Humboldt Lab Dahlem Project Documentation 2012-2015

www.humboldt-lab.
de - Dokumentation - Probebhne 1 - Bedeutungen schichten
The Humboldt
Lab Dahlem
www.humboldt-lab.de - Dokumentation - Probebhne 1 - Bedeutungen schichten
Content
Greeting 3
Introduction 4
Project Schedule 5
Imprint 6
Probebhne 1
Layering Meanings 7
Funny Thought 19
Museum of Vessels 25
Seeing Music 36
Pre-Show 45
Knight Moves 54
Probebhne 2
Game of Thrones 64
Talking Knowledge 73
Probebhne 3
24h Dahlem 80
Touching Photography 89
Man Object Jaguar 97
Probebhne 4
Appropriations 106
EuropeTest 118
[Open] Secrets 129
Travelogue 136
Seeing South 146
Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa 156
Probebhne 5
Audio Guide Special Storylines 169
Waseem Ahmed Dahlem Karkhana 177
Being HMONG. A Family Encounter 187
Music Listening 196
Probebhne 6
Object Biographies 208
Enchantment / Beauty Parlour 219
Probebhne 7
(No) Place in the Sun 229
Exhibiting Korea 238
Headhunters Paradise 247
Concentrating (on) Collections 259
Knight Moves Again 267
Sharing Knowledge 275
Asking Questions 285
The Laboratory Concept 319
2
Greeting
The Humboldt Lab Dahlem was a project of the

Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal
Cultural Foundation) in cooperation with the
Stiftung Preuischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian
Cultural Heritage Foundation). It developed new
forms of presenting artefacts of the Ethnologisches
Museum (Ethnological Museum) and the Museum
fr Asiatische Kunst (Asian Art Museum) of the
Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in
Berlin) in Dahlem for the planned Humboldt-Forum
in Berlin-Mitte. The experiment began with the
question of how objects accommodated in a
museum can open up new perspectives on our
globalized present. In its search for solutions, the
Humboldt Lab Dahlem therefore collaborated with
scholars, custodians, curators, and artists. The
results were regularly presented in so-called
Probebhnen (rehearsal stages) during the
opening hours of the museum. In this manner, the
Humboldt Lab Dahlem provided stimuli for dealing
with the current challenges of presentation and
mediation that are also posed to other museums in
Germany and Europe.
Hortensia Vlckers Prof. Dr. Hermann Parzinger
Artistic Director President
Kulturstiftung des Bundes Stiftung Preuischer Kulturbesitz
3
Introduction
Between 2012 and 2015, the Humboldt Lab Dahlem, a future-strategies program initiated by the
Kulturstiftung des Bundes and the Stiftung Preuischer Kulturbesitz, carried out more than 30 projects
involving over 300 participants, in the form of exhibitions, symposia, workshops, lectures, happenings,
and interventions. The majority of projects were initiated by the two participating institutions, the
Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and
revolved around questions posed in the planning process for the future Humboldt-Forum.
This unique experiment was led by the directors of the two institutions involved, Viola Knig and
Klaas Ruitenbeek, as well as by Martin Heller, who took an active role in planning the Humboldt-Forum
content on behalf of the Federal Government. An office under the leadership of Agnes Wegner was
established specifically to manage the project. The programming was overseen by an international
steering committee.
The Humboldt Labs activities fostered countless productive discussions and facilitated the creation of
international networks. They also produced a diverse body of insights and practical results to aid in
planning future exhibitions for the Humboldt-Forum. The seven Probebhnen, through which the
Humboldt Lab presented its projects, enabled the public to participate directly in the process.
Many of the events in the workshop series Asking Questions were also open to the public. Here, the
Humboldt Lab projects were opened up to discussion, evaluated, and framed in relation to the planning
of the Forum. Again and again, the following question was posed: how can the findings achieved be
conveyed on a long-term basis, to both the Humboldt-Forum and to other institutions? On the other
hand, participants and observers never sought to evaluate the Humboldt Lab on the basis of the
concrete, often very specific results it achieved much more important was to consider its open-ended
working method in heterogeneous contexts.
Many different facets of this conveyability emerge from the following pages. The individual dossiers are
introduced by teaser texts that summarize the key concepts of the respective projects. The extensive
project descriptions, which present the underlying questions, methodology, and the results, were
generally composed immediately after the projects public presentation within the framework of a
Probebhne. These descriptions are supported by various position papers written by external
observers, an extensive description of all the participants, and by a wealth of image material that also
serves to visually demonstrate the diversity of the Humboldt Lab projects.
Taken altogether, it becomes clear how enormously the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum fr
Asiatische Kunst have profited from the Humboldt Lab over the past nearly four years. Decisive
processes of change have been initiated, whose long-term impact and significance will unfold in the
coming Humboldt-Forum.
In addition to this online documentation, The Laboratory Concept.

Museum Experiments in the Humboldt Lab Dahlem is being published
by the Nicolai Verlag. The publication compiles short descriptions of the
Humboldt Lab projects and reflects upon the experiment as a whole as
an exemplary platform for innovation. The perspective of both internal
participants and external observers gives a vivid picture of the challenges
faced by a 21st-century museum.
Featuring introductions by Hortensia Vlckers and Hermann Parzinger,

as well as contributions by Irene Albers, Fred von Bose, Larissa Frster,
Martin Heller, Stefan Kaegi, Noelle M. K. Y. Kahanu, Harald Katzmair,
Viola Knig, Sharon Macdonald, Bettina Probst, Klaas Ruitenbeek,
Philipp Schorch, Juri Steiner, Tim Ventimiglia, Agnes Wegner,
Detlef Weitz, Nina Wiedemeyer and Elena Zanichelli.
Humboldt Lab Dahlem (Ed.)

The Laboratory Concept. Museum Experiments in
the Humboldt Lab Dahlem
288 pages, 17 x 24 cm, 137 colored illustrations, hardback
Nicolai Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89479-955-7
4
Projects Humboldt Lab Dahlem
2012 2013 2014 2015
Jan Dec Jan | Feb | Mar Apr | May | Jun Jul | Aug | Sep Oct | Nov | Dec Jan | Feb | Mar Apr | May | Jun Jul | Aug | Sep Oct | Nov | Dec Jan | Feb | Mar Apr | May | Jun Jul | Aug | Sep Oct | Nov | Dec
Probebhne 3 Probebhne 4 Probebhne 7

24h Dahlem Appropriations (No) Place in the Sun
Touching Photography Dahlem Karkhana: Studio Headhunter's Paradise
Man Object Jaguar EuropeTest Exhibiting Korea
EuropeTest: Why not? [Open] Secrets Concentrating (on) Collections
Travelogue Knight Moves Again
Seeing South Sharing Knowledge
Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa
Probebhne 2
Game of Thrones The Laboratory Concept
Talking Knowledge Probebhne 5 The Path to the Forum:
Audio Guide Special Storylines The Humboldt Lab Dahlem
Waseem Ahmed Dahlem Karkhana
Being HMONG. A Family Encounter
Music Listening
Probebhne 1
Layering Meanings
Funny Thought
Museum of Vessels Probebhne 6
Seeing Music Object Biographies
Pre-Show Enchantment / Beauty Parlour
Knight Moves Music Listening
Appropriations. A performative conference

Remembering as a Constructive Act
Workshop Discussing [Open] Secrets
Historical Collections and Contemporary Art

Breaking Mesoamerican Codes
Workshop Chinese Medicine in Flux

Touching Photography
Man Object Jaguar
Asking Questions
Always in Crisis?
Appropriations
EuropeTest
EuropeTest
Symposium
Symposium
Symposium
Symposium
Thin Ice
Workshop
Workshop
Workshop
Workshop
Workshop
Workshop
Jan Dec Jan | Feb | Mar Apr | May | Jun Jul | Aug | Sep Oct | Nov | Dec Jan | Feb | Mar Apr | May | Jun Jul | Aug | Sep Oct | Nov | Dec Jan | Feb | Mar Apr | May | Jun Jul | Aug | Sep Oct | Nov | Dec
Imprint
The Humboldt Lab Dahlem. Museum Experiments on the Way to the Humboldt-Forum
Publisher: Humboldt Lab Dahlem, a project of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes and the Stiftung
Preuischer Kulturbesitz
Editors: Christiane Khl, Barbara Schindler and Dr. Dagmar Deuring / Assistance: Carolin Nser
Copy-editing: Elke Kupschinsky
Coordination: Carolin Nser, Viktoria Brggemann
Content Management: Viktoria Brggemann
Corporate Design Humboldt Lab Dahlem: Stan Hema / Layout: Antonia Neubacher
This document consists of individual PDFs that are generated automatically by the website www.
humboldt-lab.de, resulting in sub-optimal pagination in places.
As of November 2015 (for individual dossiers, see date of publication)
Impressum
Humboldt Lab Dahlem
The Humboldt Lab Dahlem was a project of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural
Foundation) and the Stiftung Preuischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), with
the Ethnologisches Museum (Ethnological Museum) and the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst (Asian Art
Museum), Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin), 2012 2015.
Directors:
Martin Heller, Heller Enterprises, Zurich
Prof. Dr. Viola Knig, Director, Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Prof. Dr. Klaas Ruitenbeek, Director, Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Agnes Wegner, Managing Director Humboldt Lab Dahlem
Office Team:
Agnes Wegner, Managing Director
Carolin Nser, Assistant to the Directors, Communications
Viktoria Brggemann, Communications Assistant
Nadine Ney, Technical Coordinator
Andrea Schubert, Project Administrator, Contract Management, Financial Controlling
Dr. Andrea Scholz, Research Assistant
Project Supervisor for the Kulturstiftung des Bundes:

Dr. Lutz Nitsche, Assistant to the Executive Board
Members of the teams from each of the individual projects presented on the seven Probebhnen are
listed under each project in this document.
Steering Committee:
Prof. Dr. Hartwig Fischer, Director General, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden
Stefan Kaegi, Director, co-founder of the label Rimini Protokoll, Rimini Protokoll, Berlin
Koyo Kouoh, Curator and Producer, Raw Material Company, Dakar
Prof. Dr. Hermann Parzinger, President, Stiftung Preuischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin
Jette Sandahl, Director emeritus, Museum of Copenhagen, Copenhagen
Dr. Juri Steiner, Curator, Lausanne
Hortensia Vlckers, Chairperson and Artistic Director, Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Berlin / Halle
6
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 1 - Layering Meanings
Layering Meanings
Layering Meanings / Teaser

With the project Layering Meanings, the Humboldt Lab Dahlem launched an experiment to radically
intensify the connection between the presentation of an object and the presentation of the associated
knowledge. This was done with a selection of four objects from the collection inventory, which numbers
500,000 artifacts in all, to be dealt with in depth. Andreas Heller and his exhibition team, with the aid of the
curators of the Dahlem museums as well as external academics, succeeded in collating a multifaceted and
well-researched body of knowledge about these objects, which were then designated their own individual
informational space. A wide range of texts, images and films about the provenance of the objects and their
museum history, their aesthetics, and information on their usage is thus made available to the visitor.
Layering Meanings / Project Description
Information in Extenso in the Quest for Concentration

by Agnes Wegner
Museum objects in general have many contexts for example those of their provenance, their production and
their usage or the history of their acquisition and reception. The question of making these contexts apparent
in an exhibition, as well as the resultant impression is by no means a new one in the field of museum work.
The question does though come up repeatedly, particularly when objects originate from geographically
distant regions and different historical periods, and for the visitor, not (self-)explanatory. Fundamentally, this
is the case as far as most of the 500,000 objects in the historical collection of the Dahlem museums are
concerned.
Therefore, from whose perspectives and what viewpoints should objects from these ethnological collections be
presented? These are questions that are central to the contextual and artistic planning of the Humboldt-
7
Forum. Which is why they were discussed in the opening workshop Fragen stellen (asking questions) hosted
by the Humboldt Lab Dahlem in May, 2012, and then recommended as a Lab project. Andreas Heller, the
Hamburg-based exhibition designer and curator, transposed the research and exhibition intentions under the
title Layering Meanings.
Four out of Five Hundred Thousand
Numerous preliminary discussions and a further workshop led to the selection of four objects drawn from
different cultures, regions and periods: a Persian calligraphic manuscript from 1900; a Mayan bust from
Guatemala that had been added to the collection in 1899; an Indian temple image (Picchvai) from the 19th
century and Incan knotted cord work (Khipu) from between 1400 1532. The objects are not only drawn from
diverse contexts, but the available factual information is uneven or only partially documented and they
therefore present a very heterogeneous point of departure for the project. For the presentation, Andreas
Heller and his team wanted to make accessible as much context as possible, based on differing perspectives
through the utilization of diverse types of media.
The four objects were exhibited in individual walk-in cabinets and their histories related. On the exterior
walls, white on black, the subjective and random nature of the selection from the over 500,000 objects was
explained; questions about this approach were raised, and doubts as to the feasibility of achieving objectivity
were expressed. The interior walls were separated according to category with headings like Biography,
Aesthetics, Function, and Reception. In each cabinet there was also a table with stools inviting visitors to
sit down and engage with the exhibit.
The exhibition concept is explained using one of the objects as an example: Sharad Purnima Picchvai /
Temple painting of Krishna worship, Inv.-no.: I 10008, 304 x 296 cm, Painting on woven textile; topcoat on
cotton textile, 19th century.1 The curator Martina Stoye had already undertaken research on Hindu textile
paintings of the God Krishna and was able to contribute her expertise to the project directly. In the category
Function information on the iconographic aspects was provided, as well as details on religious uses and
links to Krishna worship. Under the heading of Aesthetics, information was given about the participating
artists, the materials and techniques used. Biographical details were printed directly onto the table: the
acquisition of the Picchvai in 1966, its presentation in the permanent exhibition of the Dahlem museums and
its journey to the depot where it had been stored for several years. The objects index card states simply: M.
Chand, New York, a tenuous link to the now unidentified seller. Under the heading Reception the visitor
could learn about the mutual influences of Indian and European art history. They could also read about the
popularization of Indian textiles as interior design artifacts during the 1970s in Western Europe and about
George Harrisons reverence of Krishna and his world-famous song My Sweet Lord. The song itself was
played as an audio loop, along with a piece by Ravi Shankar.
The other three exhibition cabinets followed the same contextual arrangement and presented a similar
number of texts, but also additional film material: a workshop excerpt documenting the methods used by the
exhibition organizers in their approach to the Khipu by means of a conversation with the restorer Lena
Bjerregaard: in a video, the hands of the artist Shahla Safarzadeh were shown producing the calligraphy, and
in a film montage, fake blood ran down the Mayan bust in an intimation of a ritual sacrifice.
Points of Reference for further Humboldt Lab Work
The multilayered reading rooms, each dedicated to a single object, were an attempt to demonstrate the
variety of interpretations and of information relating to an object. At the same time it was a way of
documenting the fact that the final presentation was the result of a cooperative process between exhibition
organizers, curators and academics.
The experimental exhibition Layering Meanings polarizes in a big way. Advocates defend the cabinets as
spatially separate concentrated zones, facilitating a targeted and intensive dialog with just one object outside
the usual permanent exhibition. Particularly the design, using a central table, which, alongside individual
reading materials and roundtable discussions, was highlighted as a desirable element for future exhibitions.
The characterization, strongholds of curatorial texts used by a Dahlem curator can be regarded as a
succinct summary of all the other critical voices. They felt the object itself was overwhelmed by the quantity
of text and passionately claimed that they even had difficulty finding it. Also criticized was the lack of
individual authorship it had simply not been part of the plan and was therefore not noted in the texts. A
clear indication of the multiperspectival approach to the exhibition would have been welcome.
8
The culmination of the idea in its aim of providing as much information about an object as possible, is a
hallmark of the project and continues to make it an intellectual reference point for the Humboldt Lab. The
individual cabinets provided a demonstrable contribution to the debate around the design of large quantities
of text material in an exhibition context and to the associated question of how long visitors stay within a given
exhibition space. Is the offer of extensive reading material willingly accepted or are the in-depth texts read
before or after the visit to the exhibition on the website or in the accompanying catalogue, and should they
therefore be provided only there? Is it an advantage to be able to see the entire text, instead of swiping
through it on a tablet, chunk by chunk? What about the relationship to other media? Do they enrich or hinder
one another? Layering Meanings was an intensive and pioneering experiment in contextualizing museum
objects. The manifold experiences and lessons learned are certainly correct and relevant as far as further
Humboldt Lab Dahlem projects are concerned.
1
The other objects were: Exercise manuscript page, Inv.-no.: IB 13691, 28 x 20,4 cm, calligraphy (paper, ink), Persian; 19th century, Collection
Friedrich Spuhler, Acquisition date 1989; Mayan head, Inv.-no.: IV Ca 21664, 28 x 17 x 26 cm, Quen Santo, Guatemala, Eduard Seler, Acquisition
date 1899; Khipu, Inv.-no.: V A 42593, 55 x 35 cm, cotton/wool twisted, Inca; 1400 - 1532, Peru; Site of find: Pachacamac, Wilhelm Gretzer
(collector); Julius van der Zypen (patron), Acquisition date 1907.
Agnes Wegner has been managing director of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem since July 2012.
Layering Meanings / Positions
The High Quality of the Process

