Exposer croyances et cultes: Les singularités de la muséologie de religion

Abstract

This article is about the sacred references in the museum: how it exhibits the liturgicalor devotional objects and how it refers to the immaterial concepts related to them.Once the sacred is protected by the ban, we must observe how the religious object canbe transferred to a secular context and be musealised. In order to delineate the subjectand because the religious heritage in Western museums are mostly of Christian matrix,we analyze the circumstances of this transfer, based on the sacred concept in the NewTestament.At the museum, the objects are out of context, since they are away from their originalenvironment. In the specific case of the religious objects, this means the obliteration of their functional and symbolic contents on the sacred domain, because they are gener-ally chosen and presented as artistic heritage and integrates a new ritualized space thatkeeps the ban by reasons of conservation and preservation.However, new museological trends concern the presentation of intangible issues andthe recontextualisation of the object’s original environment. Museums consider the con-text, function and meanings as well as the material, formal and historical aspects. Thereligious object tends to be chosen according to their competence as an available docu-ment about the reality it evokes, even devoid of heritage value, which allows an exhi-bition model more fluid and conceptual.The museographic device is the first museum strategy to communicate the object, butit is the textual information that makes it intelligible. Even without a religious position,this information may contain religious concepts, rigorously and precisely presented.The decode of the object in its multiple meanings is committed to all museums, regard-less of their type or ownership.