Museum of World Culture

For the museum in Frankfurt, see Museum der Weltkulturen.

The Museum of World Culture

File:Museum of World Culture Göteborg entrance.jpeg
Established	2004
Location	Södra vägen, Gothenburg, Sweden
Visitors	227 248) (2006)
Director	Margareta Alin
Website	http://www.varldskulturmuseet.se

The national Museum of World Culture opened in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2004. Its aim is to interpret the subject of world culture in an interdisciplinary way. The museum is situated next to the Universeum science centre and the amusement park Liseberg, and close to Korsvägen. "The museum interprets the concept of world culture in a dynamic and open-ended manner. On the one hand, various cultures are incorporating impulses from each other and becoming more alike. On the other hand, local, national, ethnic and gender differences are shaping much of that process. World culture is not only about communication, reciprocity, and interdependence, but the specificity, concretion and uniqueness of each and every individual." (From the background info on the museums homepage.)

The opening exhibitions of the museum were:

• No Name Fever: AIDS in the age of globalization
• Horizons: Voices from a global Africa
• Sister of Dreams: People and myths of the Orinoco
• Fred Wilson: Site unseen - Dwellings of the Demons
• 390 m2 Spirituality

Architecture

File:Göteborg Museum of World Culture grand stairs.jpg

The grand stairs in the atrium (Fotograf: Hélène Binet)

The cement and glass building, located on a slope leading up to the Liseberg amusement park, is graceful, compact and modernistic. Its four-storey glass atrium looks out on mountains and woods.

The exhibition halls are in the closed part of the building, facing Södra vägen road. The upper storeys hang freely 5 m (16 ft) over a footpath. A 43 m (141 ft) long section of a display window provides passers-by with a view straight into the largest exhibition hall.

The architects behind the museum, who were chosen after an international competition, are the French-Cuban-English couple Cécile Brisac and Edgar Gonzalez of Brisac Gonzalez Architects.

Controversies

In February 2005 the museum decided to remove the painting "Scène d'Amour" by Louzla Darabi. The painting was part of a temporary exhibition about HIV/AIDS, and depicted a man and a woman having sexual intercourse. The artist and the curator had received numerous death threats from Muslims enraged over the Koran quotations which were featured in a corner of the painting. Some threats were telling the artist to "learn from the Netherlands", referring to the murder of van Gogh and threats against Hirsi Ali.

External links

• The Museum of World Culture
• Brisac Gonzalez Architects
• Virtual Collection of Masterpieces