Exhibitions

Exhibitions (8.12.2011-1.4.2012)

Red Museums

How communism influenced the museums?

During the communist period, museums belonged among institutions, which helped to form historical knowledge of the Czechoslovak society – by means of its expositions and short-term exhibitions.

Even though they were changing and developing in the period after 1948, they had a remarkable impact on formation of historical memory of the Czech and Slovak society. And this memory still resonates in various forms even nowadays. The museums also became places of jubilee ceremonies and rituals firming and consolidating the communist power.

The Red Museums ("Rudá muzea" in Czech) exhibition shows the general development in the museums and their transformation under the communist dictatorship. It captures development of traditional and ideological museums, halls of revolutionary traditions or expositions of native houses and memorial halls. It also focuses on acquiring activities of the museums – such as documentation of building of socialism or revolutionary transformation of the rural areas.

The “Red Museums” exhibition deals with symbols, language and rituals, that were typical for that period – not just in the museums. Their use in particular exhibition projects demonstrates interpretation of the Hussite movement, the Great October Socialist Revolution, Munich, the Slovak National Uprising, and the “Victorious” February. All the topics are accompanied by collected exhibits of the Czech museums collected prior to 1989.

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