New questions, multifaceted learning processes and various misunderstandings: the two curators Maria Gaida
and Martina Stoye, along with exhibition designer and architect Andreas Heller, in conversation with Martin
Heller on the experiment Layering Meanings.
Recorded by Barbara Schindler
Martin Heller: I would like to begin our conversation with, for me, the decisive question: what have you learnt
from this project, both good and bad?
Martina Stoye: This was the first exhibition project whose concept development was handled externally. We
had no influence on which institution would be awarded the commission and simply had to wait. Then the
search began for artifacts that were particularly multilayered and on which this aspect could be best
demonstrated. This task alone became a pleasure for me i.e. looking at these objects from this perspective.
Andreas Hellers team then formulated the questions, which were a real eye-opener to me, because they were
questions that would not normally be raised within our historical research discipline. They asked whether or
not the Beatles played a role in our museums acquisition of a 19th century Krishna painting. Initially
shocked, I rejected the idea vehemently, also with my colleagues in mind. That's when I realized how, in terms
of new questioning and coming from an archeological discipline one tends to stay within the confines of a
traditional scientific discourse. It was refreshing to be confronted with a different sort of questioning. I then
pursued the matter, and saw that at the time of the acquisition there certainly had been an increasing interest
in Krishna pictures, undoubtedly connected with the Beatles and the upsurge of the Hare Krishna movement
in the West.
M. Heller: So the project gave you three things: a more open approach, the selection of objects on the basis of
non-traditional viewpoints and the new, non-scientific questions posed by Andreas Heller and his team on
behalf of the public.
Stoye: Yes, those were questions, which went against the grain of what we are accustomed to in our field, but
which were also not really solvable given such a short time-frame. Initially, that was a problem for me as a
professional.
M. Heller: Why?
Stoye: Because there is a fear of presenting something to a professional audience before it has been
9
exhaustively researched.
Andreas Heller: What do you mean by exhaustively researched? I would argue that there is no such thing.
This fear of losing of control! Not just professionals, but also entire museum systems have always believed
that this goes hand in hand with loss of quality. But we all know that the process itself is of a high quality.
That is why this title was chosen. It is like an onion from which one can continue peeling off layers. Whereby,
I don't think one ever reaches the core; one always has to begin anew. I think its very important to tell the
public that scientific research is a process. Layering Meanings represents only a small contribution to that
idea. Whether or not we have done everything right or well is another question. We could have gone much
further.
M. Heller: So, your eureka moment was rather a confirmation of what you already knew?
A. Heller: Yes, a confirmation to pursue such discussions in museums more intensively in the future.
M. Heller: Did you also learn something of which you were not previously aware?
A. Heller: What I have learnt during this project is that the effect we aimed for is not wholly understood by
the public. Whereby there is always the question of how many people one can reach anyway. Is it enough
when 20 percent say they have understood it or does it have to be 80 or 100 percent?
M. Heller: What did you, Ms. Gaida, as a distanced observer learn?
Maria Gaida: I wasn't involved in the selection of objects because I wasn't available at the time, but I wish I
had been. At some point I was told it would be the Mayan head, because someone or probably several
people were fascinated by this object. And it really is fascinating. But what makes me really pleased about
this project is that in the 44 years that this item has been exhibited I am sure that never before have so many
people viewed it so intensively. And that is thanks to this exhibition. But I would not have chosen it for the
Layering Meanings exhibition I have said that before because one knows so little about it.
M. Heller: And is there something from the project about which you could say: I didnt know that
beforehand? We are talking here about learning.
Gaida: No, there isnt really anything. Not for me. But that doesn't mean that there isnt plenty for thousands
of others to learn.
Stoye: I think we often know a lot that we arent aware of because the right questions have not been asked.
Don't you think? At least that was my experience.
M. Heller: That sounds like a worthwhile experience.
Stoye: Yes, although I would agree that we should have done more research, gone into things deeper if there
had been more time.
M. Heller: Researching Indian-influenced fashion of the 1960s isnt necessarily part of your field.
Stoye: No, not at all, I am an archeologist after all. But for me it was a very important stimulus. Now, this way
of questioning is always present, although, as I said, time is usually too short to fully engage with it.
A. Heller: The biggest provocation was this video, where a blood-like liquid runs over the Mayan head. That is
an idea that occurred momentarily when we were standing in front of the massive high steles in the entrance
area
Gaida: ... which have nothing to do with the Maya.
A. Heller: Yes, but they stand directly in front of the Mayan head and depict war and death motifs.
Stoye: That often occurs between the public and museum staff: the public sees things for example war and
thinks of victims. They perceive it on this level, then group it with other objects, order it in a different way.
For the curators it is very very difficult to think always in these simple perceptive patterns. It would be
wonderful if we could combine the two better.
Gaida: The reason for that is in part that the exhibition was conceived in the 1960s and is, in principal, still
organized in exactly the same as it was 45 years ago. Hardly anything has been improved upon. And so we are
not aware that the steles originated in a completely different culture from the head, which you then chose.
10
A. Heller: Is there a trick to enable you as an academic to step back for a moment and see this object in a new
way? Completely forgetting your own biography and viewing it anew?
Gaida: There are probably a few things I really cannot view with complete impartiality, although I wouldn't
include the Mayan head in that. The fact that you raised the idea of the Mayan head having a link with life
and death irritated me initially. There is no intimation of this being the case.
Stoye: It is an association.
Gaida: Well alright, if those were your associations, because you had seen the steles beforehand, which have
nothing to do with it, but for you became associated with each other and so finally the head is presented in
that way. I just ask myself, what does the visitor make of it. Because they don't know if that is information
based on fact, or simply someones association you, Andreas Heller, or someone elses. What conclusions do
the viewers draw? Because nowhere does it state that there is an association.
Stoye: The topic of authorship was extremely blurred, which has advantages and disadvantages.
A. Heller: I agree that we made mistakes. Which also led to the fact that the design was too finished,
although it was meant to have a workshop character.
M. Heller: The design expressed the idea: this is the voice of authority.
A. Heller: Yes, and precisely that was not our aim.
Gaida: But that is exactly how it comes across.
A. Heller: The actual theme was contemplation. And that's why you are right when you say authoritarian,
because ideally we would have liked to lock the doors! After half an hour we would let you out again. (all
laugh)
M. Heller: In the end an exhibition was created that had an authoritarian air, although something else was
intended. And on the other hand it became a text-based exhibition, which for many had something excessive
about it.
A. Heller: I would say: text per se is not a bad thing. Its not purely intellectual. But if an entire museum were
organized like that, I would say, That wont do. One other thing is important: we chose the items because
they have nothing really to do with each other. For us, the connections were made during the course of
working with them, which is, of course, not at all scientific. But pretty amazing. And I like that about
museums: that one can create synapses between things that actually don't belong together. But we know that
they do actually belong together. Collections that have been brought together coincidentally or to an extent
based on ideological motivation, even if consisting of more than half a million items, offer an invitation to play
and create new inter-relationships that didn't exist before in the real world. For many people, especially in
museums like this one, that is what makes them exciting; for others it's a no-go area.
M. Heller: Thank you very much that was an appropriate summing up!
Dr. Maria Gaida specialized in ancient American studies, ethnology and prehistory at Hamburg University, gaining her
doctorate in 1983. After a traineeship at the Ethnologischen Museum Berlin, she has been curator of the Mesoamerican
collection since 1993 and head of the department of collections since 1998. Gaida is also co-publisher of the museum
magazine Baessler-Archiv and co-author, along with Nikolai Grube, of the book Die Maya. Schrift und Kunst (Kln
2006).
Andreas Heller, architect from Hamburg, has been designing since the mid-1980s exhibitions and interiors for numerous
institutions and museums in Germany. In 1989 he founded the Studio Andreas Heller GmbH, an interdisciplinary
planning office for cultural, recreational and educational institutions.
Martin Heller is a member of the management board of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem and is responsible for the contextual
concept development of the Humboldt-Forum.
Martina Stoye has been curator of South and Southeast-Asian Art at the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst Berlin since 2008.
After curatorial work at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin she took up a post as lecturer on Indian Art History at the
Freie Universitt Berlin from 1995 to 2001. She subsequently conducted research into Buddhist Gandhara art and in
2007/2008 worked on a major Gandhara exhibition for the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle Bonn.
11
Barbara Schindler works in the field of art PR. Together with Christiane Khl she supervises the online documentation of
the projects for the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
This interview was recorded in July 2014 in Berlin.
Exhibiting Contexts: But how?

by Daniela Bystron
The Humboldt Lab project Layering Meanings was dedicated to information, contexts and the narratives of
selected exhibits. The aim of this commentary is to review what method of imparting information lay behind
the attempt and how it was implemented. Aspects discussed included: design, multiperspectival views,
transparency and authorship.
Spatial Design
Upon entering the exhibition one stands in front of four massive black cubes. They appear to contradict their
stated intention achieving the contextualisation of museum objects by making them equally attractive as
approachable for the public, as stated in the museums flyer hermetic and secretive. The cube-like cabinets
serve as informational spaces for the selected exhibits: calligraphic manuscript, a Mayan head, Khipu and
Picchvai. Black walls, white text the design is very restrained and dark. The walls are covered with text,
similar to a notice board, with few illustrations or photos. In addition, every room has a tabletop printed with
writing and images; all items of information are similarly designed and so attain a uniformity, a homogenous
surface; only the font size varies.
It is wonderful that the contexts of these objects are given so much space. But is it possible for such static
cubes, with their printed walls of information, to really convey the complex content and their relationships
with each other? The texts are structured chronologically and hierarchically, but our knowledge is formed as
flexible mesh structures. Mind maps, charts and rhizomes could render multilayered contents and their
references more effectively.
Although occasionally images, films and an audio station accompany the mainly written information, the
information cubes themselves have little experimental or playful character: the option of seeking out more in-
depth information oneself, or of contributing ones own knowledge, commentary or questions is missing. In
constructivist pedagogy, amongst other things, the multi-sensory principle is applied; emphasis is placed on
the experience of the one learning and on the process of retention of the learner. Not every type of learner1
likes to read texts; some prefer a medial or interactive method. The objects themselves invite the viewer to
become active for example the calligraphic manuscript, suggests the act of writing, or the Khipu the
invention of ones own messages. Although the tables indicate that one could work here, they serve only as
static text and image carriers: ideally one would wish for filing cabinets of index cards, drawers, reference
books for additional information or tools for creating ones own commentary. The positive aspect of analog
design is surely the opportunity provided for a deceleration of the viewing process and for the use of tactile
sense, which could have been improved on.
Several Perspectives
Each of the 500,000 objects collected here in this museum has its own history. We dont appropriate them
but instead try to understand them with the aid of questions (...) it states in the introductory wall text of
Layering Meanings. The idea of covering each cube at the entrance with introductory questions invites
independent research.2
This approach, of acquiring knowledge independently and seeking answers could be boosted through an
expansion of the forms for providing information. In order to promote variety and accommodate different
learning types the presentation could be organized differently: through a greater variety of media more
objects, films, audio documents, images, illustrations. Through a suspension of an informational hierarchy
web-like, ordered introductory texts, background information and definitions; through an expansion of text
types interviews, commentaries, essays, quotes, comics and portraits.
As previously mentioned, the contextual information has rarely been afforded such a high ranking as in this
exhibition. Information about the objects which is what most visitors demand, as reflected in guest books,
12
on comment cards and in personal conversations. But how is a museum to deal with these expectations?
Should they deliver facts, thus providing an interpretation of an object, or could they perhaps provide a more
open and critical sort of contextualization? Layering Meanings presents a lot of information that steers the
viewer towards the objects, but this could be supplemented, as in British museums, by a multiperspectival
approach: about one object, one exhibition or one topic, several people provide their personal or professional
point of view. In the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, up to now, one would have had to search in vain for
alternative perspectives, critical approaches and post-colonial questions here, potentially, the Humboldt
Lab could provide a suitable stage.
Revealing Processes
Stefan Koldehoff, the arts and culture journalist, quoted a study on information policy at a conference on art
education in Mnster in 2007. It examined which institutions the public trusts: in first place was the
Tagesschau (public television news program) and in second place were museums. This granting of trust
should be taken seriously and continually reviewed.
The following words at the entrance of Layering Meanings signal a transparence of information. What is
that? Where does it come from? What was it for? How did it get here? We ask these questions of the curators
and professionals. In this way, as a dialog of questions and answers, a joint voyage is undertaken, leading in
turn to new questions and discoveries. It is not results that are shown, but rather the path we have trodden to
reach the exhibited objects. They still conceal many puzzles. Our presentation is an invitation to you, to take
up the journey from where we left off and to undertake your own journey of discovery.
As a visitor, one would have liked to have been privy to the question and answer process between the makers,
the curators and academics: it would have been fascinating to have been a fly-on-the-wall witness during the
search for contexts and different perspectives with regard to the objects. These processes are, unfortunately,
not presented clearly enough in the exhibition space it would also have been useful to be told who, how, and
why, certain individuals were included in the knowledge-seeking process, what information the institute has,
which it does not, where it needs to draw on the expertise of others or where there is divergence on current
historical research.
Who is Speaking?
Authorship is an important question, when it comes to credibility and transparency. If recipients are given an
opportunity to decide between several perspectives, they are accepted as mature visitors. With such openness
and impartiality with regard to the museums collections, one could include such discussion and critical
approaches as part of the displays and thus appeal to a more diverse public.
Equally, participative tendencies3 reflected in methods like user-generated content or co-creative processes,
could be incorporated into the communicative practice. In particular, an attempt like Layering Meanings
could even include empty spaces and tools for the public to express its own opinions.
What to do?
Contexts are good for the objects! If they are then given enough space as they are here, then so much the
better. I would like to see more of such spatial data banks; I would also like them to present or invite the use
of archive material and information collected by the institution as well as continuing perspectives from
outside sources - experts and public. Theoretical or subjective day-to-day items of information create
relationships between the objects and those viewing them and in this way they gain a stronger, multi-tonal,
social relevance.
In contrast to the current and much quoted study about average lengths of stay in the museum4, whose
results, among others, showed that, on average, visitors devote only 11 seconds to an object, Layering
Meanings stresses a focussing and slowing down of the viewing process. The design of a framework to
encourage an intensive discourse, exchange and self-generated research are also recommended for the
Humboldt-Forum.
Layering Meanings has taken on the, up to now, rare form of communicative formats, namely informational
and research spaces. For the future Humboldt-Forum I would wish to see more of these space experiments,
which test how far they can be implemented visibly in the exhibition space, using complex information and
13
questions which interact in a transparent, multiperspectival, critical and playful manner with their public.
1
Cf. David Kolb: Experiential Learning. Experiences as the Source of Learning and Development. New Jersey, 1984.
2
Questions on the Mayan head quoted as example: Where does the head come from? God or human head? A cult object? Why a mask? When was it
made? How and with what materials was it made? Who discovered it? What is the fascination with the Mayans? How did the head come to the
museum? Still a puzzle?
3
Cf. current publications like: Angela Jannelli: Wilde Museen. Bielefeld, 2012; Susanne Gesser, Martin Handschin, Angela Jannelli, Sibylle
Lichtensteiger (Ed.): Das partizipative Museum. Bielefeld 2012; Nina Simon: The Participatory Museum. Santa Cruz, CA 2010.
4
E-Motion Study by Martin Trndle, University of Applied Sciences, Basel, mapping-museum-experience.com/ergebnisse/kuenstlerische (viewed
July, 15, 2013)
Daniela Bystron studied rehabilitative and art education in Cologne and Zrich, as well as the history of art, media and
pedagogics in Dsseldorf and Cologne. Since 2006, she has been assistant research officer for education and
communication at the Museen zu Berlin and responsible for art communication at Hamburger Bahnhof Museum fr
Gegenwart Berlin and the Neue Nationalgalerie. She is a tutor at the Freien Universitt Berlin, the Universitt der
Knste Berlin as well as lecturer at the Bundesakademie fr kulturelle Bildung Wolfenbttel and the Institut fr
Kulturkonzepte in Vienna.
Layering Meanings / Credits

A project of the Probebhne 1, March 14 through June 23, 2013
Concept and design: Andreas Heller, Alexander Kruse, Jutta Strau (Studio Andreas Heller GmbH Architects
& Designers)
Editing: Philipp Brger, Marina Eismann, Brigitte Landes
Video: Martin Granata, Constantin Heller
Curators Dahlem museums: Lena Bjerregaard, Maria Gaida, Ingrid Schindlbeck Martina Stoye
Collaborating experts: Tryna Lyons, Elke Ruhnau, Jesko Schmoller
Consulting: Simone Eick, Brigitte Landes
Exhibition construction: Wolfgang Matzat
Restoration supervision: Lena Bjerregaard, Kai Patricia Engelhardt, Toralf Gabsch, Leonie Grtner, Katrin
Haug
Transcription of the calligraphy: Omran Garazhian, Leila Papoli Yazdi
Translation: Laurie Schwartz
Layering Meanings / Imprint Documentation

Publisher: Humboldt Lab Dahlem, a project of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes and the Stiftung Preuischer
Kulturbesitz (2012-2015). Directors: Martin Heller, Viola Knig, Klaas Ruitenbeek, Agnes Wegner
Editor: Barbara Schindler
Assistance: Carolin Nser
Translation: Galina Green
As of September 2014
The texts shown here are the work of individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the
Humboldt Lab Dahlem. The copyrights belong to the Humboldt Lab Dahlem, if not indicated otherwise.
Note for the PDF print version: all links can be accessed on the respective subpages of www.humboldt-lab.de.
14
Installation view Layering Meanings, photo: Jens Ziehe
Layering Meanings: Picchvai, photo: Jens Ziehe
15
Layering Meanings: Calligraphy sheet, photo: Jens Ziehe
16
"Layering Meanings: Maya head, photo: Jens Ziehe
17
Layering Meanings: Khipu, photo: Jens Ziehe
18
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 1 - Funny Thought (Drle de Pense)
Funny Thought
Funny Thought / Teaser

