Memory, Heritage and Art: the collections visibility from brazilian museums of contemporary art (1965-2005).

Abstract

This paper intends to understand how contemporary art museums, usually seen as memory institutions, describe their collections – and, sometimes, themselves – with the intention of construct a narrative project that at the same time “constitutes a past” and woos an art in legitimating process. We, therefore, have analyzed nine art museums founded between 1965 and 1995. Our formulations, using a comparative analysis, sought to show polemics “appeased” around current art, in an ample “heritaging process” and their effects on the identity issues of each community approached.