ICOM mourns the passing of Per Bjørn Rekdal, a dedicated anthropologist and museum professional who made an extraordinary impact on ICOM and the global museum community over nearly three decades of service. His commitment, insight, and leadership earned him the rare honour of becoming an ICOM Honorary Member in 2019. Today, we are publishing the English translation of the in memoriam from ICOM Norway.
Dear all,
On 11 March this year, our museum colleague Per Bjørn Rekdal passed away at the age of 79. Per had a long and rich life as an anthropologist and museum professional.
Per has been an invaluable supporter of ICOM Norway throughout the years. His unique overview and critical eye for practices, combined with sharp reflections and a pragmatic approach to further developing the museum community in an orderly and correct manner, have left a lasting mark on our organisation.
Per’s strong international commitment resulted in many positions of trust within the International Council of Museums. For many years, he sat on ICOM’s highest governing body. Later, he was often called to Paris to help resolve challenges in the diverse organisation. He was appointed an honorary member of ICOM during the General Conference in Kyoto in 2019. The reasons for Per’s nomination as an honorary member were displayed on a large screen in Kyoto and made for impressive reading for everyone in attendance.
He has held positions in ICOM for nearly 30 years, including Board member of ICME 1992-1998, Chair of ICOM Norway (1996-1998), Chair of ICME (International Committee for Museums of Ethnography) (1998–2004), Member of ICTF (International Committees Task Force) (2001–2004), Representative for ICOM on the Board of AFRICOM (2005–2006), Chair, Working Group on Regional Alliances and Regional Affiliated Organisations (2007–2011), Member of the Executive Council (2004–2010), Chair, Working Group on Governance (2013–2016/17) and Member, Working Group on International Committees (2017–2019). We can also add that he took the initiative to establish a new international committee on ethical dilemmas in 2017, together with Kathrin Pabst as the second initiator. The International Committee on Ethical Dilemmas (IC Ethics) was approved in September 2019.
In addition to his positions, his previous work experience, museum projects and publications were also emphasised. Among many other things, it is worth mentioning that
- he has worked at the National Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art. From 1990 to 1999, he was head of the University’s Ethnographic Museum, later head of the exhibition and audience department at the Museum of Cultural History. In 1995, he was curator/author of the exhibition ‘On the Beauty of War or the Beautiful Violence’, an exhibition that received considerable attention.
- He has been chairman of the board of the National Association for Art in Schools and was curator/author of the anniversary exhibition ‘Even when you fence in your little piece of earth, the fields are watered by rain from foreign lands and warmed by the sun from the infinite universe’ (1998).
- He was the first to publish a book on museum communication in culturally diverse Norway with ‘Norsk museumsformidling og den flerkulturelle utfordringen’ (Norwegian edition 1999, English edition 2001) and the article ‘Fremstillinger av de andre og en selv – hvem bestemmer innholdet’ (2003) (in ‘Museer i fortid og nåtid’). 2001) and the article ‘Fremstillinger av de andre og en selv – hvem bestemmer innholdet’ (Representations of others and oneself – who decides the content) from 2003 (in ‘Museer i fortid og nåtid’ (Museums in the past and present)).
- One of his last projects was to be the initiator, co-editor and contributor to the collection of articles Museums and Truth from 2014. In many ways, the book is a kind of international follow-up to the BRUDD project, which Per often said gave him great pleasure. His article in ‘BRUDD’ from 2006 plays with both the title and content of Sergio Leone’s ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’, which Per called ‘The true, the difficult and the critical’.
- In 1969/72, he wrote his master’s thesis on tourism and the perception of the typically ‘African’ at Victoria Falls in Zambia. His dream until the end was actually to draw the lines from then to now.
The appointment of honorary members of ICOM does not happen often, and the atmosphere in the hall in Kyoto, the presentation of the candidates, the voting, the presentation of the diplomas and the acceptance speeches by the newly appointed honorary members were impressive and educational for everyone present. Nevertheless, we believe that few people understood at the time how rare such appointments are and how few honorary members there are. Norwegian ICOM is proud that one of our members has received this prestigious honour.
Through his valuable insight into the international ICOM administration, Per has not only strengthened our professional approach, but also inspired us to continuously improve. He will be deeply missed as a conversation partner and museum professional mentor. ICOM Norway remembers Per with joy and gratitude.
The Board of ICOM Norway
The original Norwegian text is available on the ICOM Norway website.