The Power of Languages

Abstract (EN)

Language is ubiquitous in human life, yet it often remains unnoticed, or rather, it is taken for granted. With language staying under the radar, it is able to covertly exercise an immense amount of power in the museum. Beyond the concept of language itself, this paper addresses the meaningmaking resulting from the coexistence and interaction between several different languages within cultural institutions in a linguistically heterogeneous society. In what ways does multilingualism manifest itself in the museum? What does multilingualism mean for the infrastructure of a museum, and its display practices? What limitations or opportunities might arise from a polyglot museum practice? How do ideology and capitalism factor in? The first chapter discusses matters of multilingual infrastructure and display along a case study of Luxembourg’s museum landscape. The second part consists of a critical commentary on the use of national flags to indicate languages, a speculative excursion into the applied linguistics concept of “translanguaging”, that is, ”the fluid and dynamic practices that transcend the boundaries between named languages”, and an exploration into museums about language(s).