A Cornucopia of Ideas (and Objects!)

I'll try to regularly report on my museum visits here in Latvia--and I'm already behind by a few museums.  I'll catch up!  I just visited Art Museum Riga Bourse specifically to see the new exhibition, Cornucopia.  We've seen so many museums that do exhibitions that highlight rarely see objects in their collections, but this approach is so fascinating.  Even the benches had labels!

The team landed on the concept of cornucopia--"boundless material and spiritual abundance,"  with some of that abundance hidden in the horn of plenty itself, much like museum collections are hidden away. But they also go a step further to raise questions such as "What is a museum today?  What kinds of displays are created and for who?  Can anything become an exhibit?"  The idea is further developed in the label you see below (apologies for more label pictures than object pictures!).

I found just one dialogic question for visitors--but it was so lovely.  "What is the object or ritual in your everyday life in which your own understanding of abundance resides?"  I only wished there had been a place for visitors to share that reflection.  Some of the objects below--and I believe that the first one was created by the exhibit installers/designers, reflecting the layers of paintwork from previous exhibits!

For me, these fairly dense text labels were vital for me--but there were other visitors, including children, who were more interested in the wide array of objects--so I think this exhibit is a success, bringing people in in varied ways--and definitely not dumbing down content for folks, but encouraging everyone to consider who controls what in museums--something that remains a critical issue here decades after independence and separation from the Soviet Union in 1991.  I've seen this self-reflection on other museums here, and wish that more museums in the US took on such work. Whose story will be told?  And who wil tell it?   A big shout-out to Deputy Director Kristine Milere and the whole team!

And a footnote:  my deep appreciation for the clever way labels were mounted, and for wonderful English translations!