Visual anthropology
Visual anthropology has been a constant line of research since the museum’s inception, which is part of the broader field of anthropology, both from a methodological point of view (using photography and film as a witness, but also as an object of reflection) and in the communication of research results. Compared to the written text, the results of this research have a greater impact on the general public, going beyond the academic audience. The interest in visual anthropology is reflected in most of the activities carried out by the museum, from the exhibitions in which research materials are used to the way publications are graphically designed.
The research project “Childhood. Remains and Heritage“, carried out in this field exploiting the resources of the image, between 2011-2013, following a funding through the Culture programme of the European Commission, has involved the valorisation through a visual anthropology approach of all the research directions of the museum on the theme of childhood: the discovery and research of private collections of objects, through an anthropological approach; the organisation of oral memory workshops for children and the elderly; the organisation of 6 temporary thematic exhibitions (which became rooms of a virtual museum); the organisation of a signal exhibition, touring Europe. The project, coordinated by Ioana Popescu, was made possible by the involvement of institutional partners from Romania, France and Poland, all the more so as it was born out of the desire to place the manifestation of these differences in a European context and at the same time to mark their perception and the attitudes they generate. More details, even about the development of the project, can be found in issue 18/2013 of MARTOR magazine.