Methodological axe

The DIM funds initiatives that encourage the heritage science community to adopt an increasingly reflexive attitude toward its knowledge, practices, and instruments in order to develop, in contact with sociology, epistemology, anthropology, the history of collections, and restoration, the capacity to explain its results as the product of choices and interactions, and to integrate them into the museographic valorisation of heritage objects.

Far from being only necessary for scientific work, highlighting the complexity of the status of these objects is encouraged by new demands from the public and the institutions themselves. The reflection on the restitution of looted works, the problem of endangered heritage and the closure of institutions during the global health crisis have prompted an increase in digital accessibility to works and documents. The emotion aroused by the destruction of heritage remains has led to a reflection on the modalities of reconstruction and on the imperatives of preventive documentation of museum collections and movable and monumental heritage. Finally, the restoration of world-renowned works of art is the subject of extensive mediation, both virtual and real. The answers to these heritage problems are the result of international and interdisciplinary reflections combining observation and action in situ, theoretical and documentary research, and the implementation of digital tools that allow complex and evolving information to be stored and made available. The work carried out in this axis allows for reflection on the processes of patrimonialisation, in particular on the conservation and visualization of data, which are essential for a sustainable valorization of patrimonial objects and the scientific work that illuminates and protects them.