14/09/20
 
Über diesen Blog
DECOLONIZING COLLECTIONS – NETWORKING TOWARDS RELATIONALITY   Decolonizing – Dieser Blog möchte einen Beitrag zur Dezentrierung der Debatte über koloniale und ethnographische Sammlungen, Archive und Museen leisten. Unser Ziel ist es, koloniales Wissen und vorherrschende epistemische Praktiken kritisch zu reflektieren, auch in unserer eigenen Praxis zu überwinden und damit zugleich die hierarchischen Trennungen zwischen Zentrum […]

20/09/22
Challenges of Re-Writing the Iziko Ethnographic Collections Archives: Some Lessons from the Khomani San/Bushmen Engagement
DCNtR Debate #3. The Post/Colonial Museum
The authors of this article are both museum professionals within the Iziko Museums and as such have come to inherit the ›skeletons in the cupboard‹. We would prefer to believe that, having been active participants in the struggle against apartheid and wrestling with issues of identity in post-apartheid South Africa, we have a critical approach […]

13/09/22
The Uganda Museum’s Tribal Representation: Colonial Repositories and Community Reconciliation in Uganda
DCNtR Debate #3. The Post/Colonial Museum
Introduction Colonial rule in Uganda introduced classifications of so-called ›tribal‹ groups to enforce British administrative units. The idea or imagination of the ›imperial‹ implemented by the British colonial government included exhibitions of ›tribal crafts‹ in the Uganda Museum. While such exhibitions and displays divided the population into ›tribes‹ for the convenience of the British, the […]

06/09/22
The Museums of Black Civilisations, between History and Utopia
DCNtR Debate #3. The Post/Colonial Museum
Introduction The idealisation of the Musée des Civilisations Noires (Museum of Black Civilizations, MCN) is attributed to Senegalese activist Lamine Senghor (1889–1927). It was in 1926, with the creation of the Comité de Défense de la Race Nègre (CDRN)[1] that the pan-African luminary firstly mentioned a museum for the preservation of African dignity and heritage. […]

01/09/22
The Bandjoun Station
DCNtR Debate #3. The Post/Colonial Museum
An Interview with Barthélémy Toguo, conducted by Anna Brus and Bernard Müller This conversation focuses on the local activities and community work of the visual arts centre and museum of contemporary art Bandjoun Station in the West-Cameroon highlands.[1] The project that is run by the Cameroonian artist Barthélémy Toguo goes far beyond the model of […]

25/08/22
The Post/Colonial Museum: Rethinking the Past, Collecting the Present
DCNtR Debate #3. The Post/Colonial Museum
A conversation with Dr. Silvie Memel-Kassi, former Director of the Musée des Civilisations, Abidjan, and currently Directrice Générale de la Culture de Côte d’Ivoire, Nanette J. Snoep, Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne and Martin Zillinger[1] Nanette J. Snoep (N.J.S.) & Martin Zillinger (M.Z.): In your work you’ve always stressed that the museum is a space of memory […]

18/08/22
What I Have Learned from my Ban from the Humboldt Forum
First, let me attempt to explain why I received a museum ban. Indeed, a sensible decision that many have made has been to avoid going into museums completely, that is also a decision that I dabbled with for some time. Though to call it a decision would imply that my not going was a matter […]

01/08/22
„Our Colonial Heritage”
An Exhibition Review of the Tropenmuseum´s New Permanent Exhibition
Entering the Tropenmuseum always fills me with a mixed feeling of awe and discomfort. The grandiose imperial architecture of its central hall has lost nothing of its power to instil these emotions in the visitor coming face to face with what was once the Koloniaal Museum of the Dutch Empire. Since then, the museum’s contents […]

05/07/22
The Invention of Pest Control in Museums
Book Review of Schädlingsbekämpfung in Museen. Wirkstoffe und Methoden am Beispiel des Ethnologischen Museums Berlin. 1887–1936 by Helene Tello.
  Helene Tello: Schädlingsbekämpfung in Museen. Wirkstoffe und Methoden am Beispiel des Ethnologischen Museums Berlin. 1887–1936, Köln Wien, Böhlau Verlag, 2022. ISBN Print: 9783412524609— ISBN E-Book: 9783412524616 Coming from cultural studies, I started to approach the chemical history of conservation in museum collections by looking at it as a cultural technique. I was intrigued by […]

18/06/22
Iconoclash im GRASSI Museum
Versuche, über eine beschädigte Stele eine internationale Museums-Krise herbei zu publizieren
Die aktuelle Debatte um koloniale Sammlungen hat in und um ethnologische Museen eine regelrechte Fehde ausgelöst, in der sich Reformer und Bewahrer scheinbar unversöhnlich gegenüberstehen. Dabei werden die Töne immer schriller und die Mittel immer härter, mit denen sich Kolleg*innen in Feuilletons, Vereinsschriften, und Mailing-Listen angreifen und versuchen, Öffentlichkeiten für ihre Positionen zu mobilisieren. Jüngst […]

18/06/22
Iconoclash in the GRASSI Museum
Seeking publicity for an international museum crisis by way of a damaged pedestal
The current debate surrounding colonial collections has unleashed a veritable feud in and around ethnological museums, which pits reformers and preservationists against one another, seemingly irreconcilably. In feuilletons, newsletters, and mailing lists, voices are growing ever shriller, and the means employed ever harsher, as peers and colleagues attack each another and seek to mobilize audiences […]