In the past two decades, the fields of museum translation and city translation have emerged as significant areas of research, offering a broader-than-linguistic view on translation to encompass cultural and representational dimensions. While museums are viewed as translation zones “in which intercultural contact is itself a form of translation” (Neather 2021, 160), scholars focusing on urban environments acknowledge that “translation can be a revealing lens for investigating social and cultural history in a broad range of urban contexts” (Cronin and Simon 2014, 120).

Despite the somewhat limited extent of their interaction thus far, the realms of museum translation and city translation manifest numerous shared interests and research avenues. This project seeks to explore one of the most conspicuous points of convergence by directing its focus towards city museums. City museums are "spaces of memory" (Tamborrino 2012, 463) serving as vital repositories for the preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage, yet they also encapsulate the present and future development of the city and its people, thereby shaping a city’s sense of identity and contributing to the process of place-making (Grewcock 2006, 39).

Exhibitions, conceptualized as translations, are always “partial” representations involving “selection, but also deselection” of material (Spiessens and van Doorslaer, 2024, 729). Catering, moreover, to a diverse array of local and international audiences, city museum curatorship requires nuanced strategies of both interlingual and (inter)cultural translation. This process raises important questions about how museums navigate linguistic and historical differences, cultural diversity, and transnational effects as they portray the city in both its contemporary and historic dynamics.