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14/09/20
 
About DCNtR:
DECOLONIZING COLLECTIONS – NETWORKING TOWARDS RELATIONALITY   Decolonizing – This blog is aimed at decentering the debate on colonial and ethnographic collections, archives, and museums. Its goal is to rethink colonial knowledges and dominant epistemic practices in an attempt to undo them. We seek to destabilize center-periphery divisions by providing a platform for diverse voices […]
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Birgit Meyer
07/09/21
Legba-figures and dzokawo
Unpacking a missionary collection from the Übersee-Museum Bremen
In the debate about colonial collections in ethnological and other museums, little attention has been paid to things[1] acquired in the context of evangelization in the “frontier zones” (Chidester 1996) of European imperial outreach. Conversion to Christianity in colonial contexts, as a rule, implied that converts were required to give up the material related to […]
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DCNtR collective
27/07/21
DCNTR collective on summer break!
The DCNtR collective is going on summer break until 31 August – no new posts will be appearing during this time. You can still reach us as usual with ideas for contributions and debates at info@boasblogs.org. We are looking forward to new and rich debates in autumn.
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Jan Heidtmann
27/07/21
Using a Machine with a Humane Motivation? What Is the Contribution Digital Strategies Can Make Towards Museum Decolonisation and Recognition of the Global Interweavings?
A Report about Conceiving a Web Portal on Decolonisation, Restitution, and Repatriation within the State Ethnographic Collections of Saxony (SES)
Decolonisation is a process without a singular solution or an easy answer. Rather, we, the curators of the new web portal of the State Ethnographic Collections of Saxony (SES)[1], perceive it as a multi-vocal and violent process which we attempt to push forward by means of this platform. As museums still tend to attract an […]
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Mareile FlitschKaroline Noack
06/07/21
Museums, Material Culture and Universities.
Reflections on the Parallelism and Contemporaneity of GDR/FRG Social Anthropologies in View of a Positioning with Future Prospects
In 1989 the “Wende” (the “Turning point”) reached the scientific landscapes of the GDR (German Democratic Republic or East Germany) and the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany, West Germany) and so also their ethnologies and ethnographic museums, which were similarly unprepared for it.[1] The disciplines of ethnology in both German states at the time had, […]
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German Lost Art FoundationDeutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverlusteevent
27/06/21
Digital Panel Discussion: Kambek. The Future of Pacific Collections after Acknowledging Colonial Violence and Destruction”
Audio recording available now (in German)
On  June 28, a digital panel discussion titled “Kambek. The Future of Pacific Collections after Acknowledging Colonial Violence and Destruction” took place, as we announced here on boasblogs. You can now listen to the audio recording of the discussion (in German) on the homepage of the Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste (German Lost Art Foundation). Kambek means […]
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Kader AttiaNina MöntmannMiM Workshop Series
15/06/21
The Decolonizing Agency of Repair.
Objects, Epistemologies and the Neoliberal Value System
With his latest film The Object’s Interlacing (2020), Kader Attia is presenting a polyphonic reflection on the potential role of the object in epistemological processes and the politics of restitution. In this conversation Attia talks with Nina Möntmann about the reflections on the object layed out in this film; the concept of repair, that Attia […]
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Bernard MullerLaurent Védrine
08/06/21
“The Ghosts of Colonization”
Interview with Laurent Védrine, director.
  “There is still a form of omertà in the world of museum curators.” Laurent Védrine   60‘ – a film by Laurent Védrine – narration Gaël Kamilindi – produced by Sara Brücker for Temps Noir, with the support of France Télévisions, TV5 Monde, Région Ile-de-France, with the support of La Procirep Angoa – Société […]
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event
01/06/21
Lecture: The Museum of Modernity and the End of Archaic Globalization
von Prof. Dr. Erhard Schüttpelz
Cologne Media Lecture No. 48 Wednesday, June 16, 2021, 5:45 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. CET (via zoom, please see PDF announcement for zoom link). Prof. Dr. Erhard Schüttpelz Universität Siegen   The Museum of Modernity and the End of Archaic Globalization The museum for all is a modern invention and no older than the French […]
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18/05/21
About the DCNtR Debate Series
With “The Gender of Ethnographic Collection”, the DCNtR blog “Decentering Collections: Networking towards Relationality” is starting a new blog format – the DCNtR Debate. DCNtR Debate No. 1 is curated by Carl Deussen (Cologne) and Mary Mbewe (Cape Town). DCNtR-Debates will focus on controversial and debatable aspects of the debates on the decolonisation of museums […]
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Mischka Lewis
11/05/21
Artistic Interventions in the Historical Remembering of Cape Slavery, c.1800s.
Traces of Violence from Dismembered Archives In recent years, there has been an outpouring of critical scholarship focused on dissecting colonial museums and archives, specifically in relation to the difficulties of retrieving the voices of black indigenous enslaved women in ethnographic collections. Frequently, historians note that traditional archival material is incomplete and written primarily by […]
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