Mature Flâneur

Snooping Through Drawers in a Strangers’ House

Open house in Andorra

Model of a traditional home in Andorra from the Centre d’Art d’Escaldes-Engordany. All photos by Tim Ward

I felt like Goldilocks in the house of the three bears. I was in their kitchen. I was in their living room. I was in their bedrooms, examining the linens in their drawers. It felt so…transgressive. — Tim, inside Casa Cristo.

I’ve visited enough ethnography museums in my life to keep expectations low. Ethnography is a branch of anthropology that deals with the observation and description of human cultures, which for me is a main reason to travel. Human culture? Sign me up! Sadly, all too often these museums simply showcase piles of junk gleaned from old farmhouses. It’s museum curation via yard sale. I often leave depressed, rather than informed.

Traditional bridge in Andorra la Valle — a relic of the past in a modern city

But because I am a desperately curious chappie, I can’t quit museums. To me, they are windows into the soul of a people, a chance to understand how they tell the story of themselves to themselves. So even an exhibit that seems careless and cruddy tells me something about people’s attitudes towards their past.