On museum ontology: history, memory, zeitregime

Museum as the phenomenon receives various views in today’s scholarly literature; yet, no holistic philosophical concept of it has been developed so far. The present research deals with the issue of the foundations of museum as a social institution aiming to represent the past. Emergence and development of such an institution has become a result of the rise and fall of the “time regime of modernity” (das Zeitregime der Moderne). The following two types of museum are highlighted: (1) traditional museum and (2) memorial museum. The idea of traditional museum is, so to speak, the “conserving oblivion,” whereas the idea of memorial museum is a kind of “retentive remembrance.”