The foyer of the Humboldt-Forum will house a spatial installation comprised of many different parts,
referencing the historical art and natural history collections of the Berlin Palace. The office Focus + Echo has
taken on the task of translating this baroque presentation of knowledge into the 21st century. Inspired by the
essay Drle de Pense (funny thought) by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who had sketched out the idea of such
a chamber of wonders as a combination of archive and imaginative space for the communication of art,
architecture and science, the office developed a digitally generated three-dimensional space. Built-in sensors
enabled the public to view objects, move them, enlarge them or reduce them in size. The image motifs,
consisting of single particles, bring to life the theatre of nature and art as a unique Humboldt Lab
installation.
Funny Thought / Project Description
An Interactive Experience of Baroque Pictorial Worlds

by Andreas Pinkow
A spatial installation comprised of many different parts is planned for the foyer of the Humboldt-Forum. The
installation largely focuses on two historical points of reference: the art and natural history collections from
the Berlin City Palace of Prince-Elector Joachim II from the 16th century, (kurfrstlich-knigliche Kunst- und
Naturalienkammer), and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz who founded the Royal Brandenburg Society of Sciences
(Kurfrstlich-Brandenburgische Societt der Wissenschaften) in 1700, which referenced the aforementioned
historical collection.
The installation is distributed in 42 niches over three floors of the open galleries that encircle the building.
The presentations in these niches are playful references to exhibits from the ethnological collections, but also
19
raising questions on the nature of collecting as such, and about methods and forms of appropriation. In this
way, references to exhibits, event programs and the founding concept of the Humboldt-Forum can be
experienced directly in this spatial presentation.
In his 1675 published text entitled Drle de Pense (funny thought) Leibniz describes this historical
collection the Kunstkammer (cabinet of art) as a lively, entertaining, and completely new interplay
between forms of natural science collection, research, entertainment and communication. The planned
installation is based on the principle behind the Kunstkammer, whose intellectual dimensions encapsulate the
founding principles of the Humboldt-Forum: comparative perspectives on art, architecture and natural
sciences that reveal new inter-relationships and highlight the global relationship between Germany and the
rest of the world.
The thought behind the transmission of text as an interactive presentation for the Humboldt Lab, was to
illustrate the Humboldt-Forums idea of pars pro toto in a spatial experience beforehand. For this purpose
we successfully developed and submitted a project idea that was subsequently commissioned by the
Humboldt Lab.
Swiping, Morphing and Other Interactive Navigation Methods in Digital Spheres
Different aspects of seeing played a fundamental role for both Leibniz as well as the Kunstkammer. For this
reason, the Humboldt Lab project Drle de Pense should break with usual modes of seeing and allow
visitors new perspectives on this historic world of pictures. New digital spaces have been created to find a
fitting reflection of Leibniz joy at surprising discoveries in a plethora of interests, across numerous
disciplines.
The bold ideas that were occurring to Leibniz were accompanied by parallel scientific discoveries in the 17th
century: the telescope and the microscope had just been invented being able to view the stars or magnify the
smallest particles were groundbreaking developments. To stimulate the imagination of present-day visitors,
the exhibition team took drawings from this period and transformed them into three-dimensional formats:
spaces gained depth, figures gained volume and objects were infused with detail. Processes that were only
roughly described in the original images were brought to life with animation.
To make the newly created pictures accessible, we used common digital navigation techniques: intuitive
zooming in and out, leafing through pages and so on. The visual surface was affixed to the front of a 3 x 3
meter cube, whose wooden frame was covered with transparent gauze. A circular projection area appeared to
allow a view into the interior of the cube. In actual fact, the inner space was generated in real time much
like a computer game that reacted to visitors movements. With the distortion of perspective one was given
the impression of a window. In the depiction of the inner space of the cube the little pixels appeared to be
floating around before continuously re-forming for each new presentation of historic picture images.
The visitors were then encouraged to discover images through simple hand movements, allowing them the
surprise of each generated effect. For example, a stretched out arm functioned as a flashlight to illuminate the
relevant historic Kunstkammer object. Or different mussel shapes as seen on various historic paintings
could be morphed into each other with a swiping movement. As an increasing number of different themes
were discovered, the multi-perspectival interplay of the animations increased. To assist visitors with their
interactive options, a short film showing the different functions was located right next to the cube.
A high-performance computer was necessary for the technical realization of the cube, while specific software
had to be developed. This computer rendered both the simulation of the inner space of the cube and the
images made up of individual particles in real time, and continuously re-combined them using a random
generator. A camera over the display captured the movements of the visitors to calculate the exit point for the
three-dimensional appearances 1:1 to the visitors positions in front of the screen. The visitors gestures were
transposed into control commands to present different animations reactively. Atmospheric sound effects
accompanied the movement sequences.
A glossary had been developed to help visitors understand the themes of the installation in the most
straightforward way possible. The glossary contextualized both the terms concerning the digital
representation of historical pictorial worlds, and the terms used by both Leibniz and in the historic
Kunstkammer, while connecting them with contemporary aspects of the Humboldt-Forum.
20
Computer-Aided Applications for New Insights
The multi-optional access to content and the non-linear storytelling methods were deliberate, but required a
fairly high degree of curiosity from the audience. Visitors willing to engage, could experience Leibniz
exuberant joy in experimentation and discover multi-dimensional elucidations. The possibilities for research-
interaction particularly offered a young and technically able target group new access to historical material,
while museum fans and trade professionals experienced familiar motifs in a new context. An unplanned side
effect was that visitors seemed more interested in watching others using the Drle de Pense than doing it
themselves. In this way, the space in front of the installation became a kind of stage.
The Humboldt Lab project Drle de Pense represents the Kunstkammer, as one part of 42 presentations in
the foyer of the future Humboldt-Forum. The development process involved a large team of academics, media
artists, programmers and scenographers who all worked without specific result expectations. This was
especially the case since the technically involved break with usual modes of viewing and a very technically
detailed development of unique and innovative gesture commands went hand-in-hand. The test runs were able
to provide an increasing number of new options in presentation and perception. The result, shown in Dahlem,
was only one of many realization possibilities and has the potential for more complex navigation structures, as
well as more narrative-based variations in the future. One thing is certain: this unconventional approach to
historical pictorial worlds and the direct invitation to an audience to interactively navigate it carries a lot of
potential.
Andreas Pinkow is the creative director of Focus + Echo. The office for concept and scenography specializes in
dramaturgy, exhibition as well as media design and storyboard development for exhibitions, museums and innovative
large-scale projects.
Funny Thought / Positions
A Utopian Installation on Times and Spaces

by Peter Funken
More than 300 years after Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz "fantastical" texts were published, Andreas Pinkow
shows how the idea of a world-exhibition may have looked and functioned, in his installation "Funny
Thought," utilizing aesthetic and technical tools of the 21st century. It is a digital homage, in which images
and fantastical worlds of the 17th century can be explored interactively.
As though viewed through an oversize microscopic eye we look into a three-dimensional space, affording us
insights into complex layers of depth when we move in front of this installation. The latter is meant literally,
because only when the visitor actually moves hands, arms or the entire body, in reaction to the images, giving
gestural instructions, does the screen content move and change, resulting in ever new layers and levels in the
projection. Once one enters the game, it is like being pulled into an event that begins perspectively but soon
disintegrates in order to rearrange itself into a new form.
But what are we, when we enter the "Wunderkammer" ("Chamber of Wonders") of the 21st century and deliver
ourselves into its hands? Travellers in space and time, or actually part of the artwork, a more or less
intelligent prosthesis of the image machine "Funny Thought" which, via digital technology and back
projection, illustrates how the world was being imagined toward the end of the 17th century? Are we mere
appendages of a fascinating game, or virtually god-like creatures, freed of the limitations of physics? As an
active party, one will certainly find oneself in a process of realization. Because in addition to the continually
newly generating image-worlds of the projections, the exhibition also offers written orientation in the world of
knowledge since Leibniz: on the wall adjacent to the projection machine there is a large information board.
Here is an index of relevant keywords, thematizing the future Humboldt-Forum project, as well as its
prerequisites in terms of the humanities and natural sciences. The alphabetically ordered keywords begin
with "Akademie der Wissenschaften" and end with "Work in Progress." The terms elucidate the Leibniz
universe as well as the Humboldt-Forum project or the Humboldt Lab in the Dahlem Museums. The index
lists and connects basic research terms coined since Leibniz and Humboldt for example the terms "Travel,"
"Collecting," and "Curiosity," with significant figures from the early Enlightenment, as well as countries (e.g.
21
"China") and scientific methods ("Experiment," and "Correspondence"). The core of the index consists of the
historical "Drle de Pense" as draft plan for an enlightening and joyful utopia.
With its interactive installation and index, the exhibition team connects the scientific and popular ideas from
the past to the future of the Humboldt-Forum. The historical utopia "Funny Thought" as future-orientated
idea of the late 17th century serves as the reference point. And in this technically advanced and aesthetically
convincing installation it is given an appropriate contemporary representation. In the interface between the
historical and the contemporary, a new perspective for the future is opened up, where perhaps a more holistic
view of the world, art and the sciences is again possible a new form of the universal which Leibniz, in his
time, still had at his disposal.
The Berlin-based author Dr. Peter Funken has been working as an exhibition concept developer since 1983.
Funny Thougt / Quote

The presentations could, for example, be a magic lantern (one could begin with that), as well as flights,
artificial meteorites, all kinds of optical marvels, a representation of the heaven and the stars. Comets. A
globe like that of Gottdorf or Jena; fireworks, fountains, vessels of strange shapes, mandrakes and other rare
plants. Extraordinary and rare animals. The Royal mange. Mythical animals. The royal horse race
automaton. Prizes. Recreations of acts of war () Extraordinary concerts. Rare musical instruments. Talking
trumpets. Hunt. Lusters and imitation jewels. The presentation could at any time be combined with a number
of tales or comedies. Theater of nature and art. Fighting, swimming. Extraordinary tightrope dancers. Salto
mortale. Demonstration of how a child can lift a heavy weight with a single thread. Anatomical theatre.
Medicinal herb garden. Later also a laboratory. Because in addition to the public presentations there will be
special ones, like those of small calculating machines and others, paintings, medals, libraries. ()
Quote from: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Drle de Pense, touching on a new kind of REPRESENTATION <or rather:
Palace of Games> September 1675, translated into German by Horst Bredekamp, in: Horst Bredekamp, Die Fenster der
Monade. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Theater der Natur und Kunst, Berlin 2004; translated from the German into English
by Galina Green.
Funny Thought / Credits

A project of the Probebhne 1, March 14 through May 26, 2013
Concept and Design: Andreas Pinkow and Anette Dittel (Focus + Echo, Berlin)
Art historians: Eva Dolezel, Robert Felfe
Media production: Daniel Franke (We are Chopchop, Berlin) together with Martin Backes, Jacob Kirkegaard,
Denny Koch, Marc Tiedemann and Christopher Warnow
Graphics: Barbara Dechant
Translation: Richard Toovey
Funny Thought / Imprint Documentation

As of November 2014
22
Installation view Funny Thought, photo: Jens Ziehe
Visitors at the opening, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
23
24
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 1 - Museum of Vessels
Museum of Vessels
Museum of Vessels / Teaser

More than 38 percent of the objects in the Dahlem collections are vessels: this fact prompted Nicola Lepp,
Nina Wiedemeyer and Ursula Gillmann to issue a new version of object biography. They consigned the role of
narration to the media and, in addition to a large presentation of artifacts, they included three film
installations and a sound installation. In this way, the Museum of Vessels went beyond a straightforward
presentation of objects and opened up for the public a new way of looking at fish baskets, cups, jugs, pottery
shards, bottles or vessel sculptures, as well as providing instructions for possible use. The Humboldt Lab
project deliberately went beyond the cultural-geographic chronological organization of the collections and
brought the comparative cultural aspects of the objects to the fore in a new way.
Museum of Vessels / Project Description
Understanding Vessels
by Nicola Lepp
The basis for this experimental Humboldt Lab project arose out of an observation that came about during the
workshop Asking Questions in June 2012: namely, the fact that in the Berlin-Dahlem museums which are in
the focus of the Probebhne the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst a great
number of all the exhibited objects are vessels. Made of clay, bronze, gold, silver, glass, wood or other organic
materials, vessels are present here like no other category. To be exact, they constitute 38 percent of all
exhibits as a count later revealed.
The project Museum of Vessels took its impetus from the realization of how ubiquitous these vessels are,
taking the simple fact of their presence in the exhibition rooms of the museum as an amazing occurrence, in
order to open up the question: why is it that so many vessels are on show here and what in fact is a vessel?
25
And what do vessels have to do with culture? The current presentations with their cultural-geographic
approaches and systemization provide scant pointers in response to such rather more phenomenological than
ethnologically-inspired questions. The vessels, like all other objects, are presented here as tangible evidence
and as artifacts of other cultures. And this (testified) access, that forms the basis of most European
collections of non-European cultures, is so powerful that it hinders the formation of other perspectives and
interpretations because objects are seldom simultaneously comprehensible in several logical systems.
A Cultural Theory Approach
The aim of the experimental exhibition was to explore other perspectives on vessels from outside disciplinary
approaches. The experts view, which is visible behind the current presentations, was confronted with a broad
cultural-theoretical and transdisciplinary perspective. The vessels from the individual cultures were placed
alongside a culture of vessels in order to explore whether a broader perspective could provide an extended
understanding of the objects in the museum. At the same time, it was vital to grapple with the institutional
self-perception that is the basis for the presentation of artifacts in the museum. Because every system
developed in the museum and every classification of objects necessarily involves a narrowing down and thus a
reduction of complexity. With respect to the collection presentations in the Humboldt-Forum, the question to
be asked was whether new perspectives could enrich the cultural geographical system, counteract it and
expand on it, and if yes, which ones.
We the curator Nina Wiedemeyer, the designer Ursula Gillmann and I were inspired by the discourse
which, for some time, has determined the international theory of things and examines, for example, how
objects pre-determine human activity. The vessels in the current presentation in Dahlem have completely
forfeited this praxeological dimension. Thats why, for the Humboldt Lab exhibition, we wished to develop
approaches for presenting vessels not only as artifacts, evidence and relics, but also as agents of human
action and thought. The central thesis was that vessels are a form of social media and that using vessels
promotes community. For what would happen if the vessels no longer existed? Could culture itself exist
without vessels? Accidentally, and somewhat unexpectedly, basic questions about the objects in the Dahlem
collections themselves arose out of an initial and fleeting observation of the abundance of the vessels
themselves, as well as a direct discussion about the objects within their museum arrangement. The cultural-
geographic arrangement here no longer made no sense and was therefore abandoned in this Humboldt Lab
experiment.
The Experimental Exhibition: a Trial Arrangement about Exhibiting per se
Instead, the Museum of Vessels took the multi-cultural object vessel as the point of departure for its
exploration. The introductory text reads: A vessel is a tool for holding, containing and dispensing of
materials. It stores foodstuffs or human remains but also time and labor. It is just as suited to the exchange of
goods as it is to the forging of connections, for example with gods or magical forces. Vessels are probably
among the oldest means of exchange between humans. They are suited as hardly any other object to making
visible the characteristics of human beings as a result of intermixing and migration beyond the concept of
whole cultures.
For the exploration the Humboldt Lab exhibition adopted two different formats: one lying outside the regular,
and primarily object-based, exhibition module presentation of the collection in the upper foyer that we called
the Gefzentrale (Vessel Center) as well as four media installations as interventions which we placed at
different sites in both museums. The film medium played a central role in all the installations. The static
nature of the objects was systematically accompanied by the logic of moving image and sound, in order to
find out how far these time-based media were capable of visualizing the interconnection between objects and
human activity.
The vessels, arranged on a central platform in the Vessel Center were grouped according to differing
cultural-theoretical questions and observations. The initial question was: what is a vessel really, and what
organizational systems and ways of describing them are there? The perspectives ranged from vessel typologies
(vase, jug, pitcher, cup, amphora etc.) to borderline cases (do fish baskets or sieves count as vessels?) to the
anthropomorphization of vessels, which is evident in many cultures (aesthetically as well as linguistically
neck, lip, belly of a vessel, or hes a crackpot,) down to different usage descriptions (vessels for...). Text
played an important role in the vessel center, not only as a descriptive label on the objects themselves, but
as a medium for exploration, consideration and questioning. Which is why text appeared as an exhibition
layer in its own right, in large format and script embedded in the scenography. Finally we showed excerpts of
26
ethnological films that portrayed activities such as handling, storing, transporting or dispensing and so
illustrated the social significance of vessels for the community (Vessel Activities).
Individual aspects of the vessels were examined in greater depth by means of four interventionist media
installations: their abundance in the museum, their fragility, the interiors of the vessels, and their function as
a medium of giving. Thus in the installation Gieen_Schenken (Pouring_Giving) for example, vessels from
the Moche culture were filmed being used and handled in order to examine their pouring qualities and the
sound they made. For this re-enactment, vessels were deliberately chosen from the archaeological collections
of Mesoamerica, where knowledge about their actual use has been lost. The four installations intentionally
undertook cultural-theoretical investigations also using artistic methods, in the conviction that artistic
approaches can enrich the research of objects. These interventions opened up surprising, in part speculative,
but most certainly new, perspectives that would otherwise not have been possible from the vessels in static
museum displays.
Just like the concept, the design of the Museum of Vessels was an experimental arrangement on the theme
of exhibiting per se. The design approach utilized the classic repertoire of museum presentation techniques
with pedestals, frames and display cases. The simplest of interventions and adjustments examined how we can
change our perception of things due to the design of the presentation. Even the movement of the visitors in
the room was a systematic aspect of the mediation: in the vessel center with its transparent glass surfaces,
every adjustment of the positioning changed the arrangement to something different foreground became
background and the addition and positioning of text and object shifted, resulting in new thematic
constellations and modes of perception.
Invitation to Transgress
The Humboldt Lab experiment was not concerned with a right or a successful project, but rather with the
exploration of possibilities that would allow us to go beyond the narrow framework of disciplinary systems in
our museum landscape, and at the same time open up the traditional definition of objects as evidence and
artifacts, as they are still largely determined by museum operations to this day. The project should be
understood, at the very least, as a plea for a partial breakdown of disciplines in museum work. Only in this
way can questions be raised that not only concern the others but us as others too.
Ursula Gillmann, exhibition designer and museum studies specialist. Since 1989 she has been developing and organizing
exhibition projects with the atelier gillmann and the arge gillmann schnegg. She has been professor of exhibition design
at the Hochschule Darmstadt since 2009. Significant previous projects include Wege zur Welterkenntnis (Basel, 2009);
Berge eine unverstndliche Leidenschaft (Innsbruck, 2007); PSYCHOanalyse (Berlin, 2006); Alltag eine
Gebrauchsanweisung (Vienna, 2003); Unten und oben. Zur Naturkultur des Ruhrgebiets (Essen, 2001).
Nicola Lepp is a Berlin-based expert in cultural theory and exhibition designer. Since 1995 she has been developing
themed exhibitions at the interface between science and art and works on alternative forms of exhibiting and curating.
Significant projects include: GRIMMWELT Kassel, 2015; Arbeit. Sinn und Sorge, 2009/2010; PSYCHOanalyse, 2006; Der
Neue Mensch. Obsessionen des 20. Jahrhunderts, 1999. From 2001 to 2007 she was deputy professor at the
Fachhochschule Potsdam for the course on cultural work; currently she is acting professor for cultural representation
and promotion; she has had numerous lectureships and has published work on museum and exhibition theory.
Nina Wiedemeyer is an arts and media scholar. Since 1998 she has been working as an author and curator for museums
and exhibition practices, including for prauth (exhibition project: Sinn und Sorge, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden,
2009/2010) and with the exhibitors. Since 2012 she has been working at the Universitt der Knste Berlin in its post-
graduate program Das Wissen der Knste with a project on the marginal history of knowledge in the field of arts and
crafts. Most recent publication: Buchfalten: Material, Technik, Gefge der Knstlerbcher, Zrich/Berlin 2013.
27
Museum of Vessels / Positions
Object Biographies Narrated Anew

