Mahnaz Asadi

2018 Getty Foundation. Mahnaz Asadi, Head of Museum Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO), Tehran, Iran

I was attending CIMAM Annual Conference for the first time and I would like to say it was one of the most amazing experience in my professional field. Thanks to all CIMAM organizing team besides generous support and effort of Getty Foundation for awarding me a travel grant without which I would not have been able to have this opportunity.

ICOM acknowledges that the definition of a museum evolves ‘in accordance with the realities of the global museum community’. In other words museums themselves need to evolve to survive and prosper in their changing ecosystem. I think Along with the importance of connecting the region to the universe, it is important to meet our 21st Century challenges.That is why this conference under the title The Museum in Transition consisted of keynote speeches, distinguished group of speakers – artists, professors, curators, directors and numerous exchanges of conversations, addressed a wide range of topics pertaining to theoretical and practical institutional cases.

I personally am more practical person, so, I have been interested more in some case-study perspectives. The first day, dedicated to Global Realities .The keynote speech by Victoria Noorthoorn The Proud South Mouth: Local Museums Rewrite World Art History has given a very fresh and straight view through local perspective presenting in their activities and facing the challenges of engaging meaningfully with Indigenous art and thought; then i was inspiring to listen to the artist- Professor Loulou Cherine the inquiries about the Confidence in Ignorance — the Museum and the Paradox of Inquiry (‘Meno’s Paradox’). It was great to hear Katya García-Antón speech " Decolonisation in Art Institutions ". It has given a lot of questions to me such as Is it possible to reform such institutions? from within or should alternative structures be sought to converse with them? And what are the power dynamics involved in this?

The second day of the conference, dedicated to the Future intelligence of Museums with keynote speech by Michelle Kuo: Big Data. It was talking about the shift from museums as bastions of stasis into interactive arenas and rise of ‘intelligent’ spaces and responsive environments with showing the famous example.

I have received that Immersive media allow us to diversify the stories we tell, to layer meaning and to embrace ambiguity.

I also really impressed to listen to artist Ho Tzu Nyen presentation The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia. The project introduces an interactive Internet platform and “infinite film” created in the dictionary and it really encouraged me to visit their website to learn more about this project.

For me, also the third day was particularly interesting. It covered the topic Ethics of Museums in an Age of Mixed Economy. The speech by Ahmet Ögut Artist inquiries about Apparatuses of Subversion has given a lot of questions such as how can we maintain ethical standards in deal with moments of crisis caused by extraordinary incidents, economic and political in the art world?

In the following speeches by Ann Gallagher and Mami Kataoka about Tate’s own Ethics Policy and Mori Art Museums, I gained a lot of insight that If museums want to continue to exist, by being relevant, they should take the ethical path. They will proactively work with communities to shift towards more regenerative and circular economies. They should try to explore ethical and participatory forms of entrepreneurship.

Among the other inspiring speeches , In the workshop on the topic of The Museum Watch Program and The challenge of the independence of the museums In different organizational and financial conditions , I really respected the insistence and patience of Suzanne Cotter and EugeneTan, those who moderating our workshop and their concern to have a practical outcome and possibilities that CIMAM can provide in this perspective.

I was also very impressed by the high academic standards of the exhibition accompanying the conference,. Visit of The National Museum , Thielska Gallery, Stockholm University extremely were remarkable.

And at the end, I also want to convey my gratitude to the organizers from Stockholm Moderna Museet, Bonniers Konsthall and Magasin lll Museum & Foundation for Contemporary Art., which arranging all amazing details and professional programms, also­ to get us in touch to so many artists and museum professionals and to get so much visual and practical inspiration.