Museums in Short is an audiovisual platform and an international award dedicated to short videos realized by museums. It is promoted by musil – museum of industry and labour of Brescia, in collaboration with EMA - European Museum Academy and FSK - Forum Slavic Cultures.
This year, 55 museums participated to our initiative, all gathered in a freely accessible online platform: www.museumsinshort.eu.
In the online Ceremony of the VII edition, held Friday, December 18th, the international jury awarded the video “Man creates man” of the Diachronic Museum of Larissa (Greece). The award-winning video will also have the honor to be part of The Best in Heritage 2021, the conference that every September in Dubrovnik brings together the winners of awards for museums and cultural sites from around the world.
The nomination for best trailer went to "The Power of a Name" by EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum (Dublin, Ireland).
Best audiovisual installation is "Time Hands", a spectacular video of the Russian Railway Museum, based in Saint Petersburg.
The most voted video by the popular jury was "The World of Masks" of the National Museum of Armenian Ethnography (3.645 votes), followed by "Seleucus I Nikator" of the Kilkis Archaeological Museum (Greece), with 943 votes.
Jury of Museums in Short:
Motivations
Best Promotional video:
The power of a Name – EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum (Dublin, Ireland)
In 2019 EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum announced the launch of a major new exhibition ‘The Power of a Name’ inviting people from all over the world to pay tribute to their Irish ancestors who emigrated, by adding their names to the museum. The promotional video raises awareness of the exhibition, building a connection with Irish people around the world.
Judges recognized in this engaging combination of photos and footage a very effective form of visual invitation to museum: images from an iconic past, documents and visitors informations are beautifully mixed-up in only 49 seconds.
Shortness in Museums in Short is very important, judges say. But they add: beatiful shortness is everything.
Best audiovisual exhibit:
Hands of Time – Russian Railway Museum (Moscow, Russia)
“Hands of Time” is a multimedia installation which includes three types of customizable video content. The concept was developed by KMVI (art combinat, Saint-Petersburg) and implemented by PITCH (creative engineering bureau, Moscow) specially for the Russian Railway Museum.
Judges considered this site specific installation a model of "interactive cinema" : audiovisual code leaves screens and takes a new life into museum rooms, where visitors become users of a sophisticated but easy interactive table.
In this exhibit, modernity appears as a series of trains running to the future.
Judges consider that this effective mix of film and digital innovation can be a reliable vehicle for the future of museums.
Best storytelling video and winner of Museums in Short 2020:
Man creates man – Diachronic Museum (Larissa, Greece)
"Earth and water, raw materials in the hands of a Neolithic man. What brings him to create a model of his home? Why does man create man?
Thoughts, feelings and questions were inspired by the discovery, in Thessaly, of a Neolithic model of a small house and nine human statues. The film was made in 2020 as part of the temporary exhibition: "Figurine. A world in micrography. Thessaly and Macedonia", held at the Diachronic Museum of Larissa and co-organized by the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.
The jury recognized in this work a successful interweaving of care for archaeological heritage and visionary strength of the story. It is an opportunity for a journey through time marked by the great questions of human life. The vibrant crossing of the millennia that separate us from our distant ancestors is made possible by the precious remains that unite us to them: the video conveys the emotion of a human presence on Earth conducted in a deep and respectful dialogue with the natural elements.
Once again from Greece a universal message comes, which the Jury recognized as worthy winner of Museums in Short 2020".