Collecting with(in) the City

CAMOC + COMCOL conference 2024

Amsterdam 9-11 October 2024

Full programme coming soon. Find up-to-date information about the conference plus a link to register at https://www.amsterdammuseum.nl/en/camoc-comcol-conference-2024

In October 2024 the ICOM International Committees CAMOC (City Museums) and COMCOL (Collecting) will join forces again to revisit collecting and (re)presenting in and with the city, by investigating the fluidity of the borders between museums and cities. The conference Collecting with(in) the City will be hosted by the Amsterdam Museum in partnership with Imagine IC, and will focus on what collecting with and in a city means and how the museums and cultural heritage institutions of today do this.

This core focus invites us to consider some urgent conceptual questions: What can museums capture beyond ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​objects? (How) can they collect city rhythms, sounds, or smells? Can you collect the people that create and use a city? How can contemporary collecting be inspired by existing collections, and how can looking at collections with new (outside) perspectives bring new insights? What remnants of the past live in the present and how do they manifest? How should museums care for new urban narratives and for the people they concern? When working on a new balance of expertise and expectations, what inequalities and power relations emerge in (city) museums? How do shifting ideas about ownership and authority affect collecting and exhibiting practices?

For museums, these questions are becoming ever more relevant, as the balance between tangible and intangible heritage is shifting. Museums and heritage institutions are collecting not only objects but also stories and experiences. And increasingly they do so in various participatory forms with inhabitants, who can become partners in co-creation processes and projects. Thus, as collecting cities may include contemporary urban spaces, as well as urban lives and urban narratives, these questions also touch on critical discourses on power, reciprocity, and impact. Who can/do you partner with? What does this process of collaborating with networks and communities in a city look like? What makes collaborations mutually beneficial? In other words, collaborative and participatory collecting raises various issues worth studying, from ethics and legalities to sociological and psychological questions, as well as, of course, from a museology perspective.

The conference is a space for heritage practitioners from all over the world to reflect on collecting in and within a city. We welcome anyone from any professional field who is interested in these matters to join the conference.

Conference program and accommodation

The Hosts and the Host City

Amsterdam Museum has been collecting the city in various ways since the founding of the museum in 1926, but in the last decades the focus has shifted more and more to the contemporary city. In 2020 they began the program ‘Collecting the City’, based on co-creation with communities. Imagine IC, a heritage organization based in Amsterdam Southeast, has been active almost 25 years in documenting current social relations through participatory heritage work. The collaboration between the two hosts is a great opportunity to share and explore how city museums and heritage institutions from all over the world deal with (contemporary) collecting and rethinking collecting practices.

Contact and Further Questions

Please email camoccomcol2024@amsterdammuseum.nl

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Scientific committee on behalf of CAMOC and COMCOL:
Leen Beyers, Andrea Delaplace, Danielle Kuijten, Flora Nguye Mutere, Annemarie de Wildt