How contradictory can the staging of presentations be, when are new interpretations permissible and what
does it mean to be a custodian of museum objects? The curators Uta Rahman-Steinert, Peter Junge and
Martin Heller, one of the Humboldt Lab directors, on the installation Museum of Vessels.
Interview: Barbara Schindler
Lets start with the film Gieen_Schenken (Pouring_Giving) which was part of a larger media installation.
In the film one sees how a pre-Columbian vessel is filled with water and then emptied. How have you, as a
museums expert, interpreted the activities shown in connection with one of your objects?
Uta Rahman-Steinert: I thought that was the most successful installation of the exhibition because it had a
significant aesthetic appeal and endowed the vessels with a different aura. It made a difference as to whether
I had the object simply sitting in a display case or whether I can see it being used that didnt work equally
well in all the installations, but in this case it did.
Peter Junge: I agree that was the most successful part of the project, although I am generally very skeptical
towards it. But I dont think it demonstrates the use, because we dont know what it was the pottery was
probably a burial object or a musical instrument. What it does show is an additional interpretation, a possibly
other dimension of the object. And I think thats good; the idea of doing something with the object that
probably no one has ever done before: picking it up with black gloves and pouring distilled water through it.
So it is a completely artificial situation (in pre-Columbian Peru there was certainly no distilled water); it
becomes fascinating because it attains an aesthetic form.
Rahman-Steinert: The video achieved what an intervention must be able to: it has redirected the attention of
the visitor to this object, and they have perhaps taken a closer look than they normally would when walking
along a row of display cases with similar objects. Here something different was happening.
Martin Heller: I have to agree. It is significant that this video intervention more than any other is repeatedly
brought up in a positive way in our planning talks. It doesn't bring a natural environment into play: the
aforementioned synthetic quality results in the vessels that are shown suddenly becoming something more
than just museum artifacts.
Can you think of other interventions that similarly engendered a new perspective on the objects or brought
them alive in a different way?
Rahman-Steinert: There was also the clatter in our gallery with Chinese ceramics. That irritated the public
extremely and resulted more in a defensive reaction. That intervention did not lead to a positive viewpoint
towards the exhibits but, instead, was considered a disturbance and intimidated the visitors.
Heller: That was the display cabinet with the seemingly precariously tipping vase I think the striking image
alone would have been enough.
Rahman-Steinert: Yes, it would have been enough. Just the mere sight made me wince when I saw for the first
time that the vase was about to tip over.
Heller: Vessels always evoke a certain sense of fragility and with it their possible destruction the shards are
somehow always present in your head. You could pick up on that as a theme in various ways, but the
clattering was too much, because it contradicted the image and that was a shame.
Junge: It reduced it to a gag
Rahman-Steinert: ... to entertainment, which isnt necessarily a bad idea. Where fragility is concerned, for a
precious object that is something threatening. Because that is certainly something that happens in a museum:
someone trips and the artifact is broken.
28
Junge: If you are serious about the topic of fragility then that necessitates increased respect for the object,
showing how amazing it is that these few remaining artifacts still exist and are important and precious objects
from a specific historical era. A flowerpot from the Chinese corner store, which you can buy for 10 euros, is
not. It may also come from China but you would never put it in this exhibition. And that's where the
presentation reveals a certain hypocrisy.
Heller: I don't agree. Like many others, my first reaction was one of laughter. Not all of us are experts! The
classic museum situation was robbed of its drama in several ways, and that is always a healthy thing.
In the Humboldt-Forum a systemization according to regional aspects is planned. Could a cultural-geographic

and cultural-historical, less closed narration, like the comparative object exhibition Museum of Vessels have
a place there?
Junge: The exhibition areas in the Humboldt-Forum will be roughly organized according to regions, but
within these regions themes will be represented. So we wont be presenting Life in Cameroon or Swahili
Folk Traditions; that would be a restriction of perspective. The alternative is not to break regional
boundaries and create multi-cultural exhibitions instead museums have been doing that for 100 years. In
every exhibition we are bringing together objects that were never together in real life: a Bamanan mask from
Mali in Africa was never found next to a Congolese figurine that only happened once they became museum
objects. That's why museums, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, had themes like the bride, mens clubs,
seafaring, or now vessels as with Nicola Lepp exhibits from all over the world. That's nothing new for a
museum because that's exactly how objects have been presented in a museum.
The concept of a thematic exhibition may not be new, but in its variety, as well as in its medial and design
approach, it has created something new for Dahlem.
Junge: In its medial design it appears fresh and new in Dahlem, but I don't see it as a new approach.
Heller: Perhaps it is something else that is relevant. There are several Humboldt Lab projects that almost
everyone liked. For example the Purnakumbha ritual 1 which was nothing new in the sense that other
museums had included similar religious practices; I saw that in Australia on several occasions. What is
decisive is that the people involved in the Lab trials during the planning process for the Humboldt-Forum
have hopefully generated positive friction and cooperative encounters. Perhaps an outsider will see better
what is missing in the present Dahlem exhibitions. For example there are hardly any films, hardly any sound
installations, no video commentaries. To begin working with these elements in the Lab is not new but it makes
sense, in the context of these objects, in this situation, with these colleagues that is the decisive aspect of
this process.
As a longstanding museum person it is exactly the aspect you mentioned before that interests me, Mr. Junge
the fact that most of the things with which we work, wouldn't under normal circumstances ever be juxtaposed,
apart from in a museum context. The confrontation with this new reality is one of the significant motors of the
Humboldt Lab. We are concerned with the web of connections that exist, and happily with differing results,
with experimentation. That's the only way that something like Pouring_Giving can come about. The attempt
to introduce film into the vessel exhibition has, as a secondary step, led us to the in-house film archives being
cataloged and thus made accessible. That is also nothing new, but it was a necessary step, in order to even
achieve the position we are in today of thinking about whether this or that room in the Humboldt-Forum
could be used to show film documentation as a complement to the objects.
Rahman-Steinert: Of course the museum is an abstraction and it brings things together that in nature or in
their place of origin would not have been. Our strength and whats special to the museum is that we bring
things together, and through confrontation make visible the different developments, perspectives and
philosophies. And precisely this new insight was not present in the wild mix of Vessel Center. Many visitors
found it difficult to orientate themselves. The labeling was not so easy to comprehend, so all that was retained
was a general perception of abundance, without looking at the individual objects. I would consider it a
successful juxtaposition if I learn more about the individual items that have been brought together.
Junge: I was not sure if Vessel Center was an installation or a Museum of Vessels, thus an encyclopedic
statement. For me this is what remained an unresolved discrepancy.
Rahman-Steinert: And the exciting question behind the entire project was: how did the abundance and
diversity of vessels here in the museum come about in the first place? In the end that hasnt really been
29
answered. For East Asia for example that is a central issue, because in the earlier rituals, vessels assumed a
much greater role, comparable to the status of a painting in the West or in Europe. Those are completely
different concepts of world and that was not really visible amidst all this diversity.
Have further questions been raised or insights been gained through these installations and the accompanying
communicative process?
Heller: Significant differences were revealed in the attempt to gain insight into what these objects actually
represent for the respective culture of origin, for the collection, for each and every one of us personally.
Western history of art knows numerous assemblages of the most diverse objects for example by the
Surrealist movement, where they presented objects from the Hopi, daily objets trouvs and their own works of
art, all in the same exhibition.
In an ethnological context this automatically raises resistance. Many colleagues, in my opinion, have a biased
sense of responsibility towards their cultures. That's why, at any price, they want to prevent wrong
impressions being created and attempt to protect the museums artifacts by drawing clear boundaries. But in
this way any kind of fun or playfulness gets lost. For me it would be a great achievement if this sense of
playfulness could be regained by the Humboldt-Forum whilst still acknowledging the responsibility of the
custodian for the objects and retaining respect for the artifacts.
Junge: There is this attitude that you have described: you stand up for your culture. But I believe that weve
come further than that. I have, for instance, organized an exhibition Weltsprache Abstraktion (World
Language Abstraction)2 in which I presented a picture by Paul Klee alongside a piece of Kuba textile from
Congo. We played with that. Sometimes you have to have the confidence to overcome the thoughtfulness of
the ethnologists and to juxtapose things that have nothing to do with each other in terms of their origin or
history.
Rahman-Steinert: I like the fact that we are custodians of the objects in order to make them more accessible
to the visitor, and that is why we have to search for different ways of accomplishing that goal.
Heller: That is easier of course with changing exhibitions in the Humboldt-Forum however we are dealing
with permanent exhibitions. And to come back to the video installation Pouring_Giving for a moment: I am
convinced that it would continue to hold its ground in a permanent exhibition. The Humboldt Lab is looking
for and finding these qualities, and for that that we need an approach that is often intricate and then again
more open, to achieve a continual state of critical analysis.
1
Springer: Purnakumbha by Martina Stoye, Probebhne 1
2
Weltsprache Abstraktion. Gestalt, Magie und Zeichen, Ethnologisches Museum Dahlem, 2006
Martin Heller is a member of the management board of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem and is responsible for the contextual
concept development of the Humboldt-Forum.
Dr. Peter Junge studied ethnology, sociology and history in Marburg and Berlin. Between 1980 and 1991 he was director
of several projects on the documentation of German colonial history at the bersee-Museum Bremen. From 1991 until
2001 he was curator of the African collection there and later director of the ethnological department. In 2002 he came to
the Ethnologische Museum in Berlin, where he was curator of the African collection until 2014 and then director of the
department of communications.
Uta Rahman-Steinert studied Sinology and the history of art at the Humboldt-Universitt, Berlin, subsequently spending
two years in Beijing where she studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Since 1987 she has been research associate
for the East Asia collection at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (East) and, since the amalgamation of Berlins museums
in 1992, she has held a position at the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst.
Barbara Schindler works in the field of cultural PR. Together with Christiane Khl she supervises the online
documentation of the projects for the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
The interview took place in July 2014 in Berlin.
30
Museum of Vessels / Credits

Curator: Nicola Lepp

Co-curator: Nina Wiedemeyer
In cooperation with: Ursula Gillmann, scenographer, atelier gillmann
Graphics: Trinidad Moreno Design, Philipp Landgraf
Assistant: Henriette Keppler
Handwriting: Katrin Dobbrick
Translations: Laurie Schwartz
Exhibition assembly and art handling: zehnpfennig und weber
Media technology: EIDOTECH
Restoration supervision: Hildegard Heine, Lena Lang
Media installations
Vessel Activities (film installation): found footage montage from ethnographic film material, editing: Anna
Henckel-Donnersmarck, 13 min loop
Pouring_Giving (film installation): direction and editing: Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck, camera: Daniel Mller,
sound: Hannes Marget, 8 min loop
The Emptiness of Vessels (1) (film installation): direction and montage: Moritz Fehr, camera assistant: Marcel
Dickhage, three films of 1.30 min duration; Part 2 (sound installation): concept and composition: Moritz Fehr;
programming: Benjamin Voler
Vessels in Peril (sound installation): direction and montage: Stefan Matlik, sound: Christian Mias
Our thanks for support in terms of content, restoratory, and object-related issues to: Juliane Bernegg, Herbert
Butz, Kirstin Csutor, Kai Patricia Engelhardt, Manuela Fischer, Toralf Gabsch, Leonie Grtner, Horst Gsche,
Maria Gaida, Mario Graber, Richard Haas, Alexander Hofmann, Paola Ivanov, Barbara Michalski, Siegmar
Nahser, Uta Rahman-Steinert, Eva Ritz, Klaas Ruitenbeek, Ingrid Schindlbeck, Markus Schindlbeck, Ines
Seibt, Martina Stoye, Elisabeth Tietmeyer and Irene Ziehe.
Museum of Vessels / Imprint Documentation

As of December 2014
31
Museum of Vessels: Vessel Center, photo: Jens Ziehe
Museum of Vessels: Vessel Activities, photo: Jens Ziehe
32
Museum of Vessels: The Abundance of Vessels, photo: Jens Ziehe
Museum of Vessels: Vessels in Peril, photo: Jens Ziehe
33
Museum of Vessels: Pouring_Giving, photo: Jens Ziehe
34
Museum of Vessels: The Emptiness of Vessels, photo: Jens Ziehe
Museum of Vessels: The Emptiness of Vessels, photo: Jens Ziehe
35
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 1 - Seeing Music
Seeing Music
Seeing Music / Teaser

The Ethnologisches Museum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin houses the worlds largest and most unique
collection of musical instruments along with historical audio and film documents. The Seeing Music project
developed two formats to present and convey these audiovisual media, staging the music as spatial images.
This was preceded by a multi-stage competition between diverse concepts, of which two were then realized:
Melissa Cruz Garcia, Aleksander Kolkowski, Matteo Marangoni, and Anne Wellmer were inspired by the
existing material from the era of wax cylinders to build new sound machines which they presented in the
installation lichtklangphonogramm an exhibition of historical and invented, optical and mechanical sound
machines from the era of the wax cylinder phonograph. Daniel Ktter recomposed historical film material
and in participants and objectives 8 takes on filming music showed eight new music clips in scenes
designed by the architects team raumlaborberlin.
Seeing Music / Project Description
Bringing the Phonographic Collection to Life as an Art

Installation
by Elke Moltrecht
The Ethnologisches Museums outstanding collection of historical audio documents prompted the exhibition
titled Seeing Music within the framework of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem. With 150,000 recordings on various
sound carriers, such as wax cylinders, tapes, cassettes, records, CDs, and also numerous film materials
including video tapes and DVDs, as well as around 2,000 musical instruments from around the world, the
collection is the largest and most important of its kind. This was one reason for the UNESCO to list the
distinguished historical audio documents in its Memory of the World in 1999.
36
We raised the question of how the future Humboldt-Forum can succeed in exhibiting and visualizing music
and audiovisual material in a convincing way. This resulted in two exhibitions in adjacent and acoustically
open rooms of 150 square meters each displaying what could be heard.
A Stock of Ideas
Our intention was to address a broad range of creatives who might be interested in approaching the
collections with a view diverging from that of scientists or ethnologists. We organized a two-stage concept
competition calling on international artists from the fields of visual art, design, architecture, music, sound and
video installation, media art, performance, and exhibition design to conceive and produce scenographically
convincing exhibition formats in individual teams. Music was to be made visible not as a carpet of sound, but
in impressive and atmospherically challenging installations demonstrating how something immaterial can be
exhibited. We received 80 concepts from Germany and abroad in three weeks. During the entire competition
procedure, the candidates made intensive use of the consultation and viewing offer with scientists in the
museum and the phonograph archive. This was accompanied by an exciting survey of the collection stocks.
In a selection meeting of the Humboldt Lab, 11 teams were commissioned to develop their projects in four
further weeks. A jury then decided in favor of two exhibitions that stood in a complementary and yet
meaningful relationship to each other:
lichtklangphonogramm an exhibition of historical and invented, optical and mechanical sound machines
from the era of the wax cylinder phonograph and participants and objectives 8 takes on filming music.
lichtklangphonogramm an exhibition of historical and invented, optical and mechanical

sound machines from the era of the wax cylinder phonograph
The team of artists, Melissa Cruz Garcia, Aleksander Kolkowski, Matteo Marangoni, and Anne Wellmer,
selected wax cylinder recordings and experimental cylinders from the phonograph archive and focused on the
materiality and mechanics of the devices. They developed an impressive cabinet of curiosities consisting of
familiar and entirely invented apparatuses that, with a view to the present, simultaneously offered a look back
to the past.
For example, a magic lantern brought the physical texture of the wax cylinders to bear. Visitors could use a
crank to set images of cogs in motion. A newly invented Gramoscope used a gramophone funnel to light a
historical, manually operated film projector. A self-designed Mutoventilatoscope made reference to the
mutoscope, the Kinora, and the flip book. In the Hornbostelheterophony one could hear the voices of Carl
Stumpf, who founded the phonograph archive in Berlin in 1900, and Erich von Hornbostel, its first director
from 1905 to 1933. A Waxcylinderphonograph enabled up to 15 visitors to simultaneously listen to a sound
collage of the archive material using stethoscopes. And visitors could individually choose from 50 sound
recordings in the Archivophone. At the closing event, the audience and the four artists tested the objects,
instruments and mechanismsresulting in a live audiovisual installation and concert.
participants and objectives 8 takes on filming music
The team of artists, Daniel Ktter, Julian Klein, Juliane Beck, and raumlaborberlin, examined the following
questions: How do ethnologists actually visualize past and present music with their recording devices? How
can this visualization simultaneously alter the ethnological view of how music is played in different cultures?
When does the camera change from an observing to a creative tool? And: How do visitors regard the filmic
documentation of music? Daniel Ktter recomposed and staged found video material from the archive of the
ethnomusicology collection and made eight short films out of it. The group of architects, raumlaborberlin,
designed corresponding participatory situations for the viewers.
In the film sequence Pre Roll, Ktter focused on the before and after of the actual musical performance, for
which raumlaborberlin chose the ambience of a living room. Recording concentrated on the mobile
recording technology that enables field recordings in the first place. raumlaborberlin designed a classroom
for this sequence. The captivating view through a camera on a tripod (Set) was situated in a kitchen. Panned
motifs (Panning) could be viewed on a staged fairground. Visitors could watch Zoom, approaching an
object without reducing the distance, in a waiting room, while the Close up could be experienced lying in
bed, and Flashback the gaze of the other into the camera in a bar. For Editing, the view of the
scientists uncut film material that could be selected by the visitors, the architects group built an archive
37
room.
The artists collective was interested in the gaze as an element of artistic design and reinterpreted the
historical documentary material. The installation set the scientists ethnographic cinematography in relation
to the artistic treatment of original ethnographic material. This resulted in a field of tension between the
(seemingly) neutral documentation through the camera lens and the (evidently) individual perception of the
listening subject.
Potentials and the Possibility of Building on the Results
From an artistic perspective, both teams invented novel exhibition designs to be experienced with the senses
that, in an exemplary manner, shed new and contemporary light on the museums acoustic and visual
collections of global cultures beyond the usual expert circles and formats. They created methodical
instruments to establish something new beyond speechlessness. Their dialog can give rise to deeper layers of
interpretation, different levels of understanding, and participatory formats. A potential that both exhibitions
revealed. The Humboldt-Forum can build on this and on the idea of using exhibition spaces and objects for
audiovisual installations and live performances.
Elke Moltrecht has been the CEO of the Academy of the Arts of the World in Cologne since March 2014, and was
previously the managing director of the national Netzwerk Neue Musik Musik 21 Niedersachsen and of the Hybride
Musik project. She studied musicology at the Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin and was the director of the music section
of Podewil Zentrum fr aktuelle Knste as well as director of Ballhaus Naunynstrae in Berlin. In 2013 she founded the
Ensemble Extrakte fr transtraditionelle musikalische Praxis und Forschung.
Melissa Cruz Garcia works with optical means to create new versions of historical projectors.
Aleksander Kolkowski uses Edison phonographs, gramophones and funnels to produce acoustic and sound objects.
Matteo Marangoni invents and develops devices to explore the qualities and perception of sound.
Anne Wellmer works with analog and digital media as an artist and composer of electronic and experimental music.
Julian Klein is a composer and film director, the artistic director of the group a rose is and the director of the Institute
for Artistic Research.
Daniel Ktter works as a director, filmmaker and video artist with a special interest in multi-channel video installations
and alternative concert formats.
Juliane Beck, Berlin, is a cultural scholar and dramaturge who has worked as assistant director and dramaturge in
several (music theater) productions by Daniel Ktter/Hannes Seidl.
raumlaborberlin is a group engaged with architecture and urban planning working with cross-genre and
interdisciplinary methods. In specific projects, the members collaborate with specialists from other professions.
Seeing Music / Positions
Artistic Strategies for Spatial Staging

