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The restorative museum: Understanding the work of memory at the Museum of Refugee Memory in Skala Loutron, Lesvos, Greece

chapter
posted on 2019-09-06, 00:00 authored by Andrea WitcombAndrea Witcomb, Alexandra Bounia
This Handbook explores the latest cross-disciplinary research on the inter-relationship between memory studies, place, and identity.

Lesvos is one of the Greek islands nearest to the coast of Asia Minor. Facing Ayvalik, on the Turkish coast, it stands as sentinel between Europe and Asia, as well as between past and present, receiving and sending people from across the seas. The Museum of Refugee Memory was established in 2003 and opened to the public in 2006. Unlike other museums in Greece and elsewhere, however, the objects in the Museum of Refugee Memory are not expected to speak for themselves. The role of articulating, enacting, and performing memory has been taken over by the museum founders who take visitors around, providing more than just a tour. The Museum both restores the humanity of the first wave of refugees and seeks to ensure that this recognition continues to others in the future.

History

Title of book

The Routledge handbook of memory and place

Chapter number

1

Pagination

13 - 21

Publisher

Routledge

Place of publication

London, Eng.

ISBN-13

9780815386308

ISBN-10

0815386303

Language

eng

Publication classification

B1 Book chapter

Extent

38

Editor/Contributor(s)

Sarah De Nardi, Hilary Orange, Steven High, Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto