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Journals / sinecine: Sinema Araştırmaları Dergisi / 2026 / Cilt: 17 Sayı: 1

Architectures of Containment: Cinema and the Colonial Museum Infrastructures

Kapatma Mimarileri: Sinema ve Sömürge Müzesinin Altyapıları

Ekin Pınar(ORTA DOĞU TEKNİK ÜNİVERSİTESİ)0000-0002-8367-1234
Pages
127–155
Publication Date
2026-06-03
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AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

Through its reintroduction of agency, visibility, and mobility to looted artifacts within these four spatial regimes, cinema thus constitutes its own counter-museum.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

🎯
Objective & Hypothesis:Colonial museums do not simply display looted objects; they regulate their visibility, movement, and containment through interconnected infrastructures of exhibition, storage, and circulation.
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Key Findings & Data:Alain Resnais and Chris Marker, 1953), You Hide Me (dir.
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Conclusion & Impact:Through its reintroduction of agency, visibility, and mobility to looted artifacts within these four spatial regimes, cinema thus constitutes its own counter-museum.
🔬Design:Araştırma Makalesi
📍Scope:2024 Verileri
⚙️Variables:kapatma mimarileri · sinema · sömürge müzeleri

Abstract

Colonial museums do not simply display looted objects; they regulate their visibility, movement, and containment through interconnected infrastructures of exhibition, storage, and circulation. This article examines how cinema critically represents and destabilizes these museal infrastructures through three films: Statues meurent aussi ( Statues Also Die , dir. Alain Resnais and Chris Marker, 1953), You Hide Me (dir. Nii Kwate Owoo, 1970), and Dahomey (dir. Mati Diop, 2024). The article argues that these films conceptualize and, in turn, challenge the colonial museum as “architectures of containment.” These interrelated spatial formations (the vitrine, the storage vault, the shipping crate, and the journey) control and define the visibility, mobility, and meaning of stolen cultural artifacts. While recent scholarship has emphasized the museum’s role in colonial accumulation, this article argues that cinema provides us with its own distinct mode of analysis by revealing and challenging these infrastructural systems that underpin it. Accordingly, it demonstrates how cinema shifts our attention from the museum as a site of display to the spatial regimes of display, storage, packaging, and transport. Through its reintroduction of agency, visibility, and mobility to looted artifacts within these four spatial regimes, cinema thus constitutes its own counter-museum.

Özet

Sömürge müzeleri sadece yağmalanmış nesneleri sergilemekle kalmaz, sergileme, depolama ve dolaşım gibi birbirine bağlı altyapılar aracılığıyla bunların görünürlüğünü, hareketini ve muhafazasını düzenler. Bu makale, sinemanın bu müze altyapılarını eleştirel bir şekilde nasıl temsil ettiğini ve istikrarsızlaştırdığını, Alain Resnais ve Chris Marker’ın Les Statues meurent aussi ( Heykeller de Ölür , 1953), Nii Kwate Owoo’nun You Hide Me ( Beni Saklıyorsun , 1970) ve Mati Diop’un Dahomey (2024) filmlerine odaklanarak inceler. Çalışma, sinemanın müze kurumunu “kapatma mimarileri” olarak ele alıp eleştirdiğini savunmaktadır. Birbiriyle ilişkili bu oluşumlar (vitrin, depo alanı, taşıma sandığı ve yolculuk) yağmalanmış kültürel nesnelerin görünürlüğünü, hareketliliğini ve anlamını yeniden düzenler. Son dönemdeki araştırmalar müzenin sömürgeci birikimdeki rolüne vurgu yaparken, bu makale sinemanın, onu destekleyen bu altyapı sistemlerini ortaya çıkararak ve sorgulayarak bize kendine özgü bir analiz biçimi sunduğunu savunmaktadır. Bu doğrultuda çalışma, sinemanın dikkatimizi müzenin bir sergileme alanı olmasından, sergileme, depolama, paketleme ve taşıma gibi mekânsal rejimlere nasıl kaydırdığını göstermektedir. Sinema, bu dört mekânsal rejim içinde yağmalanmış eserlere yeniden eylemlilik, görünürlük ve hareketlilik kazandırarak kendi karşı müzesini oluşturur.

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Cite This Article

Pınar, E. (2026). Architectures of Containment: Cinema and the Colonial Museum Infrastructures. sinecine: Sinema Araştırmaları Dergisi, Cilt: 17 Sayı: 1, 127–155. https://doi.org/10.32001/sinecine.1913635

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