As an in situ memorial museum tells the story of its location, the question is whether this story is inherent to the site's materiality, or whether it is constructed and projected by architects, curators and visitors. This raises various questions which I address in this chapter while situating them within broader academic fields and concerns: particularly memory studies, with a focus on the remediation of memory; critical heritage studies; museum studies; and the spatial turn in memory studies.

In the field of memory studies, the diverse ways in which the past is actively shaped in the present are studied and theorized. The study of the remediation of memory focuses on the involved medial processes. It is important to stress that in situ sites of memory are not comprised of one coherent discrete medium. Rather, they are spatial configurations that allow visitors to create affective, real and imaginative connections between the past and present. Critical heritage studies emphasizes that heritage is a process in the hereand- now. However, if heritage is merely a construct in the present, why do we attach so much meaning to authenticity? In order to answer this question, I turn to museum studies and the notion of the museum script to trace the development of the Hollandsche Schouwburg as a memorial museum. This allows me to combine both a synchronic and diachronic perspective. I do so cautiously, aware of the fact that the present situation both embodies and mediates the past, but is not fully determined by it. In the last section, I address the spatial turn in memory studies. The importance of spatial and material characteristics of sites of memory has been underscored by several leading memory scholars, a perspective that places these sites within larger networks and landscapes of memory. This chapter aims to shed light on how we can actually account for the dynamic nature of spatial memory.

Performing Memory and the Remediation of the Past

There is continuous debate over the fundamental concepts and methods of memory studies. The intellectual wealth, unremitting urgency and multidisciplinary nature of memory studies are evidenced by various academic journals, handbooks and anthologies.