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MUZEUM ŚLĄSKIE (THE SILESIAN MUSEUM) – NON-HOMOGENEOUS SPACES. RUINS OF THE INTERBELLUM (1924-1939)
Karol MAKLES1
Publication language: English
scientific paper
Quests Editors of the Issue Tomasz Herudziński, Wojciech Mincewicz
Transformations No. 4(127)2025, Publication date: 30 December 2025
Keywords: museum transformation, cultural landscape, Silesian Museum in Katowice, Muzeum Śląskie w Katowicach, Second Polish Republic
Abstract The article constitutes a reflection that presents, using the example of the Muzeum Śląskie in Katowice, cultural institutions (museums) as a space of permanent transformation. This approach takes into account the indirect understanding of the categories of place, time, and symbolism of the pre-war locations of the Muzeum Śląskie in Katowice: the building of the Silesian Voivodeship Office and the unopened object designed by Karol Schayer. The text contains a description and a comparison of both architectural spaces. It also reflects on the relations between the cultural and geopolitical landscape and their impact on the institution and its ‘aura’. The analysis departs from the traditional perception of the museum as merely a collecting, preserving, and exhibiting artifacts entity, proposing instead to view it as a dynamic medium of cultural transformation in which space never stays neutral. Within it, the cultural landscape and form determine memory—narrative.
PhD, Institute of Cultural Studies, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland
ORCID: 0000-0002-4964-4486
E-mail: karol.makles@us.edu.pl, karolmakles@gmail.com