廿載策展經驗談──歷史檔案與檔案展覽

Discussing Twenty Years Experience in Curating Exhibitions: Historical Archives and Archives Exhibitions

國立故宮博物院在1985年第3期擴建工程完成後，由於展覽空間擴大，作為故宮三處之一，也是收藏最豐富的圖書文獻處有了第1間專屬的陳列室，開始以故宮典藏的清代檔案與善本古籍策劃展覽，第1檔便是檔案展，由筆者負責策展，從此以後利用歷史檔案策展成為筆者工作的一部分，自始迄今已有廿餘載，平均1年策劃一至兩檔展覽，從未中斷。本文敘述的內容，是以筆者策展經驗，旁及一些近年來較為知名的檔案或綜合性展覽，討論3個問題：歷史檔案既不是藝術作品，也不是好看的文物，為何要以之策展？若必須要以檔案策展，則如何策劃一個叫好又座的檔案展覽？最後討論以檔案策展的困難與挑戰。

After the completion of the third phase of renovation at the National Palace Museum in 1985, gallery space at the Museum was expanded. There was an exhibition room that exclusive for the rich collection of the Books and Documents Department, one of three major units of the National Palace Museum. At that time, the work of curating exhibitions on Ching dynasty archives and rare books in the Museum collection began in earnest. The first rotation involved an archives exhibition, which the author of the present article curated. Afterwards, the author has curated exhibitions on historical archives as part of her job, which has spanned twenty years. This has gone on now with an average of one or two exhibitions per year. The contents of the present article deal with the author's experiences in curating these exhibitions, dealing with some of the more well-known or comprehensive exhibitions over the past few years in discussing three issue. The first deal with the fact that historical archives are not works of art and not necessarily aesthetically pleasing as cultural objects, raising the question of why to curate exhibitions on them. If exhibitions need to be curated on archives, then one must fine out how to plan and present them successfully. Finally, the author offers a discussion o n the problems and challenges presented by curating archives exhibitions.