Jørgen Meldgaard’s film works and books on art from the Arctic
Danish archaeologist Jørgen Meldgaard (1927-2007) was a dedicated filmmaker, and today’s archaeologists may find inspiration in his engagements with the medium of film. He produced three major pieces of film work during his career. Filmed in very different styles, each illustrates a significant tren...
| Published in: | Études/Inuit/Studies |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | French |
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Association Inuksiutiit Katimajiit Inc.
2013
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| Online Access: | http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1025258ar https://doi.org/10.7202/1025258ar |
| Summary: | Danish archaeologist Jørgen Meldgaard (1927-2007) was a dedicated filmmaker, and today’s archaeologists may find inspiration in his engagements with the medium of film. He produced three major pieces of film work during his career. Filmed in very different styles, each illustrates a significant trend in the scientific representation of the Other during the last half of the 20th century. This article analyses the films with particular attention to Meldgaard’s changing ways of engaging with the Inuit as objects and subjects, respectively. It also compares Meldgaard’s films with his two books on Inuit art, and discusses his films in the context of contemporary methodological developments in archaeology and anthropology. It concludes by recommending that future archaeologists follow Meldgaard’s example and engage in sharing knowledge, through audiovisual media, with people affected by archaeological excavations, instead of letting media professionals take over the representation of archaeological knowledge. L’archéologue danois Jørgen Meldgaard (1927-2007) était un cinéaste passionné. Les archéologues d’aujourd’hui pourraient s’inspirer de sa passion pour ce médium qu’est le film. Il a produit trois documentaires incontournables au cours de sa carrière, chacun d’eux illustrant une tendance importante de la représentation scientifique de l’Autre durant la seconde partie du XXe siècle. Cet article analyse ses films en portant une attention particulière à la manière dont Meldgaard est passé d’une représentation des Inuit en tant qu’objets à une représentation en tant que sujets. Il effectue également une comparaison de ses films avec ses deux ouvrages sur l’art inuit et les replace dans le contexte des développements méthodologiques contemporains en archéologie et en anthropologie. Il conclut en recommandant aux futurs archéologues de suivre l’exemple de Meldgaard en s’engageant dans le partage de la connaissance, par l’intermédiaire des médias audiovisuels, avec les gens concernés par les fouilles archéologiques, ... |
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