Sharing Memories and "Telling" Heritage through Audio-Visual Devices. Participatory Ethnography and New Patterns for Cultural Heritage Interpretation and Valorization

Abstract

This paper focuses on the "storytelling" and the assumptions of participatory ethnography applied to the valorisation and fruition of cultural heritage. The paper will describe the outcomes of the project Al Museo con...Patrimoni narrati per musei accoglienti (At the Museum With... Narrated Heritage for Welcoming Museums, www.almuseocon.beniculturali.it) as case study. Launched in February 2013, the project has been promoted by two Italian museums based in Rome: the National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography "L. Pigorini" and the National Museum of Oriental Art "G. Tucci". It aimed at developing original ways to visit museum collections through an anthropological approach based on personal narrations by "privileged witnesses" (such as representatives of diaspora communities, refugees as well as the deaf people community) and with the aid of audiovisual devices, enhancing a participatory and multi-vocal approach to the knowledge of heritage.