will not solve the situation.00:19:12.066
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- I think that an exhibition has to be designed in a completely different way from the start00:19:18.915
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- and it has to set more ambitious goals,00:19:27.207
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- not a show for the sake of a show.00:19:29.746
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- I did a research for my dissertation, in which I asked visitors to galleries00:19:33.345
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- of contemporary art what things influenced them.00:19:41.996
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- The main drawback they mentioned was the fact00:19:48.185
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- that they are either overestimated, they are expected to know everything,00:19:54.165
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- but they can´t get the information and they feel stupid,00:19:58.759
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- or they are underestimated and they feel as if they were back at school00:20:05.045
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- and feel uncomfortable again.00:20:10.215
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- You rarely get a dialogue between equal partners.00:20:11.857
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- Here we have the exhibition, the artist and his work,00:20:17.793
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- and here is the viewer, who isn´t an abstract entity,00:20:21.393
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- without education, who has no opinion and nothing to say.00:20:26.209
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- The viewer is sometimes treated either as if he knows everything or nothing.00:20:30.545
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- This is of course a big challenge for me too,00:20:36.594
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- trying to find ways for a dialogue to work properly.00:20:41.584
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- The general public doesn´t know what they can see in museums,00:20:48.880
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- museums don´t articulate this clearly.00:20:52.505
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- There are technical problems I don´t want to speak about,00:20:56.075
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- and it´s also the fault of the Ministry,00:21:01.876
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- because unlike in other European countries, there aren´t any standards,00:21:05.477
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- but despite all this the museums must try harder.00:21:08.691
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- I even believe that if the public knew what is on show in a particular museum,00:21:13.487
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- they would start going to museums not only to see the collections00:21:23.784
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- but also to libraries and study rooms, if they became interested.00:21:27.795
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- But ordinary people don´t go to museums mainly because they don´t know what is inside.00:21:33.290
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- Unfortunately, some museum workers don´t know either.00:21:40.514
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- I must say in a way it´s the fault of the museum workers00:21:46.571
- 00:21:46.571
- because, and this applies also to galleries,00:21:52.949
- 00:21:52.949
- because they remain subject to the pressure of visitor numbers.00:21:57.823
- 00:21:57.823
- We must provide three main public services and exhibitions are just one of them.00:22:10.613
- 00:22:10.613
- It´s an important and irreplaceable role, but it´s just one of the functions,00:22:18.492
- 00:22:18.492
- an equally important function is conservation,00:22:23.990
- 00:22:23.990
- because if we let mold and woodworms eat the collections00:22:27.338
- 00:22:27.338
- we won´t have anything to show,00:22:30.677
- 00:22:30.677
- and museums also create the memory of the nation through artifacts,00:22:33.199
- 00:22:33.199
- only museums can do this as a service to the public.00:22:35.658
- 00:22:35.658
- About fifteen years ago when I was writing a book on Art Museums in the Digital Era,00:22:42.804
- 00:22:42.804
