Post-critical museology according to Tate Encounters

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the concept and positioning of post-critical museology, as elaborated by the research project and public programme ‘Tate Encounters: Britishness and Visual Culture’ (2007-2010), in relation to critical museology. In order to do so, we analyse the arguments registered in the main publication resulting from the project, entitled ‘Post-critical Museology: Theory and Practice in the Art Museum’ (2013), as well as some museum studies titles, authored by Tony Bennett (1995), Carol Duncan (1995) and Eilean Hooper-Greenhill (1992). The outcome is a more nuanced comparative picture, from which one can notice remissions and intersections, rather than definitive ruptures between these different perspectives. Certainly, we adopted this strategy in the expectation of better registering the specificity of the post-critic. Our understanding that the post-critic proposes a reformulation of critique, rather than its abandonment or overtaking, has led us to highlight it as a methodological undertaking. However, it is a method which cannot be self-proclaimed as such.