The process of moving objects or belongings
from one place to another very often implies
the necessity of selection. This article deals
with two very different situations of moving.
The first one concerns the complete removal
of objects from the Ethnographic Collection
during the rebuilding of the National
Museum in Copenhagen in the early 1990’s
and the subsequent reorganisation
of them in
the new permanent exhibitions. The second
situation is an ordinary change of address.
In the museum situation, the necessity
of selection did not occur until decisions
were made as to which objects were to be
displayed in order to reflect cultural themes
of the region in question. In the situation
of the change of address, the selecting
process started immediately. Because of the
representative and communicative potentials
of objects, considerations of identity usually
accompanied the choices, whether, as in
the first case, the identity of the objects
concerned a cultural universe, or, as in the
second case, was connected with a person.
 
