This sentence, almost sounding angry, presents Te Papa as an ideal imagination of the biculturalism of New Zealand, harmonising the two peoples of our nation in one National Museum, despite this not necessarily being the real truth.
Te Papa Tongawera (known colloquially as Te Papa) was built in 1998, and from its very inception was a deeply controversial building. The concept of the museum having been approved by then Prime Minister Jim Bolger "with the help of only a minority of other Cabinet Ministers" (Tramposch, 1998) meant that the building was on a knife edge with regards to approval from the public.
However, the museum was needed. The old national museum was in dire need of refurbishing, however it was felt that in the centre of growing political representation of biculturalism, the country needed a new, iconic building. This museum needed to serve as the centre-point of the new New Zealand. It needed to be iconic, and the new, modern vision of Jazmax Architects served to create the ideal harmony of cultures in the capital.
The combination of cultures through the different faces of the buildings creates a cohesive whole. The north faces the sea and is representative of the Maori part of NZ culture. "Its bluff-like walls embrace nature – the sea, hills, and sky. ... Te Papa’s south face greets the city with its vibrantly coloured panels." (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2012) and is strongly representative of the Pākehā part of NZ society.
These two halves are convincingly fused into a single modern building drawing on ideals of the Bauhaus and high modernism, forming both a reductive and a synthetic style. However, in many respects, it has created for itself a distinctly New Zealand design identity.
Te Papa in HDR, Sebastien Voerman
References
Bozic-Vrbancic, S. (2003). One Nation, Two Peoples, Many Cultures: Exhibiting Identity at Te Papa Tongarewa. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 112(No. 3), 295-313. Retrieved from Informit database.
Tramposch, W. (1998). Te Papa: Reinventing The Museum. Museum Management and Curatorship, Vol. 17(No. 4), 339-350. doi: 10.1080/09647779800201704
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