- I tried to present a museum as a space for visual perception00:22:47.604
- 00:22:47.604
- and I wrote that the patterns of perception we are exposed to,00:22:52.114
- 00:22:52.114
- especially members of the young generation, playing computer games and surfing the Internet,00:23:02.284
- 00:23:02.284
- have no experience with static images,00:23:10.668
- 00:23:10.668
- this visual experience changes the patterns of visual perception00:23:13.747
- 00:23:13.747
- on the cognitive level and even the neural level,00:23:18.343
- 00:23:18.343
- and makes the perception of art difficult.00:23:21.874
- 00:23:21.874
- I wrote that this was perhaps one of the main reasons00:23:24.313
- 00:23:24.313
- why people today are not interested too much in art,00:23:28.625
- 00:23:28.625
- or, if you like, why there are crowds of people in museums00:23:32.250
- 00:23:32.250
- but they are mostly tourists who usually just run through an exhibition,00:23:35.748
- 00:23:35.748
- and a profound experience of an art work is rare.00:23:40.016
- 00:23:40.016
- In the meantime my ideas, which were speculative at that time,00:23:44.475
- 00:23:44.475
- turned out to be true.00:23:50.907
- 00:23:50.907
- Today we have interesting data showing that the perception of00:23:52.351
- 00:23:52.351
- the generation that plays computer games00:23:54.937
- 00:23:54.937
- has really changed. This is supported by measurable parameters00:23:57.721
- 00:23:57.721
- on the neural-cognitive level,00:24:03.498
- 00:24:03.498
- and this is exactly what we want to continue in.00:24:05.617
- 00:24:05.617
- We want to study how our tuning by contemporary visual culture00:24:11.001
- 00:24:11.001
- to which we are all exposed to, whether we like it or not,00:24:18.561
- 00:24:18.561
- and certain groups of people even more, especially young people,00:24:21.896
- 00:24:21.896
- to what extent they influence or determine the patterns of perception00:24:29.144
- 00:24:29.144
- and make the perception of art in museums difficult00:24:35.940
- 00:24:35.940
- and then the museum´s marketing department can do very little about it.00:24:40.847
- 00:24:40.847
- We should point out something that isn´t new in fact,00:24:50.723
- 00:24:50.723
- and what I think is still a debt of the art world,00:24:55.947
- 00:24:55.947
- that is the fact that a number of exhibitions, expositions,00:25:02.504
- 00:25:02.504
- are still too absorbed in themselves,00:25:08.247
- 00:25:08.247
- corresponding to the small percentage of the inner art world,00:25:13.300
- 00:25:13.300
- or the interest of the art world,00:25:21.554
- 00:25:21.554
- and inadequately tries to make the perception for the wider public easier.00:25:23.917
- 00:25:23.917
- Visual art in its present complicated form,00:25:33.467
- 00:25:33.467
- because it has many different faces,00:25:36.896
- 00:25:36.896
- has become a sort of indigestible mouthful.00:25:41.039
- 00:25:41.039
- I think that this is the result of the discontinuation of development,00:25:46.368
- 00:25:46.368
- in 1990 suddenly all that art streamed in00:25:50.647
- 00:25:50.647
- but we forgot we have to talk about it,00:25:53.704
- 00:25:53.704
- the society is the same, we grew up in a certain system of education,00:25:56.827
- 00:25:56.827
- and nobody was ready for what stormed into the country.00:26:02.445
- 00:26:02.445
- It took really long, even for people working in the field,00:26:08.583
- 00:26:08.583
- to know what is what.00:26:12.930
- 00:26:12.930
- And so a huge part of the society did not find their way through.00:26:14.249
- 00:26:14.249
- First the public was interested in the new things,00:26:18.461
- 00:26:18.461
- but gradually their interest faded00:26:24.222
- 00:26:24.222
- because the things were new and also complicated in a new way,00:26:26.966
- 00:26:26.966
- and this led to a misunderstanding,00:26:29.809
- 00:26:29.809
- the people suddenly lost the reason00:26:32.084
- 00:26:32.084
- why they should be interested in art.00:26:36.379
- 00:26:36.379
- I think we have reached the stage00:26:38.297
- 00:26:38.297
- when it unfortunately not only doesn´t end00:26:40.437
- 00:26:40.437
- but the system of education and families constantly fail00:26:44.172
- 00:26:44.172
- because they still cannot find a way00:26:53.009
- 00:26:53.009
- how to embody art in their everyday lives,00:26:55.200
- 00:26:55.200
- how to incorporate it.00:26:59.344
- 00:26:59.344
- That´s where the mistake is, we have to put it right,00:27:00.688
- 00:27:00.688
- none of the institutions that are involved work well00:27:03.995
- 00:27:03.995
