The Iguaçu Regional Museum and its Audiences : Institutional and Autobiographical Narratives

Recebido em: 18/08/2020 Aprovado em: 29/04/2021 Publicado em: 31/08/2021 Abstract: This article examines discursive languages that the Regional Museum of Iguaçu built for itself and for its public, associated with the preservation of the environment and cultural heritage. In the second approach, the public of the museum exhibitions on social networks and forms of interaction with the Regional Museum of Iguaçu are analyzed. Based on the concepts and practices of public history, the objective is to contribute to the planning of exhibitions and to study the relationship between museum collections and audiences.


Introduction
"The democratization of museums aimed to transform museums from repositories to public forums. Museums work not only for, but more and more with, their public". Thomas Cauvin, 2016. Museums feature carefully selected narratives that favor many interac- Undoubtedly, there are several motivations for artists to develop a socially engaged or par-2 Andreas, Irmgard & Machcewic, 2018, unpaged. 3 Falk & Dierging, 2016, unpaged. 4 Jancovich, 2014. See also Frisch, 1990. 5 Jancovich, 2016. 6 Kobelinski, 2021. 7 Dallet, 2017. 8 These studies have been developed in 17 European countries by the institutions Fondazione Fitzcarraldo, Culture Action Europe, EC-COM, and Intercult. The objectives are to plan and promote innovative strategies for the development of the public. Ver Bollo at. al, 2017. ticipatory art, focusing on the community and society, both inside and outside the museums.
In this sense, we consider it important to encourage communities to participate in collaborative processes. 6 In Nancy Dallet's perspective, which brings public history and public art together, proactive historians must add values to art through collaboration, understanding it as creative capital that allows for the creation of a favorable environment of interactions between artists and publics. 7 And, in fact, New Museology is interested in political, ideological, social and formative aspects, as well as the impact of the museum on culture. Self-analysis revealed its repressive and controlling role that needed to be readjusted in the face of social and economic demands.
Although the museum was an arena of disputes, it became a place of learning, engagement, and various forms of consumption: "The active model of the museum spaces demonstrates that there is a lot more going on in the visiting experience than might first be assumed, and certainly suggest that various discourses at work in a public heritage institution should be analyzed" (Groot, 2011, p. 292 How does the Iguaçu Regional Museum operate in relation to autobiographical practices? b) How has its image been constructed and how has it influenced this type of narrative? We studied some evidence of self-referential practices, which 9 We understand public history as a complex process of practices, engagements and interpolations with audiences at different levels, including self-reflection, contact and interaction with popular narratives, sharing and collaboration in the interpretation and production of knowledge about the past. See Kobelinski 2020; Cauvin, 2020. extended from the museum to the community through the texts and photographs posted on the museum's website. 9 Furthermore, we reflect on the challenges and opportunities that the Regional Museum of Iguaçu has for the formation of an engaged and participative public.   -Americanos, Porto Alegre, v. 47, n. 2, p. 1-12, maio-ago. 2021 | e-38899

