Antecknat: På besök i Livias målade trädgård. Tankar kring analyser av rumsliga faktorer och autenticitet i utställningsmiljöer

Abstract

In this article I discuss how museum space affects visitor experiences, using the example of an exhibition space where two thousand year old frescoes are displayed in Palazzo Massimo in Rome. The frescoes, depicting a garden, come from an underground dining room in the House of Livia. It has been debated whether museum objects, such as these paintings, can in fact be considered as authentic when they clearly have been restored and therefore are not in the same condition as they were when in use. Moreover, the feeling of “being there” is considered an illusion since the experience is filtered through our contemporary contextual perspective. However, I argue that the authenticity is not necessarily restricted to objects and their genuine accuracy but is a matter of the visitor’s experience of being in a spatial context representing a place, whether it is restored or not. The ability to fantasize, to identify with other human beings, to percept as well as the sensation of physically moving in space is the experience which will stay with the visitors and which will remain authentic for them.