Beyond Æsthetics, is an exhibition showcasing the Ethnographic and Art Museum’s Palestinian Costume and Tawfiq Canaan Amulet collections, curated on the basis of the visual symbolism and communication as seen in both collections. It aims to elaborate on how the potentials and possible attitudes, when exhibiting and studying ethnographic collections in a visual context, are virtually unlimited. With this approach, the Museum hopes to surpass the stiffness of nostalgia and conservatism which seem too often to confine and limit discourse and imagination when cultural heritage is in question. This exhibition comes as part of the 2011 series of events organized by the Museum aiming to bring the contemporary visual arts program closer to the University’s local community as well as to society as a whole, which in turn stresses on the importance of unconfined artistic practice and interaction.