The jury members Sandra Naumann, Sandeep Bhagwati, and Lars-Christian Koch as well as the curator Elke
Moltrecht in a conversation on the evaluation of the two exhibitions, lichtklangphonogramm an exhibition
of historical and invented, optical and mechanical sound machines from the era of the wax cylinder
phonograph and participants and objectives 8 takes on filming music.
Moderation: Uli Aumller. Editing: Barbara Schindler
38
What were your impressions of the exhibition lichtklangphonogramm by the team of Cruz, Kolkowski,
Marangoni and Wellmer?
Sandra Naumann: I found the work very well-made as a spatial staging. It marvelously transported that
magical character associated with old media devicesjust remember that apparatus like the camera obscura
were often used by magicians. Some members of the audience criticized that no original devices were used in
the media-historical perspective. So we had to repeatedly emphasize that it was an artistic reinvention
taking up elements of these originals (episcope, phonograph etc.) but employing them in a different way and
recombining them. The piece mainly visualized the mechanical aspects of these devices by enlarging the cogs,
grooves, or the tone writing on the cylinders. For an audience that has grown up in the digital age and
therefore has almost nothing to do with haptic carrier media anymore, I found it quite charming to make all
these things tangible in a playful way.
And what is your assessment of the project participants and objectives 8 takes on filming music by the
team of Ktter, Klein, Beck, and raumlaborberlin?
Naumann: Their idea was based on the question: How do we actually take in foreign cultures? Because not
only ethnologists, but we, too, assume an extremely voyeuristic position when looking at life in an African
village on a flatscreen monitor in our centrally heated bedroom. The analysis of how ethnomusicological films
function in terms of editing and camera techniques was also meant to make the gaze of the spectator at home
evident. Unfortunately, the realization did not go far enough. Perhaps more condensed material and more
precise editing would have been requiredsomething not achievable in such a short period of timeto really
convey the idea. As a result, many visitors regarded the work as an analysis of media techniques.
Which insights from the Humboldt Lab projects can and should be included in the plans for the Humboldt-
Forum?
Sandeep Bhagwati: The Humboldt-Forum should be allowed to once more realize the same projectsboth
exhibitions of Seeing Musicwith more time at hand. What we have now is a demo version. We looked
into a possible form of presentation, and now things must proceed.
How do you picture scientific and artistic curating and further experimentation?
Bhagwati: I can imagine organizing a symposium with artists, curators, and scientists, who would view the
original films of the ethnomusicologists as well as the edited films of the artists and then ask: Okay, how do
the scientists and artists respond? As a composer, I would say that some of these edits work well, but that the
sound material was cut in a rather brutal and not expedient way. A symposium would also be useful because,
in the present artistic-aesthetic world, we can no longer assume that an individual artist creating an artwork
is a genius, but that the processes are so complex that they can only be solved by a team. The teams were
formed ad hoc in these projectsit was a really short-term call. But they would have been even better...
Naumann: if they had had more time.
Elke Moltrecht: It must also be mentioned that the ambitious timeline is one intention of the Probebhnen.
They grasp themselves as a free leg and do not seek to present completed results, but instead to raise
questions and visualize the process.
How do you evaluate the two installations in regard to contents, form, and innovation?
Lars-Christian Koch: The real question is: What do we do with the insights gained from this Probebhne in
the actual exhibition later on? The preparations for the exhibitions of Seeing Music were very work-
intensive and demanded a thematic debate. It is not enough to just visit the exhibitions and enjoy the nice
atmosphere. As an ethnological museum, we have an educational mission. We are not an art museum. If we
want to seriously convey what other music cultures are like, how they treat sound in their processes, how they
shape sound, then the question is, how much art or artistic design we require to optimize this conveyance.
Bhagwati: What was lacking in the two Seeing Music projects from a museum-educational point of view was
that the reference material was not made accessible to the audience at all. I compare that with the Game of
Thrones exhibition of Probebhne 2 where, in a room of the Humboldt Lab, four appropriations of a
Chinese imperial throne were presented; one could view the original in the adjacent Museum fr Asiatische
Kunst. If one could have seen the original films, uncut, and then the meta-films, one would probably have seen
more.
Naumann: So an environment should have been created in which the exhibits would have been presented not
39
solitarily, detached from the context of the collection, but embedded, for example, in an exhibition of original
cylinders? But we only had one room available in the Humboldt Lab and it was outside of the actual music
department.
Koch: The phonograph archive, the devices, the media archaeology, everything belonging to the collection will
be given a 150-square-meter exhibition space of its own in the Humboldt-Forum. This needs to be designed in
content-related terms as well. A certain mediation structure has to be created for the contents. We will have
media stations in each exhibition area. But what should it all look like? Will there just be a screen or do we
have other mediation concepts? In general, we are faced with very important questions, which in my view have
been partially answered by these two shows. But they have also raised new questions, which is also quite
positive.
Moltrecht: What succeeded in 8 takes in your opinion?
Koch: In 8 takes I always ask myself how much can be conveyed directly with videos. It is difficult to show a
really long video, because in most cases people dont linger more than two minutes or so. It would be more
interesting to ask how I can use short clips to stimulate people to watch the complete original material. Under
the aspect of mediation, that would be the interesting question for me.
Naumann: Does that mean that the Humboldt Lab Dahlem ultimately serves as a source of various mediation
approaches?
Koch: Yes, but without neglecting the artistic aspects. Numerous discussions resulting from the ethnological
exhibitions revealed that the contexts from which the exhibits stem cannot be constructed. And I cant just
simply display the objects. I therefore exhibit them to say it in a short and exaggerated way as art
objects. However, I have a general problem with that, because theres a lot more to the objects. But if I bring
both aspects together, thats where it gets interesting again. This means that I use art to focus a bit on this
aspect of mediation. Why not? Why shouldnt art serve this purpose?
Naumann: So this implies that the Humboldt Lab projects are not primarily concerned with interpretation,
but with utilizing artistic strategies for the exhibition design. In this discussion, we are trying to assess
whether the projects have been successful or not. But successful in regard to what? As an independent
artwork or in view of new mediation strategies? Do they succeed as spatial mises-en-scne or as scientific
strategies of explanation and cognitive aids?
Koch: Several things have already changed in the planning process for the Humboldt-Forum. In my view, this
has quite a bit to do with the Probebhnen. For example, in the ethnomusicology section we will no longer
have two rooms, which were planned as being separate, in this form. We will open the entire space to create
room for action, in which productions in the field of mediation can be realized. That alone is already a
positive result.
Moltrecht: And in my opinion, the fact that all these questions have been raised is also a very good outcome of
this Probebhne.
Sandeep Bhagwati is a composer, theater-maker, and scholar in the field of artistic research. Following his Professorship
for Composition and Multimedia at the Hochschule fr Musik Karlsruhe, he has held the Canada Research Chair for
Interdisciplinary and Intertraditional Art at Concordia University, Montral, since 2006. His works and productions
have been shown worldwide at festivals, and his academic and journalistic writings are regularly published in Germany,
India, the United States, the UK, France and Canada.
Prof. Dr. Lars-Christian Koch is the director of the Department of Ethnomusicology, Media Technology and the Berlin
Phonograph Archive of the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin. He is extracurricular Professor of Ethnomusicology at the
Universitt zu Kln and Honorary Professor at the Berlin University of the Arts. His research focuses on the theory and
practice of Indian, especially northern Indian, raga music, organology, intercultural comparative music aesthetics, the
interpretation of non-European music in the context of history, and music archaeology.
Elke Moltrecht has been the CEO of the Academy of the Arts of the World in Cologne since March 2014 and was
previously the managing director of the national Netzwerk Neue Musik Musik 21 Niedersachsen and of the Hybride
Musik project. She studied musicology at the Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin and was the director of the music section
of Podewil Zentrum fr aktuelle Knste and the director of Ballhaus Naunynstrae in Berlin. In 2013 she founded the
Ensemble Extrakte fr transtraditionelle musikalische Praxis und Forschung.
40
Sandra Naumann is a curator and media historian living in Berlin. She has curated programs for the transmediale,
CTM, Werkleitz, sound:frame, Shift, Elektra, and other festivals. As a scholar she has worked on projects such as See
this Sound and aux coutes des images. She is the coeditor, with Dieter Daniels, of the two-volume publication See
this Sound Audiovisuology.
Uli Aumller lives in Berlin as a freelance author and director of radio features on contemporary music.
The conversation took place on September 23, 2013; it was edited in September 2014 for the online publication by
Barbara Schindler.
Seeing Music / Credits

Project director: Elke Moltrecht, x-tract-production, Berlin

Archive: Ethnological Museum, Department of Music Ethnology, Media Technology and the Berlin
Phonogram Archive
Content-related advice: Lars-Christian Koch
Technical advice and research: Albrecht Wiedmann
Scientific research and advice: Verena Hhn, Andreas Richter
Project jury: Sandeep Bhagwati, Martin Heller, Lars-Christian Koch, Sandra Naumann, Elisabeth Schimana
Translation: Laurie Schwartz
lichtklangphonogramm an exhibition of historical and invented, optical and mechanical sound machines
from the era of the wax cylinder phonograph
Concept and realization: Melissa Cruz Garcia (Den Haag), Aleksander Kolkowski (London), Matteo
Marangoni (Den Haag), Anne Wellmer (Den Haag)
Development and construction of the Tube Listening Station: Duncan Miller, The Vulcan Cylinder Record
Company (Sheffield), Science Museum Workshops (London)
Lighting design and exhibition technicians: Carsten Zoll, Marcus Riedel
With many thanks to: Toverlantaarnmuseum (Den Haag), Museum Speelklok (Utrecht)
participants and objectives 8 takes on filming music

Artistic direction, videos: Daniel Ktter
Artistic direction, dramaturgy: Julian Klein
Research, dramaturgy: Juliane Beck
Spatial concept and exhibition design: raumlaborberlin (Axel Timm with Manfred Eccli, Ulli Hofmann, Samuel
Perea, Lucyle Wagner)
Seeing Music / Imprint Documentation

Translation: Karl Hoffmann
Proofreading: Galina Green
As of October 2014
41
Seeing Music: lightsoundphonogram, photo: Jens Ziehe
Seeing Music: lightsoundphonogram, photo: Jens Ziehe
42
Seeing Music: participants and objectives - 8 takes on filming music, photo: Jens Ziehe
Seeing Music: participants and objectives - 8 takes on filming music, visitors at the opening, photo:
Sebastian Bolesch
43
Seeing Music: participants and objectives - 8 takes on filming music, visitors at the opening, photo:
Sebastian Bolesch
Seeing Music: lightsoundphonogram, visitors at the opening, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
44
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 1 - Pre-Show
Pre-Show
Pre-Show / Teaser
Prolog, launch, epilog or simply Pre-Show: together with the artist Karin Sander, the architects Barbara
Holzer and Tristan Kobler, created a lively welcome gesture for the Dahlem museum foyer. The installation
Identities on Display was the result, consisting of 26 display cases. They were set up in a staggered
formation, serving as glass cloakrooms. The overall impression was defined by the coats and possessions of
the changing visitors, like a narrative of presence and absence, like an airlock between the exterior and the
interior of the museum and a trigger, to inspire a new way of seeing the presentation of the ethnological
collections.
Pre-Show. Identities on Display / Project Description
The Foyer as an Experience

by Martin Heller
The very first event of the newly installed Humboldt Lab was a workshop that took place in Dahlem in June
2012. With the title Asking Questions it was concerned with subject matters that arose directly from the
experience with the museums on site. Among the participating designers was Barbara Holzer from the office
Holzer Kobler Architekturen. She was particularly intrigued by the large, empty and somehow inhospitable
foyer, which visitors to the Dahlem Museums had to negotiate before they could decide whether to first visit
the Ethnologische Museum (to the right) or the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst (to the left).
This disparate entrance situation showed clearly that the foyer was organized very differently in terms of
functionality in pre-unification times, when the Gemldegalerie also belonged to Dahlem. At the same time the
significance of such entrance areas came up in the discussion and, in general, the question of first impressions
45
as an exploratory meeting. The opportunity for the museum to address essential emotions, and convey certain
messages, to the as yet impartial and open visiting public was also addressed.
The Exhibition Before the Exhibition
Out of that emerged the Pre-Show as one of the first projects of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem. Pre-Show was
an attempt to design a temporary installation that would greet and impress the visitor and be a first statement
on behalf of both museums. It would also function as an adieu when they leave.
During the brainstorming process, an in-house workshop prepared by Holzer Kobler Architekturen for the
museum management and a number of curators, played an important role. They discussed matters of content,
as well as the didactic and scenographic possibilities available for such a project, in order to build a bridge
between the daily life of Europeans outside the museums and the innumerable unknown alien cultures and
time scales inside.
The workshop itself reflected related narrative elements from the fields of the arts and media (intro, trailer,
titles, prolog, overture, teaser) and examined these, on the basis of examples, in terms of usability. The
different justifications for such choices were discussed extensively: just as a pre-show in an amusement park
or the overture in an opera function as obligatory introductions for all visitors, so do teasers and similar
marketing instruments offer particular experiences that are disconnected from the real narrative for which
they are signposts. Barbara Holzer and Tristan Kobler also showed artistic works in which similar interests
are manifested for instance in works by Olafur Eliasson, Mike Meir or Karin Sander.
During the follow-up of this presentation, a whole range of themes and content issues came up, about what
would be suitable as a joint and effective emblem for both museums. The longing for the unknown and alien
belongs in there just as much as the wish, already to be made clear in the entrance hall, that in order to
understand the Dahlem collections and exhibitions, every form of Eurocentralism has to be banished. Very
quickly, though, it became clear that the museums wished to place their visitors at the center a demand that
also defines the Humboldt-Forums planning work.
Time Limited Exhibit: Identities on Display
From such preparation work Holzer and Kobler developed three concrete proposals for projects, out of which
one of them won the clearest approbation by the Humboldt Lab management: an experiment that arose in
collaboration with the artist Karin Sander and that was named Identities on Display.
The basic idea was extraordinarily simple: the visitors would be invited to deposit their clothing and bags, not
in the usual cloakroom, that was almost invisible from the entrance area, but to place them in full public view,
in glass cabinets.
For this purpose Holzer and Sander placed in the foyer 26 specially made lockers, over two meters high, with
three sides made of transparent glass. A basic model was made for single visitors; another was designed for
couples or small groups. But there were also lockers made especially for school classes or groups of children.
The key in the lock could be removed by inserting a coin, which could be retrieved at the end of the visit.
Two complementary effects were in the foreground. The first was that the foyer was transformed from being a
no-mans-land to a kind of landscape, which made a rapid traversing impossible, and visitors, instead, were
gently guided around the transparent hindrances. And the second effect was, that every visitor was obliged to
make a decision to place their possessions on display, or to use the traditional cloakroom and remain
anonymous, even before entering the actual exhibition space.
The reaction was, as expected, varied. Some didnt understand the invitation or rejected it; some seemed to
consider the new cloakroom lockers a result of building renovation work and accepted it without a second
thought. If the weather was inclement or the museum was full, more jackets, coats, umbrellas and such had to
be stowed, and the demand for the glass lockers was accordingly high.
As a rule, though, the public played the game with a great sense of fun. That can be seen from many
examples, in the careful arrangement of their own items, which revealed an awareness of being exhibited. An
awareness of their own identity as part of a heterogeneous group, with a similar motivation and led by a
similar sense of enjoyment, based on a social group understanding, and they were happy to take their place in
that context without demanding special representation or a reward.
46
A Successful Experiment
It was this low threshold that made the Pre-Show so attractive. As recipients of the museums exhibiting and
communication efforts, it provided the visitors with a representative corporeality, which manifested upon
entry, and disappeared again upon leaving the Dahlem collections.
No more, but also no less. And it was amazing that after only a short time the installation by Holzer/Kobler
and Sander had already lost its provisional character, and became accepted as a part of the museum itself,
and above that, was involved in numerous events. The emptiness at the end of the Pre-Show left a number of
colleagues with a small sense of loss, a sort of phantom pain, as if the museum had lost its visitors, although
that was far from being the case.
Martin Heller is a member of the management board of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem and responsible for the conceptual
content of the Humboldt-Forum.
Pre-Show. Identities on Display / Positions
The Museum Welcomes its Guests