- because after 25 years the results are pretty pathetic.00:27:07.733
- 00:27:07.733
- We try to speak about a turn in visitor numbers.00:27:11.661
- 00:27:11.661
- The museum´s role is to preserve cultural heritage,00:27:14.460
- 00:27:14.460
- and also to present the heritage to the public,00:27:23.963
- 00:27:23.963
- it´s logical but these two roles are in a way antagonistic,00:27:27.543
- 00:27:27.543
- the more often you present an artifact, the more it is threatened.00:27:35.159
- 00:27:35.159
- And the more you protect it, the less you present it,00:27:38.344
- 00:27:38.344
- so it´s a kind of never-ending negotiation.00:27:41.065
- 00:27:41.065
- And I feel that in our country00:27:43.867
- 00:27:43.867
- we tend to overemphasize the role of protection00:27:47.112
- 00:27:47.112
- and the presentation becomes marginalized00:27:53.096
- 00:27:53.096
- or not so important, something extra.00:27:58.700
- 00:27:58.700
- That´s why I try to present the artifacts as much as possible00:28:01.480
- 00:28:01.480
- while logically respecting all the rules and restrictions.00:28:08.666
- 00:28:08.666
- At the same time we have to think about the present00:28:18.422
- 00:28:18.422
- although you work with historical objects you have to think what they mean today.00:28:21.992
- 00:28:21.992
- The growing amount of leisure time enables cultural institutions00:28:30.752
- 00:28:30.752
- to expand their activities00:28:34.469
- 00:28:34.469
- and to participate more intensively00:28:36.349
- 00:28:36.349
- in the cultural life of the socialist society.00:28:39.301
- 00:28:39.301
- Research of free time has not taken into account the role of museums yet00:28:42.301
- 00:28:42.301
- research focused only on exhibitions in general.00:28:47.079
- 00:28:47.079
- In a way the role of museums has been underestimated.00:28:50.135
- 00:28:50.135
- In order to enhance the educational role of museums,00:28:54.377
- 00:28:54.377
- museums will use their own means,00:28:57.932
- 00:28:57.932
- so they will not change into different institutions,00:29:00.844
- 00:29:00.844
- nor use the means of other institutions,00:29:04.430
- 00:29:04.430
- nor other ways of affecting the public.00:29:06.742
- 00:29:06.742
- Increasing demands on the extent and quality of educational services00:29:09.453
- 00:29:09.453
- will lead not only to the need of creating planning and conceptual preconditions00:29:14.713
- 00:29:14.713
- with view to the management of museums00:29:19.649
- 00:29:19.649
- but also to put into practice consistently and intensively00:29:21.643
- 00:29:21.643
- museological knowledge as a qualitatively higher basis of educational services.00:29:25.620
- 00:29:25.620
- A considerable part of the new things00:29:30.927
- 00:29:30.927
- that museums will contribute to the development of society00:29:33.526
- 00:29:33.526
- will depend on how these new things will be used.00:29:37.103
- 00:29:37.103
- CHAPTER 4 Free time and the future of museums00:29:41.239
- 00:29:41.239
- The time will come when we´ll find ourselves00:29:48.436
- 00:29:48.436
- on a rough competitive market of leisure time.00:29:51.112
- 00:29:51.112
- Firstly, the population is growing old,00:29:53.976
- 00:29:53.976
- leisure time capacity will stop increasing,00:29:57.077
- 00:29:57.077
- those times are gone, when after World War II00:30:02.608
- 00:30:02.608
- working hours were cut.00:30:07.267
- 00:30:07.267
- It will be a hard job for the productive population00:30:09.090
- 00:30:09.090
- to sustain the senior population.00:30:11.749
- 00:30:11.749
- But, on the contrary, forecasters say00:30:15.131
- 00:30:15.131
- that leisure time capacity will go down00:30:17.600
- 00:30:17.600
- and the competition on the leisure time market will increase,00:30:21.813
- 00:30:21.813
- because the number of subjects on the narrowing leisure time market00:30:26.538
- 00:30:26.538
- will increase, it will include lifelong education,00:30:30.878
- 00:30:30.878
- the growing number of TV channels,00:30:34.359
- 00:30:34.359
- computer games, the Internet and whatever.00:30:36.999
- 00:30:36.999
- So, only those who are irreplaceable can survive.00:30:40.518
- 00:30:40.518
- And those who produce top performance.00:30:44.593
- 00:30:44.593
- In what way are museums irreplaceable?00:30:47.819
- 00:30:47.819
- Each of them has to find an answer, in its own territory,00:30:50.181
- 00:30:50.181
- they should not try to be the same,00:30:55.992
- 00:30:55.992
- or better in a field they do not excel at.00:30:57.593
- 00:30:57.593
- What are we irreplaceable in?00:31:00.238
- 00:31:00.238
