How can non-European collections be presented in the museum of the 21st century? What innovative and critical approaches are currently being tested and reflected upon? The symposium of the workshop series “Asking Questions” reflects on these topics, as well as on approaches taken to date within the framework of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.

The discussion revolves around three areas of museum-based self-reflection. These three issues—revealing the object’s history, involvement of visitor groups and communities, and alternative forms of representation—are also being explored in current Humboldt Lab projects.

The symposium’s aim is not only to promote theoretical reflection, but also to develop concepts for future approaches to the collections and their presentation.

With:
Robin Boast, University of Amsterdam / Larissa Förster, Internationales Kolleg Morphomata, Universität zu Köln, Cologne / Paola Ivanov, Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin / Frédéric Keck, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris / Viola König, Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin / Sharon Macdonald, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin / Ute Marxreiter, Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin / Margareta von Oswald, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris / Hermann Parzinger, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin / Ciraj Rassool, University of the Western Cape, Kapstadt, South Africa / Verena Rodatus, Freie Universität Berlin / Andrea Scholz, Humboldt Lab Dahlem, Berlin / Romuald Tchibozo, Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin

September 19, 2015, 10am–6pm

Dahlem Museums,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Lansstraße 8 , 14195 Berlin
Germany

The event will be held in English. Registration requested, more information here.
Further events will be announced in advance in the newsletter.

Exhibitions:
The Laboratory Concept, Probebühne 6 and 7
Through October 18
A final exhibition as well as the last Probebühne (rehearsal stage) undertakes a review of the collaborative experimental exhibition program by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) and the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation). Projects with different approaches show what contemporary presentations of non-European historical collections can look like.

The Laboratory Principle. The Path to the Forum: The Humboldt Lab Dahlem, the concluding exhibition of the Humboldt Lab, is a retrospective, a perspective, and a synthesis all in one. All the experiments that took place from 2012 through 2015, and which were subsequently discussed within the seven Probebühnen, are to be displayed and reflected upon—including their premises, aims, experimental form and their outcomes.

Among the projects of the Probebühne 7, there is a mediation laboratory for teenagers, an online communication platform developed with representatives from one collection’s region of origin, as well as various artistic interventions by Nevin Alada?, Kader Attia, Sunah Choi and Mathilde ter Heijne, among others. Symposia and workshops are other integral aspects of the program—the discussion remains as lively as ever.

About Humboldt Lab Dahlem
For the past three years, the Humboldt Lab has accompanied the Ethnologisches Museum (Ethnological Museum) and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst (Asian Art Museum) of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin) on their journey to become the Humboldt-Forum. With its exhibitions, events and discussions under the Probebühne title, it regularly provides inspiration and new impulses for the planning process. The following individuals, among others, have contributed to the first five editions since 2013: artists Waseem Ahmed, Yael Bartana, Theo Eshetu, Alexandra Pirici, Kirstine Roepstorff, Karin Sander, Simon Starling, Yuken Teruya and Zhao Zhao; architects Andreas Heller, Barbara Holzer and Tristan Kobler, raumlaborberlin; designer Konstantin Grcic; curators Nicola Lepp, Florian Malzacher and Angela Rosenberg; and musician Robert Lippok.

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