The foyer as an extended exhibition space, personal possessions as museum exhibits and what it means to
confront the public with itself: the architect Barbara Holzer, the artist Karin Sander and curator Monika
Zessnik in conversation on the Pre-Show. Identities on Display.
Along with Holzer Kobler Architekturen, you were asked to come up with a contribution for the Humboldt
Lab. Was it clear from the outset where the focus would be in terms of content?
Barbara Holzer: The basic idea came about in June 2012 when we were invited by Martin Heller to the
workshop Asking Questions. I was particularly interested in the theme of entrances in a museum context:
how can one transport the visitor from their own daily world into other cultures and times, and, what
significance do ethnological collections have today? As a result of our discussions I became interested in
developing such an entrance or pre-show on this subject.
During its further development you began collaborating with Karin Sander. What led you to this?
Holzer: We enjoy collaborative work because, over and over again, it helps us discover new ways of reflecting
things. Karin Sander and I have met on numerous occasions and I thought that this could be an exciting
challenge for both of us. When I contacted Karin Sander she was also taken with the idea of a collaboration.
Thats how we both began working on the project.
Could you reconstruct the moment when the idea took shape for a work in the foyer, involving the adaptation
of the convention of the cloakroom?
Karin Sander: After wed looked at the Dahlem collections we met in the foyer. It became immediately clear to
us that this was the place that interested both of us the most. We spent a considerable time there, looked and
observed. In terms of an artistic approach I wanted the activities that take place in the entrance area to be
incorporated into the theme of the piece of work itself. Two visitors were what sparked off the idea for me:
one was wearing pink rubber boots and a brown pullover, the other was wearing brown rubber boots and a
pink pullover, and the items that they handed in to the cloakroom had also been chosen with care. Personal
accessories are then encountered again in the secure exhibition space of the museum. However, there they
come from other epochs and cultures, but they still have links to individuals, who are no longer present, but
who are brought alive for us in connection with the collection. The context of this contemporary relationship
interested me. The idea of confronting historical exhibits from all around the world with ones from today, was
not immediately obvious, but came about solely through observation and in dialog, as a result of this complex
situation.
The result was the setting up of exhibition cases in the foyer, which guests could use as their wardrobe. What
47
played a more important role for you: the playful interaction with the cases or the pre-empting of the
exhibition cases and presentations that would be seen later in the museum?
Sander: To begin with, the showcases functioned like conventional lockers, but made of glass, so that
everything placed in them became an exhibit. The work has the title Identities on Display and visitors
reacted to this cross between utilitarian furniture and installational aesthetics by arranging their belongings
in the glass cases in a conscious way. We thus indirectly created personal portraits of individuals as well as
constantly changing exhibitions that are, together with their exhibits, related to the weather or season, but
at the same time establish social, historical and cultural references.
Holzer: The exciting thing was that we had removed the exhibition cases that are normally found inside the
museum and offered them to visitors so that they could exhibit their very own personal items. In this way we
attempted to show the public that even in terms of their own lives today they are part of a broader historical
arc. Perhaps visitors ask themselves: what will remain from today and how will we communicate our own
culture tomorrow? Can one recognize the individual from the items left in the cases? What items give us
information today about different cultures? What motivated us, was the idea of being able to turn that into an
exhibition and to provoke a process of thought.
What interested you in the exhibition in terms of communication?
Monika Zessnik: When conducting visitor surveys I ask for age, gender, and perhaps educational background
- its more difficult in terms of interests. The longer Pre-Show ran, the more I realized what potential the
project had, because it told us so much about the public itself. Because visitors didn't merely show what they
had and were wearing, they also engaged in an act of putting themselves on display: in one case, for instance,
only a hat was placed into the display case, or a toy pistol - well, I hoped it wasnt a real one! The project had
a strong participatory character with unexpected outcomes - I liked that.
Could one say that such a participatory aspect is characteristic for your work?
Sander: Yes. My works attempt to provide a sort of framework, upon which the observer can build. To begin
with, we had problems communicating how and what the work itself accomplished. The Humboldt Lab had
great doubts, but we were convinced that the visitors would quickly comprehend how to utilize the work and
how they could become part of it. What is fundamentally important to me is that the works can be understood
without textual explanations.
Holzer: To leave classical didacticism behind - thats precisely what interested me as well. When the initial
confrontation with a subject does not take place via a panel of text, but in a different way - via a direct
experimental approach - and at the same time to work with strong images - that fascinates me too.
With the Pre-Show, in contrast to other Humboldt Lab projects, you have not selected historical objects as
your point of departure. Why?
Holzer: With Pre-Show we didnt want to point directly to the collections, but to open up a dialog space in
the foyer. In essence, with this work, we are interested in the visitors internal debate. In a subtle way we
wanted to prepare them to think about the question of how cultures are exhibited in the museum and to
sensitize them to the actual presentation of the museums collections.
Sander: In the museums of Dahlem we looked at everyday objects that have come from very different places -
jewelry, items of clothing. But then asked ourselves, what about the here and now? We have attempted to
make the jump from there, from the museum visitors point of arrival, to the objects that are actually
exhibited in the museum. So there are, of course, connections established to the collections, but not specific
ones to any particular object.
Zessnik: Basically, the work aims to provide an answer to the question that cultural history museums ask
themselves, i.e. how can we present human culture without humans? And thats why I found that a very
perceptive introduction or, as we called it, Pre-Show.
That prompts the question, how exactly did you arrive at the title for this Humboldt Lab project?
Holzer: It developed out of the subject matter of the two-day workshop held in June 2012. An exhibition needs
a sort of braking lane, a place of deceleration for the visitor, a space where they can become sensitized and
adapt from their everyday lives to the museum visit. In museum terminology the word prolog is used a lot.
We re-phrased it as Pre-Show, because its more open and has fewer museum-like or literary connotations.
The glass exhibition cases, set at angles, become hindrances, acting as a brake, forcing the visitor to slow
48
down. That was very important to us.
Is Pre-Show. Identities on Display an installation which would work in places other than in this ethnological
museum?
Sander: I think so. Every location has something special, and that determines the approach and the first
deliberations. From there the path takes you to a specific work, which, even though it is created for a specific
location, still has validity in terms of other connections beyond that. If it doesnt work on a general level, then
at least thats my experience a piece of work doesnt function as a whole. Identities on Display, can
therefore also be shown in other exhibition locations, but would have a very different resonance and its
reception would take a different direction.
Holzer: This work raises the very general question for museums, of how one deals with entrance and working
areas. For instance, the cloakrooms are always hidden and not visible from the entrance area. It is simply a
question of purely functional areas. The project Pre-Show managed to question this convention. After all,
even everyday things can be transferred into an experience and not only an examination of an Indian costume
behind glass! We need a sort of humus for participative experiments, which museums can provide. In this
way even the handing over of coats at the cloakroom can become a museum experience.
Together with Tristan Kobler, Barbara Holzer runs the architectural office Holzer Kobler Architekturen in Zrich and
Berlin, which was founded in 2004. The international practice covers a broad spectrum from urban development to
architecture, from scenography to the curating of exhibitions. Since 2010 Barbara Holzer teaches as professor at the
Peter Behrens School of Architecture (PBSA) in Dusseldorf.
Karin Sander is a renowned German artist. Her work can be found in numerous museums: The Museum of Modern Art
(MoMA), New York, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, The National
Museum of Art, Osaka, and others. Since 2007 she has held the chair of Professor of Architecture and Art at the ETH
Zrich.
Monika Zessnik is curator for American ethnology and communications at the Ethnologisches Museum der Staatlichen
Museen zu Berlin. Previously, she was curator for education at the Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, director of
communications at the Ibero-Amerikanischen Institut and co-ordinating project manager in the Haus der Kulturen der
Welt in Berlin.
Barbara Schindler is active in the field of cultural PR. Together with Christiane Khl she is responsible for the online
documentation of the projects of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
This interview took place in Berlin, in September 2014.
Pre-Show. Identities on Display / Credits

A project of the Probebhne 1, March 14 through October 27, 2013
Concept and Realization: Barbara Holzer, Tristan Kobler (Holzer Kobler Architekturen) and Karin Sander
Assistance Holzer Kobler Architekturen: Kira Schnieders, Cornelia Schwarte
Assistance Studio Karin Sander: Stefan Alber, Stefanie Lser
Display cases: Tischlerei Voigt, Knigswartha
49
Pre-Show. Identities on Display / Imprint

Documentation
As of November 2014
Installation view Pre-Show, photo: Jens Ziehe
50
51
Installation view Pre-Show, photo: Andrea Rossetti
52
Installation view Pre-Show, photo: Karin Sander
53
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 1 - Knight Moves
Knight Moves
Knight Moves / Teaser

Similar to the way that the knight moves to take the rook in chess, the Humboldt Lab Dahlem makes
surprising moves under the label Knight Moves. They act as small, isolated interventions in the permanent
exhibition and can be precisely employed. This method can be used to narrate the history of selected museum
objects in a broader way and to simultaneously test current trends in presentation forms. The Knight Moves'
display Benin/Surinam addressed the history of the object against the background of slave trading.
Purnakumbha returned an object to its context by holding a real religious ceremony. And the Mirror Ball
Constellation by the artist Theo Eshetu expanded the context of the museum by means of an everyday object
that triggered a wide range of associations.
Knight Moves / Project Description
Playful Experiments in the Program Work

by Agnes Wegner
The start of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem project offered the opportunity for many intensive discussions
between the curators of both museums, the Humboldt Lab staff and external experts. Topics included the
order of the museum, coping with the history of the collections and possibilities of dispensing with the
institutional prerogative of interpretation. How can this take place? How can one operate during the course of
an exhibition with content- and design-related breaks and commentaries to generate multiperspectivity and
dramaturgical tensionfor example, through artistic or thematic interventions? This is where the Knight
Moves came into play: With the aid of mobile displays and specified as Humboldt Lab interventions, they
were inserted within the existing exhibitions in Dahlem as brief object dialogs. After a probing phase, the Lab
direction selected the following participants: Andrea Scholz (then research assistant at the Ethnologisches
Museum), Martina Stoye (curator at the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst) and Theo Eshetu (video artist). The
54
projects they proposed addressed crucial themes in the programmatic work of the Humboldt Lab.
Knight Moves: Surinam/Benin Object Biography
Andrea Scholz had the idea to integrate an object from Surinam made by the Maroons around the year 1900
into the permanent Benin exhibition. This Knight move was meant to exemplarily demonstrate the
interweaving between Latin America and Africa that evolved through the history of slave trade and comment
on the Benin exhibition. Less is known of the actual usage of the selected object, a rod with the inventory
number V A 13776, than of the circumstances of its acquisition for the collection: An entry on the historical
index card of the collection notes a theft by the Herrnhuter missionaries in the Wanhatti station in eastern
Surinam. In the Knight Moves display case, the rod was exhibited with this index card and a map. For the
accompanying flyer, Scholz opted for short texts briefly outlining the historical circumstances and the history
of the Maroons and the Herrnhuter missionaries. The Knight Moves: Surinam/Benin thus narrated both the
violent history of slave trading and that of the object in the collection.
Knight Moves: Purnakumbha - Cooperation
This Knight move referred to the fact that many objects in the collection in Dahlem stem from religious
usage that can no longer be experienced in their current presentation as pure art objects. Martina Stoye
wanted to show in which way the objects are still components of lived religiosity today: She decided on a
ritualistic installation with Purnakumbhas (vases of abundance), which can be found in numerous depictions
in the museum. During Hindu ceremonies, images of gods are animated by temporarily setting up these
vases in a festive act. They serve as a kind of charging station for the divine spark.
For planning and implementation, Stoye cooperated with the Sri Mayurapathy Murugan Temple in Berlin-
Britz. Mr. Nadarajah Thiagarajah functioned as a worldly mediator between the curator and the Hindu temple
priests and agreed to jointly install a ritual installation in the museum. Everything was discussed step by step:
What the presentation should look like and how the direct juxtaposition of worldly and religious spheres
should be spatially organized; how elements necessary for the ritual were to be treated that did not meet the
museums conservational requirements; and how the cooperation was to be described by the accompanying
flyer.
The exhibition ultimately consisted of two parts: The museum showcase with a selection of historical
Purnakumbha depictions and the temporary ritual installation with ten sacred vases that were consecrated by
the priest during the opening of Probebhne 1.
The intensive collaboration and the joint negotiation of the form of presentation of Knight Moves:
Purnakumbha led to important insights on the side of the participants; the background of the installation
was explained in the accompanying text.
Knight Moves: Mirror Ball Constellation - Commentary
Theo Eshetu was a guest of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program and worked on a video installation dealing
with the return of the Axum obelisks robbed by Benito Mussolini from Rome to Addis Ababa. For this reason,
Eshetu was highly interested in the new conception of the collection presentation in the future Humboldt-
Forum. With Knight Moves: Mirror Ball Constellation, he proposed integrating an object not belonging to
the museum into the collection. What belongs in a museum? A mirror ball! For him, it was a suitable means
to reflect upon questions pertaining to concepts of art and culture, to the foreignness and classification of
objects in ethnological collections.
The irritation intended by Eshetu was discussed in a complex way by the expert colleagues: Does the mirror
ball evoke exoticism? Shouldnt it be embedded more strongly in content-related terms and, for example,
make reference to the local forms of club culture in Papua New Guinea?1 What was really conspicuous in the
Mirror Ball Constellation was the poetry of the points of light, which many viewers associated with the
starry sky over the South Seas.
Small Interventions, Large Fields of Action
In their function within the work process, the three Knight Moves can be evaluated as a success. They
allowed testing participatory forms of work, gauging thematic fields in the Lab and granting room for internal
critique. All three also succeeded in interrupting the actual narrative of the permanent exhibition and
providing exciting impetus. The design of the respective installations differed greatly from the other areas of
55
the permanent exhibition: It had to be conspicuous. All three projects revealed that the complexity of the
themes cannot be represented by an object installation alone: Accompanying texts on flyers appeared to be an
adequate solution and were therefore made available here, as well. The three Knight Moves formats offered
different possibilities of perception and interpretation. As deliberately brief dialogs, they formed a welcomed
opposite pole to the lengthy discussions arising in the plans for the Humboldt-Forum. The Knight Moves
project is to be continued in the frame of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
1
Cf. Zeitschrift fr Ethnologie. Vol. 138, 2013.
Agnes Wegner has been the managing director of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem since July 2012.
Theo Eshetu has been active in media art since 1982. His work often revolves around the relationship between African
and European cultures. Eshetu has exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institute, Washington
DC. He has also taken part in the exhibitions "Snap Judgments" (curated by Okwui Enwesor), "Equatorial Rhythms" at
the Stenersen Museum in Oslo, "Die Tropen" at the Martin Gropius-Bau, Berlin, "GEO- graphics" at the Bozar Center for
Fine Arts in Brussels, and at the Venice Biennale in 2011. His videos have been screened at numerous film festivals, with
awards in Berlin and Italy. In 2012 Theo Eshetu was a guest of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program.
Andrea Scholz studied ethnology, sociology and Romance studies in Bonn and conducted research in Mexico (2004) and
Venezuela (2007 2009). The theme of her dissertation was the recognition of indigenous territories in
Guayana/Venezuela and was published in 2012 under the title Die Neue Welt neu ermessen. In the course of her field
studies, she has dealt with the material culture of the Guayana region. In addition to her work on the planning process of
the Humboldt-Forum and for the Humboldt Lab Dahlem, Andrea Scholz is engaged with ethnographies from South
America.
Martina Stoye is curator of South and Southeast-Asian art at the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst in Berlin. Her
engagement with the art of South Asia dates as far back as 1985. After working for five years in a freelance capacity for
the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, she took up a post as lecturer on Indian art history at the Freie Universitt, Berlin, from
1995 to 2001. Funded by the Gerda-Henkel-Stiftung, she subsequently conducted research into Buddhist Gandhara art
and in 2007/08 worked on a major Gandhara exhibition for the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle in Bonn. Over the years,
she has led numerous art-based study trips to India. She has served as curator at the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst for
Indian and Southeast-Asian art since 2008.
Knight Moves / Positions
The Three Knight Moves

by Richard Price and Sally Price
In June 2013, we had the pleasure of being taken on a tour of the Suriname Maroon collections in the reserves
of the Ethnological Museum Dahlem hundreds of objects, most of them familiar from our examination of
other museum collections throughout the world, but also some objects that wed never encountered before.
During our visit, we were introduced to the museums Knight Moves presentations within the Humboldt Lab
Dahlem three installations specially designed to pique curiosity, and inspire reflection.
Hyper-Modernity Meets Tradition
As anthropologists, we found Theo Eshetus Mirror Ball Constellation particularly evocative in a visual
sense. Of the three Knight Moves installations, this one struck us as coming closest to a work of
contemporary art and in that sense its the least explicitly intellectual. For us, the visual reflections evoked
the firmament, the multitudinous stars that Pacific Islanders used (and still use) to navigate between far-off
specks of earth. We immediately thought of the marvelous opening chapter of Greg Denings Beach
Crossings1, which recounts the most remarkable voyage of discovery and settlement in all human history,
56
2000 years ago, when a double-hulled canoe (much like those in the exhibition) left a cluster of islands in the
Western Pacific (todays Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji) and more than 6000 kilometers later landed in what we now
call the Marquesas, all the while following the stars the Matariki (the Pleiades), Na Kao (Orions brightest
star), and Ana-Muri (The Follower of the Pleaides). At the same time, the Mirror Ball evoked the present,
reminding us of the development of parts of Polynesia, such as Tahiti, where state-of-the-art discothques
(apparently a particularly common reading of Eshetus installation) and the traditional world of double-hulled
canoes, navigated by the stars, rub shoulders in a hyper-modernity still marked by memories of the pre-
development past.
Reintegration into the Original Context
Martina Stoyes Purnakumbha effectively realizes an exhibitionary strategy that has been deployed with
excellent effect in various museums since the 1980s taking artworks normally displayed as individual
objects, completely outside of their initial context, and reintegrating them to form the kind of altar on which
they were originally used. Such altar installations have become common in U.S. museums featuring Mexican
art; indeed some Mexican(-American) contemporary artists, such as Amalia Mesa-Bains, have made altars a
personal specialty2. And displays of African and diasporic African arts have also presented ritual ensembles in
the form of richly embellished altars; see, for example, the Face of the Gods exhibition in New York3 or the
Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou exhibition in Los Angeles4. This type of exhibit, which plays a double
(aesthetic/religious) role, encourages a view of the ingredients as religious objects rather than isolated art
objects to a degree that might be frowned upon in France (on the grounds of violating the principle of lacit)
but, from our own perspective, it represents a bold step forward. For us non-specialists on India knowing
that the Purnakumbha has been installed here with the assistance of representatives of the Hindu temple in
Berlin adds greatly to our appreciation of these objects. For anyone who believes that culture matters, and
that the participation of people from the cultures on display is often essential to the respectful presentation of
objects, this innovative exhibition greatly enriches the experience of viewing the individual objects
themselves.
Questions on Dealing With Collecting History
Andrea Scholzs Surinam/Benin is the most cerebral of the three Knight Moves installations. It also falls
most decisively within our own orbit as specialists on the Maroon societies of Suriname, and thus merits more
detailed commentary. In a necessarily small compass, the object and its text, taken together, engage two
crucial issues in contemporary museology that are sometimes intentionally avoided as being too negative
how to deal with collection history and how to deal with colonialism. As readers of Sally Prices Paris
Primitive5 (2008) will know, these two issues caused deep divisions during the planning stages of the Muse
du Quai Branly in Paris, with anthropologist Maurice Godelier arguing for the inclusion of information about
both collection history and the realities of the colonial relations in which much of the collecting was
embedded and the other members of the planning committees arguing that such contextualization interfered
with the aesthetic experience and should therefore be avoided. After Godelier was forced out of his role in the
museum, decisions were made that, in effect, banished all such information from the finished project.
In Surinam/Benin, the curator Andrea Scholz begins by interrogating, insofar as possible, the museums
acquisition record itself and uncovers a (quite typical but normally unacknowledged) tale of colonial violence
as part of the act of collecting. It recalls starkly the very different case in which Michel Leiriss description (in
LAfrique fantme, 1934) of how he stole a ritual object from a shrine during Frances Dakar-Djibouti
expedition of the 1930s6 was expressly avoided by the Quai Branly museum, which quoted his text about
collecting the object, but left out his vivid description of his criminal act. By placing the theft of the Ndyuka
ritual object by the German Herrnhuter missionary within its time and place, by giving voice to its historicity,
Scholz performs an exemplary act of enlightened museology, with its attention to the complexities and ethical
dilemmas of the colonial past.
The village of Wanhatti (today called by Ndyukas Agiti-ondoo), where the object was collected, is now the
largest of the Ndyuka villages along the Cottica River of Suriname. Along with nearby villages, it was founded
soon after the emancipation of slaves in coastal Suriname in 1863 - Ndyukas had been free since their 1760
peace treaty with the Dutch crown but never really felt free to settle on the coast until after general
emancipation. Franco-Brazilian photographer Pierre Verger took strikingly evocative photos of nighttime
kumanti rituals in Wanhatti in 1948 that would nicely complement this small exhibit7. And it might be useful
for museum visitors to know that the Cottica Ndyuka villages were devastated by government military
incursions during the Suriname Civil War (1986-92). Nevertheless, Wanhatti/Agiti-ondoo remains the largest
57
of the Ndyuka villages that still exist in the Cottica region, with close to 600 descendants of the people whom
the German Herrnhuter missionaries tried so hard to convert during the 1890s.
1
Greg Dening: Beach Crossings: Voyaging across Times, Cultures, and Self. Philadelphia 2004.
2
Kristin G. Congdon und Kara Kelley Hallmark: Amalia Mesa-Bains, in: Artists from Latin American Cultures: A Biographical Dictionary.
Greenwich CT 2002, S. 181183.
3
Robert F. Thompson: Face of the Gods: Art and Altars of Africa and the African Americas. New York 1993.
4
Donald J. Cosentino (Hg.): Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodu. Los Angeles 1995
5
Sally Price: Paris Primitive: Jacques Chiracs Museum on the Quai Branly. Chicago 2007.
6
Michel Leiris: LAfrique fantme. Paris 1934.
7
Richard Price et. al.: Verger, un pont au dessus de lAtlantique. Cayenne 2009.
Writers, researchers, teachers, and lecturers, anthropologists Sally and Richard Price often work collaboratively (on a
wide range of ethnographic topics). Sally Price writes more on aesthetics and museums, while Richard Price focuses more
on ethnographic history and human rights. Since the mid-1960s, they have been learning and writing about Maroons,
descendants of rebel slaves throughout the Americas (but particularly in Suriname and French Guiana). Their
geographical interests cover Afro-America, from Brazil to Toronto. For many years, they have served as book review
editors for the world's oldest scholary journal on the Caribbean, the New West Indian Guide. They divide their time
between Martinique and Paris.
Knight Moves / Credits

