NEW MEMORY SPACES IN CITIES: CITY MUSEUMS

Memory is a concept including expressions such as past, to forget, to remember,reminiscence and in this sense it is important in explanation of the identity phenomenon which is created on Remembering past again. Museums, as the locations where the past is preserved and remembered, have all along been appreciated as memory locations in the places they exist and are thought to have an important function in the creation of the collective identity. Loss of ‚memory‘, in cities which are under pressure of developing technology, increase of immigration and overpopulation, comes out as a problem in terms of city ‚identity‘. Reconstruction of city identity is a process related to handling the history of the city once again, collecting and recording the customs and traditions of the city, meanly remembering the past of the city. It can be said, in this context, as the spaces where information and documents about past of the city take place, recordings about lost craft, traditions and jobs are collected and re-exhibited, city museums have the function of ‚memory spaces‘ where the contemporary and new generations can benefit. Diyarbakır City Museum is also a sample of what is specified above, both in terms of aim and process of its foundation. In this study memory, museums as memory spaces and city museums, the relationship between these spaces and struggle for bringing a new identity and history to the city will be explained and in this context Diyarbakır City Museum will be presented as a sample.