A ceramic object can be much more than just a work of art.
It can tell the story of a museum destroyed by bombing, a family whose collection was lost, a medieval site that no longer exists, a child growing up during wartime – or a museum trying to communicate with its audience during an ongoing conflict.
Through the Joining the Shards project, our partners are exploring different ways of telling these stories.
Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza uses guided tours, objects, photographs and archival materials to tell the story of the museum’s destruction and the recovery of ceramics from its ruins.
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden uses provenance research and digital storytelling to reconstruct the history of the Gustav von Klemperer collection and the people connected with it.
Muzeum Ceramiki w Bolesławcu uses archaeological fragments, historical sources and research to reconstruct the story of the medieval stronghold of the robber knight Black Krzysztof – a place that has disappeared, but whose history can still be told.
Khanenko Foundation Музей Ханенків. The Khanenko Museum brings another perspective: how can museums communicate with the public during an ongoing war, and how can the narrative dimension of cultural heritage be preserved even when the objects themselves cannot be displayed?
War Childhood Museum starts with everyday objects. A ceramic cup or plate can become a gateway to personal memories, childhood experiences, survival, creativity and resilience.
Five institutions. Different collections. Different experiences of war. But one common belief: Even when heritage is fragmented, displaced or inaccessible, its stories can still be preserved and shared.
This Friday, we are launching a new series of posts dedicated to selected practices in conservation&storytelling.
We will show how different partner institutions of the “JOINING THE SHARDS – Upskilling of museum operators for the valorization and narration of EU ceramic heritage impacted by war” project use their experience, objects, archives and new technologies to preserve ceramic heritage and tell stories related to war, loss, memory and recovery.
Joining the Shards project is co-funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ Programme.
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