Suggest instead of stating versions of past events. Make it clear that new archaeological and anthropological theories are an open invitation to try and increase the number of ways that the lives of Colombia's ancient cultures can be viewed. Those theories make no attempt to reproduce any assumption of events and lifestyles, but rather suggest what these might have been. They therefore try to give gold objects a wide range of possible universes, looking at them as archaeology, technology, symbols and art. Inexhaustible viewpoints, which entice you to return, to repeat the experience of studying these artefacts time and again.

The need grows, together with the idea of the museum as a preserver, a cultural centre which suggests new ways of looking at the world and its historical remains. The museum as a place where there is no longer one single truth, but rather a number of different interpretations which each individual builds up, depending on his or her own experiences. A place which suggests, which invites all generations to interact, so that together they can build an idea of the past, and its relationship to the present. A living museum.

Thus, and based on Mircea Eliade's metaphor of metals rising up from the bowels of the earth, the cycle that metals follow is displayed: they are extracted, used, ritualised, given up as offerings, and return to the earth.

Because how can we tell a story about the past, how can we suggest what might have been, how can we delve into age-old cultures that we cannot understand today? Precisely by looking at these things from a number of different angles.

The idea is to study the entire Gold Museum collection in depth, so that an attempt can be made to imagine that the objects were made for purposes other than those they have today, but purposes that still remain totally valid. Because metals still play a fundamental role in everyday life: we sleep on the metal structures of our buildings, we eat with metal cutlery, we pay for what we need with metal coins, we travel in metal vehicles, we communicate by means of metal antennas, we adorn ourselves with metal jewels, and we even settle conflicts using metal instruments.

As with the rest of the museum, the Educational Services and Dissemination area has gradually changed over the years, and has been perfecting the idea that if there is no communication with the public about a collection, there is no reason for that collection to exist. Methods for bringing the pre-Hispanic world to people, and especially children, through the objects in the Gold Museum collection have taken shape over the years, and have meant replacing the speech on the guided tour, where the guide possesses all the knowledge and his audience none, by a more balanced arrangement. One where every person's experience is fundamental for interacting with his past, as represented in the museum.

Because the idea is that contact with the gold object will make visitors sense a world they are finding out about at the museum, that they will be transported back to other eras and will hear other dialects, will understand that once there were people in this same land whose way of life was totally different from what we know today, yet it was perfectly respectable.

This view has meant moving from positivism to constructivism. "From one single, unquestionable truth to the idea that there is no single truth, but rather various, coexisting truths", explains anthropologist Eduardo Londoño, the coordinator of this area. Just as positivism implies the researcher viewing his object objectively, so no such objectivity can exist under constructivism, because the view is tempered by the social and cultural context and the researcher's interests, and these factors undoubtedly modify perceptions of the object being studied. This is why the supposed truth that the public are told about past indigenous societies is not unique, as museums are places people visit in order to think, to construct an identity with respect to a series of images which take them back to their past, their history.

A visit to the museum should thus not be looked upon as something that is done once only in life. Each visit is different, because a person is different every time he returns to the museum, and his interests in a given object will therefore differ.
Because although the display is based on certain hypotheses that anthropologists and archaeologists believe in, they have all set themselves the challenge of showing what is no more than their version of things, and the exhibition can be approached from other angles, be analysed in different ways: symbolic views, technological views, views of processes, views that are full of changes and transformations. And it is precisely because this variety of views exists that the pedagogical approach that is used with children should be capable of this same wide range of different interpretations.

The 'Didactic Cases' project - which currently boasts 14 different titles - takes Gold Museum objects out to schools in Bogotá and 27 towns and cities around the country, so that children can do what they have always wanted to do, but are not allowed to in the museum: touch the objects, feel them close up, smell them. They are small pottery fragments that have been found on archaeological digs and replicas of goldwork, and they create this living experience that the New Museum is attempting to construct.

This experience and the initial mental construction act can then be rounded off by a visit to the Gold Museum, where children can get to know different objects from those they have already formed a first idea of, can have their queries answered and can raise new ones, and can interact with the monitors by means of pedagogical animations, thus making their visit a more personal, unique experience.

The aim of this is that the systematic exercise where children arrive at the museum and copy down technical details totally out of context, because they have been set a particular task beforehand and need those details in order to do it, will gradually disappear, because this way they completely fail to assimilate the fact that before them are historical objects of great value. A difficult job, but the re-education of teachers that is currently being proposed will lead in the future to new ways of approaching knowledge.

A contemporary museum no longer simply consists of rooms containing permanent and temporary exhibitions, it complements its services by means of auditoriums, cafés, restaurants, shops, conference cycles, audiovisual programmes, and pedagogical activities for people of all ages. Its function is to become a cultural centre where people can enjoy themselves and learn at one and the same time.

This is the goal of the New Gold Museum. Its idea of proposing new approaches means that children and youngsters will have a place where they can explore and exploit their desire to investigate in an enormous interactive room. And there will be numerous children's workshops, where they can look further into metallurgical techniques and carry out other activities as well.

There will also be a café-restaurant with large windows on the corner of 5th Avenue to welcome visitors, who will be able to stop off there during their visit to relax over a coffee. But it is also intended that this will be open to the public, so that local people will begin to enter the museum.

The New Museum will also boast an auditorium that can seat 100 people, where activities connected with the museum's research will be a permanent feature throughout the year. An audiovisual programme will finally show the more than 2,000 films and documentaries about the collection, archaeology and anthropology, using the necessary digital equipment to ensure that the material does not get damaged.

As they pass through the different rooms in the museum, visitors from other countries, and also those who are not interested in guided tours in groups, will be able to make use of audio guides in Spanish, English and French. Finally, the Museum's shop will be extended, so as to offer a more complete range of souvenirs, books, postcards, catalogues and accessories relating to the Gold Museum.