A project of the Probebhne 1, March 14 through June 23, 2013
Purnakumbha
Concept: Martina Stoye in cooperation with the Sri Mayurapathy Murugan Tempel (Berlin Hindu Mahasbhai
e.V.); contact: Nadarajah Thiagarajah
Design: Gnter Krger, Renate Sander
Restoration supervision: Toralf Gabsch
The Mirror Ball Constellation

Concept: Theo Eshetu
Design: Gnter Krger, Ralf Lcke
Restoration supervision: Leonie Grtner
Surinam / Benin
Concept: Dr. Andrea Scholz
Design: Gnter Krger, Renate Sander
Restoration supervision: Helene Tello
Knight Moves / Imprint Documentation

The copyrights belong to the Humboldt Lab Dahlem, if not indicated otherwise.
58
Installation view Knight Moves: Purnakumbha, photo: Jens Ziehe
59
Installation view Knight Moves: Purnakumbha, photo: Jens Ziehe
60
Purnakumbha ritual at the opening of the exhibition, held by Sri Mayurapathy Murugan-Tempel (Berlin
Hindu Mahasabhai e. V.), photo: Sebastian Bolesch
Installation view Knight Moves: Surinam/Benin, photo: Jens Ziehe
61
Installation view Knight Moves: Mirror Ball constellation, photo: Jens Ziehe
62
Installation view Knight Moves: Mirror Ball constellation, photo: Jens Ziehe
63
www.humboldt-lab.de - Projects - Probebhne 2 - Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones / Teaser

Game of Thrones featured the mise-en-scne of a Chinese Emperors Throne from the collection of the
Museum fr Asiatische Kunst (Kangxi Period, 1662-1722). Konstantin Grcic, Kirstine Roepstorff, Simon
Starling, and Zhao Zhao presented different contexts for an exhibition arranged into a seemingly absurd
juxtaposition of four throne rooms. Thus, the experiment distanced itself from a reconstruction of
architectonic relationships; instead, it referenced the various levels of the historical artifact to create
associative experiences in a contemporary context. The project ventured to take an unusual approach toward
the trappings of power of a land that has long been reduced to its exoticism in Europe and inquired into the
potential of scenic interpretation in the museum.
Game of Thrones / Project Description

by Angela Rosenberg
The exhibition Game of Thrones dealt with experimental artistic forms for presenting historical artifacts and
the possibilities for exhibition architecture, design, and scenography. Three international artists and a
designer working alongside each other engaged with an outstanding ensemble from the collection of the
Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, Berlin. The Chinese imperial throne and its accompanying screen, products of
the imperial workshops in the Kangxi era (16621722), were at the center of Konstantin Grcics, Kirstine
Roepstorffs, Simon Starlings, and Zhao Zhaos deliberations. The artistic experiments of Game of Thrones
moved away from reconstructing architectural palace details toward explicitly substantive spheres of
reference. In the context of the Humboldt Lab, the idea was to create modes of access to the exhibits that
would facilitate sensuous, associative experience and discursive spaces that reach into our present. These
were made accessible as models in an almost absurd-seeming juxtaposition of four throne rooms. The setting
for these imaginary throne situations was four abstract, original-size replica throne ensembles. These
functioned as placeholders for the actual throne, which could not be moved for conservational reasons.
Named after George R.R. Martins bestselling fantasy novel A Game of Thrones, the project adopted an
unusual approach to the insignia of power of a country that has long been reduced to exoticism in Europe,
64
and simultaneously inquired into the potential for scenic interpretation in the museum.
Background Research
The exhibition was preceded by a research phase that addressed the presentation of Chinese imperial thrones
in palaces, museums, and collections. Within the context of the exhibition a selection of textual and image
materials documented the architecture and design of imperial palace complexes in China, and their following
traditional, canonical models few of which, however, have been preserved as originals at their original
locations.
While palaces in China or big film productions give an ostensibly authentic picture of Chinese throne rooms,
it is hardly possible to convey such historical architectural contexts in a museum. Instead, thrones are often
presented in bare, neutral approximations to the imperial context. Presenting the Chinese imperial throne at
the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, Berlin, was also not unproblematic, since its architectural surroundings at
its original location no longer existed.
Artistic Implementation
The artistic interventions by Konstantin Grcic, Kirstine Roepstorff, Simon Starling, and Zhao Zhao treated
precisely this question as the occasion to ponder the possibilities for alternative throne-room architectures
and to develop approaches that open up new interpretive and educational possibilities for museums. Each of
the artists and the designers individual proposals created alternative ways of seeing the museological object.
Their four distinct approaches analytic/minimalist, provocative/emotional, poetic/narrative, conceptual/
atmospheric treated the throne as an insignia of power, as the center of absolute power, or staged it as a
symbol of violence and injustice. Focusing on different aspects such as shape, design, setting, history, and
symbolism, they facilitated diverse paths of access to the historical object, opening a kaleidoscopic view of
history that establishes contact with the present.
migong
Konstantin Grcic is an industrial designer who designs products often described as reduced and minimalist.
He combines this formal rigor with humor, acuity, and elegance. His design presentation of the throne
consisted of a walk-in labyrinth based on the angular scroll pattern of the throne ensemble. Grcic took this
ornamentation often found in Chinese art as his point of departure, to create a kind of safe space,
referencing the nested structure of Chinese palace architecture. Numerous buildings and courtyards or
administrative hurdles had to be passed in order to reach the emperor. The presentation of a throne in a
museum is not dissimilar. Grcics installation titled migong (labyrinth) confronted viewers with an obstacle
that signaled authority, created order, decelerated and emphatically bade them to join the line. The gesture
pointed toward the hierarchical structures of the imperial palace no less than the furnishings of public places,
not least of museums. It passed ironic and critical comment on the metaphor, often overworked in the
museum context, of creating broad access to the exhibit.
Daughters of the Immortal Mother
The artist Kirstine Roepstorff works with the principle of collage and utilizes wide ranges of source material
and reference systems. The light objects in her installation Daughters of the Immortal Mother referred to
the image program of the Berlin throne ensemble, and brought out the media quality of lanterns. Originally
invented in China and banned during the Cultural Revolution, lanterns in China are not just decorative in
function. Hung outside houses, variously colored and furnished with written characters, they can signal death,
birth, or other social events. With a framework of steel, wood, or bamboo, and covered with ribbons or paper,
Roepstorffs objects not only cast light in the room, but also shadows. The artist was inspired by figurative
motifs from Chinese mythology phoenix, dragon, tortoise, and tiger following the Chinese doctrine of the
five elements that explores the laws of dynamic processes such as becoming, transformation, and decay.
Roepstorffs lanterns produced a dramatic interplay of bright light and harsh shadow that not only
illuminated the throne ensemble but also animated and complemented the various figures depicted in it.
65
Screen Screen
In his art Simon Starling engages with natural and cultural processes of change. He introduces artifacts from
different spheres of science, culture, and art history into unexpected relations with each other. In his video
installation Screen Screen Starling confronted the throne with its own depiction. The artist showcased its
rich inlays and the way they reflect and alter light. His installation also addressed the arrangement of throne
and screen, mirroring it in the relation to video projector and projection screen, as well as in the mutual
interdependence of their effects. The film sequence explored in close-up the artisanal finesse of tiny details of
the throne and screen. Hardly perceptible to the unaided eye, its geometrical structures call to mind the
pixels of computer images. The analogy points to surprising correspondences between the historical objet
dart and current media technology, but also between traditional and modern techniques of picture
production in China, no less than their worldwide everyday impact. The installation was accompanied by
classical Chinese music interpreted and played on the qin, the oldest traditional Chinese string instrument, by
the contemporary musician Liang Mingyue.
Waterfall
The thematic, formal, and media variety of Zhao Zhaos artistic work is an expression of the artists critical
stance toward Chinese politics. To question the construction of established meanings, he challenges social
reality and its ideological conventions no less than cultural stereotypes and the dominance of various, mainly
European, art-historical categories. In Zhao Zhaos installation Waterfall the imperial throne was immersed
in a torrent of red wax that hardened into picturesque shapes. By concealing the assumedly artistic form of
the throne in a gesture suggesting physical violence, the artist simultaneously renders transparent his own
and his artistic contexts critique of this relic of the Chinese monarchy. The artists thoughts on the subject,
along with reactions and commentaries from members of the public in China, were available in the exhibition
as string of blog entries, to be read on a monitor. The artists blog, partly in English translation, enabled
Berlin museum visitors to participate in the lively and controversial debate around the museum artifact and
its treatment. The dynamics of this democratic exchange contrasted markedly with the seemingly frozen
motion of the red wax, which gestured, on the one hand, at the imperial past and its structures of violence, on
the other, at the stagnation besetting the current Chinese regimes democratic efforts.
A Filmic Approach
A further approach to institutionalized imperial power and the celebration of the emperor was realized by the
artist and filmmaker Daniel Kohl. He took samples from historical movies as a starting point, selecting
sequences that depicted Chinese throne rooms in the Forbidden City. Deconstructing the narrative flow of the
films as well as the spatial settings of the film images, he sampled short sequences and recomposed them to a
puzzle-like, virtual 3D-space. Titled babao suipian (mixed snippets), his looped collage of moving images
made the filmic gaze directed at the potentates on their thrones itself its subject.
In conclusion, the exhibition Game of Thrones made strikingly evident, how experimental artistic formats
can enrich the presentation of a distinguished collection object, not only formally but also with regards to
content. This way the exhibition provided seminal research, in theory and practice, for the conceptualization
of the new design for the future throne room at the Humboldt-Forum, which will be designed by the architect
Wang Shu.
Angela Rosenberg is an art historian, curator, and writer. A central theme of her work is the structuring of collections
and the possibilities for interdisciplinary exhibition projects. She has been publishing regularly for museums, collections,
and magazines on contemporary art, in particular the Berlin art scene, since 2000.
66
Game of Thrones / Positions
Model of / Model for: Functionality and the Exhibition

by Jrn Schafaff
The four screens and the thrones before them are painted either gray or white. They are lifesize replicas of a
pair of objects from the collection of the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, Berlin. Their monotone coloring
emphasizes their distinction from the originals. They aim to convey no naturalistic impression but to bring out
particular features outline, shape, size, volume. They suffice to convey the shape of the originals and an
idea of the space that the screen and throne would take up were they to be presented. For this is the issue
that the Game of Thrones addresses: How might the ensemble be adequately presented and what aspects
should be taken into account?
To answer these questions, a designer and three artists were invited to engage with the pieces and to apply
their insights to one of the replicated ensembles. The research material put at their disposal also forms the
prelude to the exhibition. An illustrated wall text in an anteroom informs visitors about comparable
ensembles and their placement in Chinese palaces, in collections and museums. An art-film-collage by Daniel
Kohl takes a look at throne rooms in Hollywood movies. In the windowless exhibition hall itself, visitors are
met by a cruciform exhibition architecture and four almost square rooms of identical size. The movable walls
reach neither to the ceiling nor to the sidewalls of the hall, so that they seem a bit like stage flats. This in turn
brings out the stage-like character of the four exhibition spaces for which the four presentation scenarios
were developed. While the designer Konstantin Grcic and the artist Kirstine Roepstorff primarily addressed
the structuring of the space, the artists Simon Starling and Zhao Zhao dealt with the exhibits themselves.
The model character of the scenarios is immediately apparent. On closer consideration, though, the exhibits
themselves, the fact that they are fourfold, and the square exhibition space raise the question as to what
model exactly is being presented in the Game of Thrones. This is not least a result of the ambiguity of the
concept of a model. In general usage, as John Miller for example remarks, the word model means,
alternately: an example to be emulated, an ideal, a simplified representation, a particular version of a
product, and, ultimately, a person who poses for art, fashion or advertising.1 Even if we restrict ourselves to
the meaning of a simplified representation, classification is still no easy matter, because, as Miller goes on
to state: As a simplified representation, the model has the virtue of comprehensibility. It may represent
things as they are, as they might be or as they should not be.2 Which of these aims is or are being addressed
by the exhibition scenarios ultimately remains ambiguous. The gray or white replicas are models of the
original items in the collection; but they do not illustrate the complexity of the originals for visitors in the way
that, say, architectural models exemplify architectural structures. In a certain sense they are not important,
serving primarily as stand-ins upon which the potential reality of artistic treatments can be tested out. This is
the chief focus of attention. But do they have any model function at all? If so, then to represent things as they
might be. Yet it is not clear what exactly the four scenarios represent. They are certainly not practical
suggestions for some future presentation of the imperial throne at the Humboldt-Forum. In particular Zhaos
wax-covered variant is out of the question on conservational grounds. Are we dealing here with specific
suggestions for an artistic intervention? This would be a curious anticipation of a future that does not yet
exist and that is entirely undecided. The logic of intervention requires an already existing situation; but the
only definite thing about Game of Thrones is the objects and the spatial situations described above, where
the latter clearly relate to no specific rooms, least of all to any future spatial arrangement at the Humboldt-
Forum. So the question arises whether the four presentations are model scenarios at all.
What exactly does Game of Thrones show visitors to the exhibition? A possible answer would be that the
effect of both the individual contributions and of the exhibition as a whole unfolds at the level of commentary.
Grcics, Roepstorffs, Starlings, and Zhaos installations comment on aspects of the exhibits under
consideration, for example in regard to their historical function of representing power. Further, they comment
on the principle of museum presentation itself. The red wax with which Zhao has covered the model throne
and partition recalls blood, but also the color of the Chinese national flag. Together with a blog that he set
going, his work can be seen as a call for contemporary contextualizations of artifacts and against their
reduced presentation as aesthetic objects. In Simon Starlings case the video projector which he has placed on
the throne assumes the position of the emperor. By confronting the exhibits and the projected film the
placement turns into a comment on the power of media communication. The video shows details of the screen
that visitors to the exhibition who are usually kept at a distance from the exhibits would otherwise not be
67
able to see. At the same time, the detailed close-ups undermine the idea of a discrete object that can be
grasped in its entirety. Roepstorff hangs lanterns based on traditional Chinese models in the exhibition space,
apparently favoring an atmospheric approach while at the same time setting the throne in a further cultural
context. On top of this, the illumination brings out the fact that viewers are not simply confronted with
exhibits, but that, together with them, they are joint participants in a presentational situation. Similarly the
barrier-like elements with which Grcic has furnished the space: Their labyrinthine arrangement regulates
viewers movements, making one aware of ones physical presence, so that a relation between imperial power
and the institutional power of the museum can be experienced bodily.
All things considered, what the four scenarios particularly bring out is the relativity of all museum
presentations. Taken as a whole, the exhibition can be grasped as a call to make this relativity the conceptual
foundation of future presentations at the Humboldt-Forum. This would further involve recognizing and giving
prominence to the fact that every endeavor to bring a culture closer by exhibiting its objects entails depriving
these objects of their cultural context. The multiple abstractional measures that detach the scenarios from
any direct relation to reality seem to hint at a danger namely, that scenographic attempts to bridge museum
displacements inevitably threaten to obscure the cultural, social, and political implications of collecting,
ordering, and presenting. From this point of view, the function of the exhibition Game of Thrones is less to
provide models of future presentational practice (nor in relation to the inclusion of artists) than to call to
mind the challenges to which those involved with the conception and planning of the Humboldt-Forum must
rise.
1
John Miller, Modell / Model, in Jrn Schafaff, Nina Schallenberg, Tobias Vogt (eds.), Kunst-Begriffe der Gegenwart: Von Allegorie bis Zip,
Walther Knig, Cologne: 2013, 193197, 193.
2
Ibid., 194.
Dr. Jrn Schafaff works on the Collaborative Research Centre 626 Aesthetic Experience and the Dissolution of Artistic
Limits at the Freie Universitt, Berlin. His special interest is the situativity of artistic displays. From 2009 to 2011 he
took part in developing the Cultures of the Curatorial course at the Hochschule fr Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig.
Game of Thrones / Credits

A project of the Probebhne 2, June 18 through October 27, 2013
Curator: Angela Rosenberg