- Once again, we are irreplaceable because we provide public service,00:31:01.550
- 00:31:01.550
- we create the objective memory of people, society,00:31:06.999
- 00:31:06.999
- the memory of the nation, region and so on.00:31:13.320
- 00:31:13.320
- Nobody does this, so in this respect we are irreplaceable.00:31:17.209
- 00:31:17.209
- We should try to present this objective memory00:31:22.033
- 00:31:22.033
- in the most original form possible,00:31:25.938
- 00:31:25.938
- in an authentic way.00:31:30.236
- 00:31:30.236
- All the others make copies, replicas,00:31:31.724
- 00:31:31.724
- ok, on the Internet things move,00:31:34.417
- 00:31:34.417
- but it must be a means to bring the best out of the original,00:31:38.306
- 00:31:38.306
- the artifact, the authentic value.00:31:40.833
- 00:31:40.833
- This is the only way which, provided you have a meaningful PR,00:31:43.115
- 00:31:43.115
- I don´t mean only bombastic advertisements,00:31:49.362
- 00:31:49.362
- but if we incorporate it into reasonable marketing,00:31:55.133
- 00:31:55.133
- so then such museums have a chance to survive00:31:58.057
- 00:31:58.057
- unlike the others which cannot.00:32:01.313
- 00:32:01.313
- This must logically come within the next two or three decades.00:32:03.208
- 00:32:03.208
- People invest their limited free time into activities,00:32:07.004
- 00:32:07.004
- which they find beneficial or which bring them pleasure.00:32:12.049
- 00:32:12.049
- If the overwhelming majority of the population,00:32:18.309
- 00:32:18.309
- according to sociological studies00:32:20.689
- 00:32:20.689
- 00:32:20.689
- do not expect to enjoy themselves visiting an exhibition or a museum,00:32:26.584
- 00:32:26.584
- then it is very difficult to change their attitude.00:32:34.656
- 00:32:34.656
- In the Czech Republic visitor numbers in museums are permanently falling,00:32:40.559
- 00:32:40.559
- I think that society has changed but museums have not.00:32:44.130
- 00:32:44.130
- People´s behavior has changed, technologies and so on,00:32:49.449
- 00:32:49.449
- so the attitude must change, too.00:32:55.363
- 00:32:55.363
- This of course takes away certain elitist privileges,00:32:58.601
- 00:32:58.601
- in the past this environment enjoyed natural respect,00:33:07.401
- 00:33:07.401
- and I´m afraid that nowadays it has lost its esteem00:33:11.894
- 00:33:11.894
- the same as people lost interest.00:33:16.550
- 00:33:16.550
- Museums are marginalized, because people lost interest in them,00:33:19.396
- 00:33:19.396
- their voice is also marginalized, which has political consequences.00:33:24.252
- 00:33:24.252
- If people are not interested in museums, politicians naturally won´t support them.00:33:28.296
- 00:33:28.296
- So it has serious consequences.00:33:35.921
- 00:33:35.921
- If people don´t go to museums, that means voters don´t go to museums,00:33:37.908
- 00:33:37.908
- so politicians feel there´s no need to send more money there00:33:43.710
- 00:33:43.710
- or give them priority.00:33:47.008
- 00:33:47.008
- Czech museums will never become a means of social changes.00:33:48.190
- 00:33:48.190
- It´s us who would have to come up and push ahead such an agenda.00:33:57.537
- 00:33:57.537
- There are fantastic ideas how to make a visit to a museum more pleasant.00:34:09.319
- 00:34:09.319
- With no need to move.00:34:12.840
- 00:34:12.840
- Collections are going to move instead of people.00:34:14.957
- 00:34:14.957
- Collections will be placed in large open lifts00:34:18.897
- 00:34:18.897
- which will stop for a certain time so that visitors,00:34:21.554
- 00:34:21.554
- sitting comfortably like in a theatre,00:34:26.033
- 00:34:26.033
- could all at once watch one part of the collection after another.00:34:29.071
- 00:34:29.071
- The following videos were used in the film:00:34:41.699
- 00:34:41.699
- Video by Eva Koťátková "Under Supervision".00:34:43.222
- 00:34:43.222
- (I hired a professional security guard from a gallery in Prague to guard my flat for a day.)00:34:44.502
- 00:34:44.502
- Fragments from the video by Francis Alÿs "The Nightwatch".00:34:46.524
- 00:34:46.524
- Texts from the book The Museum and Education, author Josef Beneš, published in 1980,00:34:48.547
- 00:34:48.547
- read by Saskia Burešová00:34:52.030
- 00:34:52.030
- Cast in order of appearance:00:34:52.456
- 00:34:52.456
- Concept, directed by:00:35:02.875
- 00:35:02.875
- Photography:00:35:04.512
- 00:35:04.512
- Edited by:00:35:08.423
- 00:35:08.423
- Animation:00:35:10.314
- 00:35:10.314
- Post-production sound:00:35:14.026
- 00:35:14.026
- Acknowledgements:00:35:16.937