Laying Remains to Rest at the Sept. 11th Memorial

  The New York Times ran a good article this month on the dialogue surrounding 9/11 Museum's handling of the unidentified remains from the site of 9/11. What most interests me about this story is the close relationship of the public to the curation and design of the Museum's exhibitions and the type of place that this relationship creates. 

                                                                                          An excerpt from the Times: 

This work will be hard but imperative. Ideally, a consensus among the families can be reached. In its absence, the 9/11 museum could either devise a means to determine the majority of families’ viewpoint (majority rules) or offer a new solution that strives to address the widest array of concerns (multiplicity rules). But more than offering a quick fix, the mere process of dialogue will demonstrate respect and an acknowledgment that curators do not have exclusive power over the dead. The families should be given the chance to give consent — to exercise their rights as kin.

                           Of course it is imperative that the human remains find their proper resting place. But the collaborative curation in this case makes me also wonder about the handling of other types of war artifacts and the community's say in what museums do with their endowments. It seems that the closer the themes of art and public projects hit to home the more they must be shrouded in tenderness and collaborative communication. Moreover, the closer they are to home, the more those immediately affected by the historical events remembered are part of the creative process and the more claim they have to the monument.
                           I think this is perhaps what draws me most to museums created to recognize specific historical circumstances and tragedies even though many would rather look to conceptual and the avant-garde art. In monuments and memorials, it is known that the curation and design corresponds to an expressed human interest and to the memory of those influenced by the event rather than by a monarchical curatorial team thinking on the international scale or trying to outdo the latest trend. It is a necessary part of museums such as the 9/11 Memorial to be extremely intimate, but it is also something I think museums across the board could take a card from.