Lanzinger: “Museums are levers of change for the ecological transition”

“The role of museums in the ecological transition goes far beyond the adaptation of buildings to reduce the carbon footprint, or the creation of paths dedicated to the environment. The entire cultural heritage serves to disseminate sustainability, museums are levers of change “. Michael Lanzinger he directs one of the museums that best embody this function in Italy, the Muse of Trento, and is president of the International Council of Museum Italy. His work to promote sustainable museums therefore takes the form both in directing one of the most visited structures in Italy and in his commitment to promote good practices in the national museum network.

Director, let’s start from the definition of museum, approved by Icom last August in Prague, which includes the term sustainability.
“The third paragraph of the definition states: ‘Open to the public, accessible and inclusive, museums promote diversity and sustainability’. This wording means that they must interpret their mission through a dual channel: on the one hand they must implement good sustainability in accordance with a company that goes in this direction, thus activating itself to improve a multiplicity of aspects in the structures; on the other hand they must create participation, awareness and collective knowledge, in order to promote the culture of sustainability”.

Can we give some examples of good sustainability practices?
“Often we limit ourselves to considering the energy class of the building that houses a collection, while a sustainable museum must be more than ever integrated into the territory. Thus, we must ensure that accessibility is suitable, with protected pedestrian paths so at least for museums there is a re-appropriation of urban space. And let’s not underestimate the role of museums as engines of tourism, so the movement that develops around museum poles must also be thought of in terms of sustainability”.

What instead are the actions to promote the culture of sustainability?
“In the meantime, linking myself to the relationship with the territory, the museum is not just an accessory element, it has a social dimension so it is not a place ‘dedicated to something but ‘dedicated to someone’. In this, we must think of museums not as conservatives of past assets, but actors who look to the future, to the need to pay attention to cultural heritage not for the idealization of a past left to itself, but to improve society.I give an example of how some issues not connected to sustainability in a direct way, but present in museums, are central to the fight against climate change. Museums not only convey the message ‘save the panda’, we talk about learning against early school leaving, decolonization, justice. They are all strands that rightly fall within the field of climate justice and which are often not recognized”.

How applicable is this theoretical system in the complexity of the Italian situation?
“I don’t want to dwell on the question of funding and the lack of funds, because by now it is almost trivial to say that culture is underfunded in Italy. In fact, our action aims precisely to ensure that schools, public buildings, libraries and indeed museums are considered key places for sustainability. And I return again to the museum structure inserted in the territory: when my colleagues manage to show their usefulness for the ecological transition, the museum will not be a place to be financed necessarily, but an active subject with political value, capable of performing functions that local administrations will also recognize”.

Is this what Muse managed to do?
“The formula that made it so effective and earned us half a million visitors ten years after the inauguration is the sum of several elements. We cannot deny that the beautiful architectural dimension played by Renzo Piano, who acted as a driving force, but now, without taking anything away from the master, there is no longer just this. The Muse is like Beethoven’s Fifth, even if we know it we want to hear it again: people come back to us because they can discover and rediscover things, it feels like the protagonist, it is a chatty museum, where a family likes to spend time.Then there is the scientific aspect, and here we are talking about sustainability not only for our structure: we have worked so that our scientific research is functional to environmental documentation ecology of our territory and beyond”.

Muse is also the leader of the “Museintegrati” project. What is it about?
“The first phase has been completed, which we will now relaunch. Thanks to the support of the former Ministry for the ecological transition and together with ICOM and ANMS (National Association of Scientific Museums) we have worked to develop a network of thirty museums throughout Italy, of different, active on sustainability issues. We share workshops to exchange the actions that each museum has done in the area, in order to create alliances and opportunities. These alliances have not only produced collaborations with local administrators, but also common documents with climate activists I know many would prefer to just increase visitor numbers, but more important to us is our role as places of social cohesion and bulwarks against personal loneliness.”