Punk and museum: notes about the exposition 'Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses'

Abstract

In this article, we considered how the exhibition 'Nirvana: Taking Punk To The Masses', held in Brazil in 2017, helps to think about the possible tensions of the relationship between punk and museum. Given the transformations the museum has suffered over the last centuries, it was perceived critically as a mausoleum or a mortuary chamber of history (Adorno, 1998). Now, in its contemporary performance, it serves as an archive for the 'relics' of pop (affected by the logics of entertainment and establishment). Punk's supposedly inadequate adjustment to museum conditions, helps to reassert our investigative motto, thinking what are the potential implications, extended and upgraded, for punk when a band like Nirvana is set up in this system