Visual Experimentation: Art, Aesthetics and Ethnography in (Un)guided Tour, a video by Irina Botea, Marco De Luca and Stephan Voicu

Abstract

The following paper deals with the production of a short ethnographic video on the Royal Museum of Central Africa from Tervuren, Belgium. The scope is to deploy the organization of the ethnographic team that participated in the articulation of the project, unravel the context in which the project emerged and unfolded, as well as engaging with the elaboration of the audio-visual approach taken within the ethnographic research. Focusing particularly on the latter aspect, this paper will portray the relation between art and ethnography as being characterized by experimentations with aesthetics. Taking a look back at certain artistic movements that explored the limits and possibilities of film aesthetics, the entries will pinpoint the relevance of lettrist cinema, institutional critique and structural film to the construction of an ethnographic video on the museum practices of the RMCA.