Wandering in Knowledge: Inclusive Spaces for Culture in an Age of Global Nomadism

Identity and diversity – whether cultural, ethnic, religious or political – mark our contemporary global context on a daily basis. We live in an age that might be defined by migration of population flow, by the movement of people, of information, of knowledge. From continent to continent, from nation to nation, from region to region, from city to city, individuals or groups of people overcome geographic borders and cultural or linguistic barriers in search of an economic comfort zone, for a new lease on life for their children, as well as for study purposes, for tourism or to experience new lifestyles and social relations. Old and new nomads, inscribe traces, invisible or real, on the places they cross and where they stop, generating linguistic, cultural and lifestyle contaminations. They remark, delete or reconfigure their identity, absorbing or rejecting differences. By travelling and stopping – temporarily or permanently – they retrace paths followed by others or design new ones. The shared spaces of metropolitan life are vivified by the interrelationship and exchange between people in a very new process of global intensification. For this reason their definition today requires a total rethinking of the uses and meanings traditionally associated with them, in relation to ongoing socio-cultural changes. Hybridization and multiculturalism, in fact, demand new forms of inclusivity from the spaces that, in the past, had mainly to reflect a sort of collective representation. From this point of view, the spaces of knowledge, due to their ability to develop cross-cultural intersections, represent the privileged places to investigate the relationship between global nomadism and socio-cultural inclusivity. In fact, no longer exclusively devoted to contemplating art, or isolated places for reflection and intellectual analysis, museums and libraries have become open places where people meet and exchange ideas, contact zones of contemporary culture. As a result of the constant updating process in which they are involved, they have become the physical nodes where identity and diversity may come into contact and generate new perspectives, ideal places for transnational contemporary socialisation. The first section of the book ‒ “Questions” ‒ is aimed at highlighting the particular relevance of these places in defining a cultural network in which people’s paths cross, and where ties are constantly knotted and loosened in ever new ways. In this regard, Luca Basso Peressut focuses his attention on the complex phenomenology of contemporary museums, to underline how the constant process of metamorphosis that affects the places of knowledge reflects a transformational balance between the sensitivity of traditions and the necessary thrust of innovation. On the other hand, Imma Forino reads the changes that these places of learning have experienced over time, considering the actors who animate those environments, partakers of the ¬erratic movement that crosses modern global societies, who metaphorically find a ¬ temporary “cultural home” in libraries and museums. The second section ‒ “Museums” ‒ is specifically dedicated to museographical topics, with two essays that paradigmatically read the changes related to the actual knowledge system. In the first one, Margherita Parati focuses on a specific phenomenon affecting museum narrations and spaces, involving the use and re-evaluation of performing language based on direct action and physical experience. In the second, Stephanie Carminati investigates Jewish museums, to provide an interesting and valuable example of the communication and exhibition strategies that can be put in place in order to communicate its own culture and history from a personal point of view. The third section tries to outline a possible future for the library in the light of the current phenomena of transnational migration of people as well as information. On the one hand, Daniele Mondiali examines the relationship between the library institution and the new technologies, focusing both on spatial design and the virtual dimension. On the other, Lavinia Dondi describes a sort of renaissance of local libraries, interpreted as meeting places open to the community, as well as key buildings that contributes toward forging the identity of the city. Finally, the third section ‒ “Hybrid Spaces” ‒, through Jacopo Leveratto’s essay, offers an overview of the institutional, functional and spatial relationships that have existed between museums and libraries, in order to provide the library a future still tied to the text, in a context marked by the dematerialisation of information support. The volume is then concluded by a glossary on global nomadism, edited by Elena Elgani, and an annotated bibliography about the same topic, which integrates the reference list provided by the authors of the anthology.