On 17 January 2025, the TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE (talkingobjectsarchive.org) will be launched. Drawing on objects from the collections of both European and African museums, this digital archive develops strategies for a more expansive understanding of knowledge. The public platform is designed for researchers, artists, and all those interested in decolonial approaches to knowledge production. At its core is the question: What might knowledge beyond European knowledge systems look like today?

The launch will be moderated by Aisha Camara and will be held in English and French.

18:00 CET (Berlin)
20:00 EAT (Nairobi)
17:00 UTC (Dakar)

You will receive the link to the stream after your registration.

Programme
amongst others

• Introduction by the Curatorial Team of the Talking Objects Archive: Chao Tayiana Maina, Isabel Raabe, Mahret Ifeoma Kupka, and Malick Ndiaye
• Welcome Remarks by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Claudia Roth, who will also present her favorite item from the archive, as well as Rose Fields, Head of Program Arts and Culture of KfW Stiftung
• Presentation of the digital archive by Chao Tayiana Maina and visual intelligence
• Artistic Interludes by Nando Nkrumah, Alibeta and Gladys Kalichini

A digital archive developing strategies for decolonial knowledge production

The archive brings together around 120 selected objects from the collections of the Musée Théodore Monod (Dakar), the Museum Europäischer Kulturen (Berlin), the Museum Angewandte Kunst (Frankfurt am Main), the GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde (Leipzig), and the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum (Cologne). Objects from the Musée Théodore Monod play a central role. As one of the oldest museums in West Africa, it holds a collection of West African objects amassed under French colonial rule, leaving it burdened with an acquisition history comparable to that of many European museum collections. Ethnological and cultural history museums from Germany selected objects from their own holdings in response to this collection, producing associative and formal-aesthetic links and generating new narratives around shared themes. The resulting context allows objects to interact with one another, spark dialogue, and foster a polyphonic discourse.

The curated digital archive does not aim for completeness. Rather than tracing the provenance of individual objects, its focus lies in accessing the stories these objects can tell beyond their origins. How can the Western canon of knowledge be expanded to embrace other ways of thinking and knowing? The archive’s carefully designed structure seeks to dismantle hierarchies, introducing new categories and classification systems. This creates a space for knowledge that is absent, concealed, or forcibly excluded in current debates – a space for plural knowledge that accommodates multiple narratives and truths.

The dynamic digital structure of the TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE was developed in collaboration with African Digital Heritage (Nairobi) and the designers from visual intelligence (Berlin). The themes woven into the archive’s framework range from reflections on knowledge, identity, memory, and the imaginary to questions of restitution and reclamation. Equally significant are spiritual inquiries into absences, wounds, and processes of collective mourning, which hold an equal role in shaping the conversations and artistic interventions inspired by the objects. Knowledge items complement the archival objects, using text, images, audio, and video to give them voice and activate them as entry points into diverse knowledge systems. Additionally, curated collections of objects, artistic approaches, and research projects establish distinct focal points and themes within the archive.

The technical implementation of the archive relies on accessible, lightweight software that can be operated and replicated on standard servers. Without the need for a complex database connection, the strategies for polyphonic knowledge production developed in the TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE are made widely available to those interested in rethinking museum practices.

The conception of the archive was the result of a multi-year process that challenged existing concepts of knowledge and explored ways to make plural knowledge accessible without hierarchy. Since 2020, the development of the archive has been supported by the artistic research project TALKING OBJECTS LAB (talkingobjectslab.org). Over 50 preparatory events have been held, including internal think tanks and workshops, as well as public symposia, readings, talks, film screenings, and exhibitions. This ongoing dialogue connected institutions and non-institutional venues in Dakar and Saint-Louis (Senegal), Nairobi (Kenya), Lagos (Nigeria), Berlin and Frankfurt am Main (Germany), Reykjavik (Iceland), and New York (USA), taking place both on site and transnationally in digital space. Over 140 people – primarily from the African continent but also from Europe and the international diaspora – were involved. Participants included artists, scientists, and curators, as well as individuals with other forms of knowledge, such as cooks, craftspeople, teachers, programmers, gardeners, children, and many more.

The digital launch on 17 January 2025 marks the culmination of the conceptual phase, bringing together thought leaders and archive contributors once more in a moderated, bilingual stream (English/French) open to the public.

In the next phase, the archive will be further developed through open calls, enabling the inclusion of new content, additional objects, and knowledge items. An expanded archive function, already visible as a technical prototype, will also be activated. This feature embeds annotations within films, allowing for thematic cross-references and further interweaving the narratives surrounding the objects.

The TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE is hosted by African Digital Heritage, Nairobi.

talkingobjectsarchive.com