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MaHiOn. A Material History of Otherness

Musical instrument museums as source and resource in contemporary debate

Since 2021, Fañch Thoraval (MIM-RMAH/INCAL-UCLouvain) is carrying out the MaHiOn project that investigates the processes of acquisition, circulation and interpretation of non-European instruments during the long nineteenth century, taking as its starting point the collections of the former Musée instrumental of the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels. 

The building of these collections involved many kind of actors (producers, intermediaries, collectors) whose respective status, interests, musical cultures and mindsets may have differed greatly. As a result, the selection of instruments, their...

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