Cabinets of Exposés: archive of the Barbican worker’s collective sentiments

22.1 barbican

Behind the Brutalist concrete walls at the Barbican Centre, there are subtle echoes of racial innuendo.

The employees heard and suffered from them, but the management never paid attention to them.

If the brave voices of discriminated employees matter, let the museum make them visible and transparent.

If the stories of collective sentiments hold them together, let the museum be their shelter.

If their stories can empower a broader community in the Barbican, let the museum be a place for public discourse.

The museum is a series of cabinets embracing the feelings of sentiment, discomfort, shock, frustration and sympathy. These feelings are infused in artefacts that embody cultural or social meanings linked to Barbican workers' ethnic or racial identities.

Saran Kim