Official, artificial or (arte)factual

The Museum of the History of Catalonia (MHC), opened in 1996, houses a permanent exhibition that takes the visitor through the story of Catalonia from pre-history to 1980, as well as temporary exhibitions. It was conceived as a political project with a clear nation-building function, devised by the ruling centre-right Catalanist coalition Convergncia i Uni as a way of teaching Catalans a different version of their history from the one that had come to them from the Spanish state, especially under the Franco regime. The article analyses the structure and content of the Museum's permanent exhibition, as well as some of the debates that have surrounded it, in the light of work by Tony Bennett and others on the evolution of the role of museums in state- and nation-building since the nineteenth century. The analysis shows how the nationalist ideology of CiU shaped the design and functions of the MHC in the period up to 2003

Art · Art history · Exhibition · Humanities · Ideology · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · State (computer science · Visitor pattern · Visual arts · Computer Science · Cultural Identity and Heritage · Law · Museums and Cultural Heritage · Spanish History and Politics

• Constructing Contemporary Nationhood in the Museums and Heritage Centres of Catalonia

  Open Access•C Breen, Wes Forsythe et al.•Museum and Society•2020

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• Parc de Ciutadella, a contested place of conflict and memory in Barcelona

  Open Access•C Breen•Memory Studies•2019

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• Catalan Nationalism

  Montserrat Guibernau•Catalan Nationalism•2004

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