Strategies and Exhibitions
The IRM is designed to impress. 10 The architectural design incorporates distinct elements, such as wood, iron, and glass as well as modern means of communication, organization, and the showcase of its collections. In addition, its physical structure has been incorporated into the natural landscape.  Foucault (1995, p. 203) observes that the Panopticon features procedures for control, observation, classification, and organization: "By Bentham's time, this menagerie had disappeared. But one finds in the program of the Panopticon a similar concern with individualizing observation, with characterizations and classification, with the analytical arrangement of space". According to Foucault (1994, p. 759), "heterotopia" means a space that is outside of everyday social and institutional space. 12 Nora, 1993, p. 22. 13 For Sánchez Laws (2011, p. 27), "the term New Museology officially originated from the 1971 ICOM Ninth International Conference in Grenoble, France, where the concept of ecomuseum was proposed". Ecomuseums are defined not only by their physical structure, but also by their natural and human environment: "[...] At the same time that it preserves the material fruit of past civilizations, and that it protects those that bear witness to present day aspirations and technologies, the new museology -ecomuseology, community museology as well as all other forms of active museology -is first and foremost concerned with the development of populations, reflecting the modern principles that have driven its evolution while simultaneously associating them to projects for the future. One of the museum's strategies is to make visitors walk along ecological trails so that they may be enchanted by nature. When arriving at the museum, visitors are faced with a mirror-glass façade and, after walking through the main entryway, they find an artificial lake and a souvenir shop. The visitor is then led into a dark room.
Arranged in a circle in the center, they are surpri- There is also a painting that represents the col-  (1988, p. 72), "pine forests are diverse types of communities in which pine trees are the most characteristic element". 17 Acc. Chang, 1988, p. 13, andNerone, 2000, p. 87, faxinal refers to a type of vegetation (mixed ombrophylous forest or araucaria forest; faxinal system refers to a community-based organization that shares farming land and animals among its members. Something similar in nineteenth-century German History can be seen in Max Weber, 1961, pp. 21-22. 18 Copel, 2014, unpaged. 19 Copel was the first Brazilian company in the electricity sector to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (1997). It signed a cooperation agreement with China's Hubei Qingjiang Hydroeletric Development Liability Corporation to build the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world, Shui Bu Ya, at 230 meters high (Copel, 1999, p. 233) 20 Copel, 1997, unpaged King & Rivett, 2015, p. 218, the relationship between academics and non-academics in the United Kingdom reveals a one-way educational model and the conception of a passive and non-participatory audience. Based on the Research Excellence Framework measurement exercise rather than the Case Studies, the authors suggest that this relationship may be successful and democratic if the relationship between academics and non-academics values engagement: "This idea of engaging people in making history complements rather than displaces other models of engagement fulfilling the same agenda, for example, the expert-transmission model of knowledge exchange. However, while the transmission model elevates scholarly expertise above other forms, our approach fosters a 'democratic epistemology'. Significantly, democratic epistemology emerges from debates in the USA that do not center solely on 'impact', rather it has developed from a concern with civic politics", p. 226. 25 Xanthoudaki, Tickle & Sekules, 2003. 26 Arthières (2000) presents autobiographical narratives of prisoners imprisoned in Lyon between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 27 Dauphin, 2002, p. 48. 28 Acc. Foster (2014) "While these new, virtual platforms are irrevocably changing the field of public history, there is nothing arbitrary about the digital future of the past. Far from being forced to 'collaborate [online] or perish', historians and the public are choosing to enter the virtual arena, and are using the web in diverse and inventive ways." On Digital Public History see Lucchesi, 2014, andNoiret, 2013. 29 Browse the social network Facebook to https://pt-br.facebook.com/pages/category/Tour-Agency/Museu-Regional-do-Igua%-C3%A7u-Iguassu-Regional-Museum-239269876097397/ This social network belonged to the math teacher Guisla Schmickler, from the Engenheiro Michel Reydams State College, Reserva do Iguaçu -PR. Schmickler assigned the rights to use the images in this work. "The visit must have been of great use to the students; I especially thank my son Kauan, the guys who were together on this trip; but it was a pity that I was not told that students' parents could participate in the trip, or was it just the privileged ones?". (September 23, 2015) "Take a virtual tour of the Iguaçu Regional Museum". The objectives of the programs developed by Copel are available at the following address: https://www.copel.com/hpcopel/root/nivel2. jsp?endereco=%2Fhpcopel%2Froot%2Fpagcopel2.nsf%2Fdocs%2F729182B3A1F362FF03257E3B0062E4CE (published on August 10, 2017). 31 Kobelinski, 2019, unpaged. In any case, the autobiographical perspective

What engagement with audiences do we want?
Currently Brazilian museums face many challenges. Among them, financial contributions, staff training and lack of museologists. However, we can think about ways to expand the relationship between MRI and society, study its visitors and renew the museological narrative. The approaches of critical museology and audience development have shown that the strategies adopted in Spanish museums are innovative and appropriate. 33 In the first perspective, the functional aspect is important, since it considers the links between museum and society, heritage valuation, visitor participation and ways to communicate with them. But for museums to be active, dynamic and interactive, the strategy to be adopted is audience development. It is not enough to have collections, technical resources and a narrative. It is necessary to involve audiences, encouraging them to participate in multidisciplinary projects, to value the collections and to co-produce knowledge, making the museum an open, accessible and participatory place.
Note that after visiting the IRM, visitors are amazed. Faced with a world that demands more 32 Goldstein, 2008, p. 239. 33 Aizpuru, Cuenca-Amigo & Cuenca Amigo, 2019; 2020. 34 Groot's, 2011, p. 5. 35  In our case study it shows that the relationship between the museum and its public needs to be improved, especially in relation to the role it plays in society. In New Museology the development of the public and the self-awareness of its rhetoric is emphasized. The MRI has a certain dynamism and an excellent physical structure. On the other hand, educational practices, curation, exhibitions and programming must be constantly reviewed in order to encourage visitors to have meaningful experiences with the past, as well as to develop awareness and social inclusion. Does the MRI encourage its visitors to think about the past and interpret its collections? In this research the evidence suggests that the most remarkable experiences of school-age visitors are related to nature. Experiences with lithic and ceramic artifacts, or even with other collections, for example, are not even commented on by visitors.
Is this the engagement we want with the public? Of course not, because it is a type of loss that needs urgent recovery and sharing. In any case, it is possible to develop inclusive activities, such as the autobiography and visitors' relations with architecture, visual arts, and body and audiovisual movements, among others. 36 More than answers, the questions that remain in the air are as follows: Why hasn't this museum become a place of inclusion and rights? Why don't we appreciate the people relocated in this natural space? Aren't those people a part of the history of the museum? What explains the absence of the university and public historians from IRM activities? In this case, taking into account the assumptions of Public History, a possible answer is the need to establish dialogical relations with the visitors of the Iguaçu Regional Museum, interact with the local communities and involve more diverse and broader audiences. Moreover, thinking about research in arts and humanities, the challenges and opportunities that arise, and that go beyond museums, should mobilize us to create democratic relationships with people in order to value the engagement process and not simply the impact of products or results.