Liège museum seeks 1990s memorabilia for new collection

Swatch watches, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles memorabilia and Spice Girls T-shirts are among a broad range of iconic 1990s items that Liège’s Museum of Walloon Life is looking for to build up a new collection of everyday items from the decade.

The museum’s reserves contain more than 100,000 objects, including exceptional pieces as well as standard examples. The “veritable Aladdin’s cave” reveals everything from old Fabrique Nationale de Herstal motorcycles, the company famous for making some of the first motorcycles, from 1901, to simple coffee thermos flasks from a particular era.

There are antique relics and contemporary items, many donated by members of the public, said Manon Collignon, museum curator and responsible for the collections.

She said that one woman had recently donated “this famous wall-mounted Swatch watch that we used to hang in bedrooms next to the brightly coloured posters of the 1990s, that she had kept in its original box. It’s really interesting.”

She said that the challenge of seeking 1990s items is that they are highly sought-after. Supply is lower than demand, often because people do not realise that what they are throwing away could be useful, and that the museum is also interested in contemporary items.

"I have lots of friends who say to me, ‘Oh yes, I had this, I had that… Oh, my school bag from secondary school, no, I don’t have it any more, it’s not interesting," said Collignon.

"And in fact, we’re looking for all that stuff. And all these items have become so rare, because we live in a society of consumption and overconsumption, that they have become collector’s items and today we pay a certain price for them."

The museum knows that creating this collection will be a challenge but is counting on the public to help. Many people offer objects on a daily basis, but these are often old, such as carpentry tools, and the museum also does not accept duplicates.

Recently, the museum launched collections on new types of family and on the ecological transition, Collignon said, pointing out two reusable plastic cups seen at music festivals.

“The interest in preserving this type of object is that it shows new practices today,” she continued, adding that it is difficult to decide what will represent the past for people visiting the museum in the years to come.

“We don’t just take the beautiful things. It could be a toaster, it could be a hairdryer, it could be a child’s cuddly toy. It’s all the things that make up our lives today,” she added.

The museum also collects objects to mark significant events, such as the 2021 floods that devastated towns around Verviers.

"For example here is a tub of butter that we recovered from the rubble after the floods," Collignon said. "It comes from the Corman factory, which was flooded and whose boxes ended up scattered around. It’s completely dirty, covered in mud. We keep it because we like evidence of everything that happens in Wallonia."

For now, like most objects in the collection, this carton is not on show. Perhaps one day it will be displayed in a temporary exhibition. Meanwhile, it is being preserved, like the other objects, for future generations.

Photo: Rama & Musée Bolo/Wikimedia. Licensed under Creative Commons