ABSTRACT
Underpinned by critical perspectives on organisational studies, in the text, we problematise how the presence or absence of experimental experiences in museological organisations shape spaces and social relations in the city. Materialist aesthetics is adopted here as a theoretical background. From the base/superstructure dialectic, art as a reflection of reality may become a transformative force in society, inasmuch as the work of art effectively represents ways to juxtapose and overcome the contradictions in human life. The data were collected in three Brazilian museums. The Museum of Conspiracy (Museu da Inconfidência) and Casa dos Contos Museum, located in Ouro Preto (UNESCO world heritage site), and the Rio Art Museum (MAR). We aim to point out that museums are formed by many contradictions and can induce local diaspora. On one hand, we point out how the museums can be taken as a place of culture reinforcement as a mechanism of distinction, legitimacy and maintenance of consensus and appropriation of the city. On the other hand, we argue the potential of museums to make us conscious about the same contradictions present in cultural spaces and in everyday life.