Research assistant: Nadia Pilchowski
Exhibition construction: Nadine Ney, Gnter Krger
Model construction: Werkstatt fr Theaterplastik, Berlin
Media support: eidotech, Berlin
Graphics: Renate Sander
Film collage: Daniel Kohl
Content and organizational support: Winfried Bullinger, Lars-Christian Koch, Uta Rahman-Steinert, Klaas
Ruitenbeek, Ching-Ling Wang, Albrecht Wiedmann
Production of Zhao Zhaos installation: Dipl.-Ing. Klaus-Peter Klenke, Buchal-Kerzen, Reetzerhtten; Susan
Si, Beijing; Martin Weber, ATND, Berlin
Konstantin Grcic: migong, 2013

mixed-media installation
mdf (model throne, screen, dais), galvanized steel tubes, tube connectors, mirror
variable dimensions
courtesy Konstantin Grcic
68
Kirstine Roepstorff: Daughters of the Immortal Mother, 2013

mdf (model throne, screen, dais), various materials (light objects)
variable dimensions
courtesy Studio Roepstorff, Berlin
Simon Starling: Screen Screen, 2013

mdf (model throne, screen), HD video projection with sound
variable dimensions
length: 6:24 min
camera: Christoph Manz
production and editing: Annette Ueberlein
music: Tien-feng-huan-pei (The Sound of the Jade Jewelry that Fills the Heavens), Liang-xiao-yin
(Merry Evening), played by Liang Mingyue (qin), Yangguan san dieParting at Yangguan
(recorded 1975), ed. Artur Simon, 2002, in cooperation with the department for Musikethnologie,
Medien-Technik and Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv, Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Preuischer Kulturbesitz, Wergo SM 1706 2
courtesy Simon Starling; neugerriemschneider, Berlin
Zhao Zhao: Waterfall, 2013

mdf (model throne, screen, dais), paraffin wax, red pigment, computer, monitor screen
variable dimensions
courtesy Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin | Beijing
Daniel Kohl: babao suipian, 2013

DVD, color, without sound, loop
length: 3:23 min
Game of Thrones / Imprint Documentation

Editor: Angela Rosenberg
Translation: Christopher Jenkin-Jones
As of March 2014
69
Chinese Emperor Throne, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, photo: Jens Ziehe
Konstantin Grcic, migong, photo: Jens Ziehe
70
Kirstine Roepstorff, Daugthers of the Immortal Mother, photo: Jens Ziehe, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
Simon Starling, Screen Screen, photo: Jens Ziehe
71
Zhao Zhao, Waterfall, photo: Jens Ziehe
72
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 2 - Talking Knowledge
Talking Knowledge
Talking Knowledge / Teaser

During the professional life of a museum curator, a wealth of knowledge is accumulated that cannot be
passed on only through academic texts or in the shape of exhibitions. The project Talking Knowledge,
communicates this wealth of knowledge at the same time as tying it into the oral history tradition. A curator,
shortly before his retirement, is accompanied by a film team and together they wander through the
exhibitions and the museum depot, following his narratives. This Humboldt Lab project resulted in 27.5 hours
of film material and an extensive narration on the subject of 180 artifacts in the North America collection
curated by Peter Bolz. Beyond that however, this is a contemporary document, to which other museums,
institutions and the public will have access in the future.
Talking Knowledge / Project Description
Every Object has its Story

by Janina Janke
The idea for this Humboldt Lab project arose during a so-called fireside chat in autumn 2011, when the
Humboldt-Forum and its concept were being discussed by prominent individuals from the field of culture. On
this occasion, a curator from the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin-Dahlem provided a guided tour through
his depot. The guided tour was transformed into a running narrative, because he had a specific story for
each object. The awareness that a generational change would soon take place at the Ethnologisches Museum
and the fact that the curators leaving would be taking decades of knowledge and expertise with them into
retirement, led Martin Heller to come up with the project Talking Knowledge. Not all the senior curators
liked the idea of sharing their knowledge in front of a camera. However, Peter Bolz, the curator of the North
America collection and thus, of a department very popular with visitors, took up the challenge shortly before
73
his retirement, and became the focus of a filmic portrait Talking Knowledge. His expertise, accumulated
over 25 years, his stories, as well as his personal career trajectory as a scholar were documented in film with
the help of the collection and its artifacts. In this way, it is now preserved for successive generations of
scholars and museum visitors.
The production company Filmgestalten won the commission to realize the project. From the end of September
until the beginning of November 2012 a small flexible team (directors, two cameras, sound) wandered
together with the ethnologist Peter Bolz and his stories through the collection, which, with 30,000 artifacts, is
the largest North America collection in Europe. Before the practical implementation of Talking Knowledge
happened, various agreements had to be made with all parties at the museum who were directly or indirectly
involved: with management, the custodians, educationalists, and conservationists. A trainee at the North
America department took on the coordination between the museum, the Humboldt Lab and the film team. In
parallel, the directors with the curator coordinated the process and selection of content to be shot over the 20
scheduled days. In collaboration, four main subject areas were selected to be covered by the films research:
the permanent exhibition North American Indians. From Myth to Modern, curated by Bolz in 1999, the
special exhibition Native American Modernism. Art from North America, a selection of artifacts from the
depot, as well as looking at the fieldwork he personally carried out on the Plains Indians. The result was an
ad-hoc shooting script that served the team as a rough guide through the museums exhibition rooms. An
expedition into the world of the Indian films made in the DEFA film studios and an encounter with the actor
Gojko Miti, the Winnetou of the East, were unplanned additions.
From North America to Dahlem
Because the roughly 600 artifacts exhibited in the North America collection bison robes, masks, furs,
sculptures, baskets, photographs and much more are just a fraction of what is stored in the museums
depot, it raised the following questions: How was this selection made and structured? Which objects did Peter
Bolz consider to be particularly important and representative? Which objects were close to his heart and why?
Taking these questions as their starting point, the film team moved from room to room with Peter Bolz, from
display cabinet to display cabinet. The focus was the specialist knowledge of this particular scholar: as a
testimony not only to his personal biography but above all to the general cultural context that went far
beyond the usual objective facts contained in the catalogs. Also important to learn was what Peter Bolz had
to say about an artifact from an ethnological and scientific perspective and what connotation the same object
attained within a museum-historical context. And what stories and anecdotes he could tell, when the artifact
was looked at not only from the perspective of its cultural-historic relevance but also in context to his own
life. Against the background of the special exhibitions he curated on modern Native American art, Bolz talked
about his personal career trajectory: as a teenager in the Native Americans Club, his degree in graphic design
and his growing interest for Native American art, then finally his arrival in the Ethnologisches Museum in
Berlin and his first encounter with his predecessor Horst Hartmann. We then followed Peter Bolz into another
museum room that was important in his career: the office. Here he leafed through his private photo albums
from the 1980s and documents from his field research with the Plains Indians. Animated by the recollections
of his travels, Bolz spoke about personal encounters and friendships with the Indians on the reservations and
their current problematic living and working conditions. During filming of his research collection there were
also situations, in which spontaneous moments of realization came up, demonstrating the complex weave of
one persons subjective wealth of knowledge.
During filming, detailed directors notes were made in which the date, topic, room, clip number, camera time
code and the object under discussion were all duly noted. These notes were invaluable when it came to
editing and dealing with 42 hours of rushes. In addition to filming with Peter Bolz, the objects and rooms
under discussion were filmed again later in selected perspectives and angles. In this way material was
generated that could be used additionally to illustrate his narration and to provide an exact filmic
representation of the objects as well as the surroundings. The editor Anja Keyelt collaborated with the two
directors on Talking Knowledge from December 2012 to February 2013. The result was a film
documentation about the personal store of curator Peter Bolzs knowledge, running to a total of 27.5 hours,
organized into 166 clips, whose individual titles are listed on a separate file. In order to be able to work with
the material in an effective and selective way in the future, despite its large scope, the clip lengths have been
noted, as have the key words on topics, and names of the objects covered. During the duration of Probebhne
2 selected film clips were shown separately on twelve monitors and presented at a long table. Technical
options, for example a databank-supported free choice of clips, were not planned: the primary purpose of the
installation was to give a comprehensive overview of the interview.
74
Living Knowledge
The digital film material was handed over in its entirety to the Ethnologisches Museum archive for visual
anthropology and incorporated into the internal museum databank. The original plan may have been to create
a collection object of the highest order for the archive, but during the creation process further ideas as to its
usage arose: film material as a guide in the display depot of the future Humboldt-Forum, the focused linking
of clips with object entries in the Ethnologisches Museum databank, or in the exhibition itself or on the
website. In this way the filmic interview series Talking Knowledge is simultaneously a stock-take of the
North America collection, as well as an individual portrait of Peter Bolz as ethnologist, collector and curator
during his time in Berlin. In this way the documentation serves as a kind of prototype whose multiple uses can
be considered a model for other museums.
Janina Janke is a set designer and director. Since co-founding the artist formation OPER DYNAMO WEST in 2006, she
has been involved in a comparative examination of buildings and spaces in Berlin and other cities. She develops
concepts and implements spatial interventions, theatre projects and documentation at the interface between art,
architecture and science. From 2011 to 2015 Janke has participated in the multidisciplinary research project andere
rume knowledge through art which is funded by the Austrian Research Fund (FWF) and seeks to connect artists and
scientists.
Dr. Peter Bolz

After completing his studies in visual communications in Mainz, Bolz studied ethnology at the Goethe Universitt
Frankfurt am Main in 1985 completed his dissertation on the modern reservation culture of the Oglala Sioux (Lakota) in
South Dakota. In 1986 he began his career at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, first as a museum research assistant,
becoming a research collaborator and then the curator of North American ethnology; until his retirement in 2012 he was
the director of the North American ethnology collection. In addition to numerous publications and his collaboration on
various special exhibitions (for example Native American Modernism. Art from North America, 2012), Bolz developed
the concept for the permanent exhibition of the Ethnologisches Museum which opened in 1999, Indians of North
America. From Myth to Modernity.
Talking Knowledge / Positions
We have many more stories than we can tell.

Preserving unpublished knowledge and making it accessible to the public: Viola Knig, director of the
Ethnologisches Museum, and Monika Zessnik, the curator of the North America collection, talk about the film
documentary Talking Knowledge.
We want to talk about the project Talking Knowledge. How did you come up with the idea for this film
project, Viola Knig?
Viola Knig: The idea arose during one of the so-called fireside chats, which the chairman of the Stiftung
Berliner Schloss Humboldt-Forum, Manfred Rettig, had initiated, in order to popularize the Humboldt-
Forum and its concept, in the broadest sense, amongst personalities from the cultural domain. For one of
these talks, we had planned a tour of the depot led by my colleague Siegmar Nahser, who is responsible for
East and North Asia. As he moved through the depot, he began to talk, and talk, and talk and everyone was
rapt, hanging on to his every word. We looked at the objects too, but above all we listened to what he had to
say about the individual objects. Finally Martin Heller, who had just begun working with the Humboldt Lab
Dahlem and was on the look out for initial projects, said, We have to do something with this! When I told
him that Siegmar Nahser was only one of several curators soon to retire, the project Talking Knowledge was
born.
Peter Bolz was chosen as the narrator. In the film he speaks eloquently and fluently, his well-formulated
narratives are spiced with anecdotes and he provides exact dates. Was he consciously selected?
75
Knig: Until then we werent aware although we had all known Mr. Bolz a very, very long time that he was
such a wonderful storyteller. The added bonus was that Mr. Bolz, unlike the others, was prepared to
participate in this experiment, that he was about to retire, and that it all took place in the last eight months of
his employment with the museum. Due to those circumstances, he was able to view things from a certain
distance. I think that for anyone who has worked in a museum for twenty or thirty years which is almost an
entire lifetime their perspective shifts somewhat toward the end of their service. If we had interviewed Peter
Bolz three or four years earlier, his statements would, no doubt, have come across quite differently.
How did you develop the conceptional approach to this video documentation and how close was the
collaboration with the film team when it came to taking the idea further?
Monika Zessnik: The team from the Humboldt Lab chose the production and directorial team together with
Peter Bolz after inviting tenders. The entire concept and organization was then developed in collaboration
between Peter Bolz, Janina Janke and Franziska Seeberg. There was a shooting schedule, which specified
which objects Peter Bolz would talk about.
Knig: Every Humboldt Lab project is different, and it would be a shame if its experimental character were to
be lost. We noticed already in the short discussions with Markus Schindlbeck and Peter Junge, who are both
retiring, that they would approach the project in a completely different way and so would I. Peter Bolz took
another approach.
Zessnik: Peter Bolz didn't sit in front of the steadycam and talk into the microphone; instead he had the
production team in front of him to whom he talked. Basically the team was his audience.
Knig: That's what made the whole thing so effective. Also, because they admired him and made it clear to
him.
Monika Zessnik, you are Peter Bolzs successor. He came to the Ethnologisches Museum shortly after the
reunification and curated the North America collection in 1999. When he retires, after 15 years the collection
will be dismantled in preparation for the move to the Humboldt-Forum. What has your experience with the
Humboldt Lab project been?
Zessnik: It was a unique opportunity to immerse myself in the collection in a relatively short time and acquire
much more background information than I would normally have had access to. When Mr. Bolz started
working here, many objects that had been moved from here to Leipzig by the Russians after the war were
being returned to Berlin. He was able to process things anew and rebuild the collection; he describes all that
in his accounts. After all, we archive everything else, files and other documents, but this here this
institutional expertise would have been lost forever.
The North America collection comprises around 30,000 objects. Peter Bolz has documented around 180 on
film. Have important objects been left out, and how will you deal with any gaps?
Zessnik: The objects that have been described were on display in the permanent exhibition and are taken from
groups that include 10 to 20 comparable objects. We will never have an encyclopedic or comprehensive
institutional knowledge, even if we strive for that. The gap is something we can live with.
What significance does the project have for the museum?
Knig: Right from the start it was important for us to test new formats and realities within the Humboldt Lab:
only then, in the following step, would we look at what we can utilize for the Humboldt-Forum. Naturally the
Humboldt-Forum will have many visitors, but first we wanted to step away from the well-trodden paths and
see for ourselves what is possible. The starting point for this project was the recognition that a vast store of
unpublished knowledge can be located in a single individual. People retire and take their knowledge with
them, and it is lost to the museum. And that is a great waste. Out of that arose the question, how can we
retain the knowledge accumulated over decades by the curators: how do we retain it in the museum, in the
collection. In the first instance, that has nothing to do with the visitors.
Zessnik: Yes, the implementation and the reactions were secondary the resulting material was the important
thing. And that will not disappear, because it is part of our databank just like photos or other knowledge
carriers: it can be accessed later and at some point digitally incorporated into the exhibitions, and so on.
According to plans, the depot will be integrated into the future Humboldt-Forum exhibition space as a display
depot. Do you already have a more exact idea of how the film documentation could be presented there?
76
Knig: Our exhibition concept is based on flexibility and on frequent change. The display collection will be an
important part of the exhibition. This is where we will be exhibiting the entire material from North America,
the prairies and plains, in a much higher density. To begin with we will only provide film excerpts with Mr.
Bolz in which he deals with those regions, regardless of whether in the depot or the exhibition. We could, for
instance, theoretically imagine the prairies and plains section disappearing after three years and the
American Southwest coming into the display depot. Then you would hear different excerpts from Peter Bolz.
But it may well be that we will utilize them later in an exhibition module. That is completely open. We have
the recordings now and can use them in a variety of ways.
Zessnik: We want to set up the display depot so that visitors will understand how research and fieldwork on
an object is carried out. Because according to the Taggesschau, knowledge that is made accessible by
museums is considered credible. The more clearly we show how personalized the processing of information is,
the better. Because every type of knowledge is constructed from a subjective approach. And that changes.
Until now the website of the Staatliche Museen does not carry any names, responsibilities and contact details
of employees. Is Talking Knowledge a step toward making that public? Because in addition to information
about the collection and its objects, one also learns a great deal about Peter Bolz.
Zessnik: I agree with you that is important, because a museum, like any other cultural institution, is
brought alive by the people who work there. That's why its important to make that transparent for visitors.
Usually the public only meets the supervisory staff and the mediators, and in the best case, a curator. It is, of
course, gratifying, no matter how self-explanatory an exhibition is, if you have it explained to you personally
by someone. After all its all about communication.
Ms. Knig, you once said in an interview, we have many more stories than we can tell. Is this project a way
of closing that gap a little?
Knig: The Lab project has, for the first time ever, provided us with the opportunity of thinking about how we
can conserve personal and institutional knowledge. I think this is only the beginning.
Prof. Dr. Viola Knig is the director of the Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; previously she was the
director of the bersee-Museum Bremen, director of the Department of Ethnology at the Niederschsisches
Landesmuseum Hannover and museum educator at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne. She holds an honorary
professorship from the Freie Universitt Berlin and the Universitt Bremen, and is as well visiting professor at Tulane
University, New Orleans.
Monika Zessnik is the curator for American ethnology and communication at the Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin. Previously she was the curator for mediation and education at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, head
of communications at the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut and project coordinator at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in
Berlin.
Barbara Schindler works in the field of cultural PR. Together with Christiane Khl she supervises the online
documentation of the projects for the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
The interview was held in July 2014.
Talking Knowledge / Credits

Narrator: Peter Bolz

Producer: Manuel Kinzer, Filmgestalten
Directors: Janina Janke and Franziska Seeberg
Camera: Sunyam Riegger
Sound: Manuel Vogt
Editing: Anja Keyelt
Second camera, assistant: Dennis Schnieber
Production assistant: Claudia Schtt
Installation construction: PA-Tischlerei
77
Thanks to Claudia Roch and Helene Tello for organizational and restoration supervision.
The interviews were recorded in Fall 2012 in the permanent exhibition North American Indians. From Myth
to Modern, in the special exhibition Native American Modernism. Art from North America (March until
October 2012), in the collection depot, as well as in the curator Peter Bolzs office.
Talking Knowledge / Imprint Documentation

As of April 2015
Humboldt Lab Dahlem. The copyrights belong to the Humboldt Lab Dahlem, if not indicated otherwise. Note
for the PDF print version: all links can be accessed on the respective subpages of www.humboldt-lab.de.
Installation view "Talking Knowledge," photo: Sebastian Bolesch
78
Installation view "Talking Knowledge," photo: Jens Ziehe
Shooting "Talking Knowledge," Filmgestalten
79
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 3 - 24h Dahlem
24h Dahlem
24h Dahlem / Teaser

Human existence manifests itself in ways of life and how they are passed on in objects and thoughts. In this
sense, we have two fantastic, albeit structurally totally different, archives at our disposal with the street and
the museum. The film installation 24h Dahlem by the artist Clara Jo and the musician Robert Lippok sets
these archives in a productive relationship to each other: Images from the collections in Dahlem are combined
with sounds from the TV documentary 24h Berlin. The three parts of the installation Night, Day, and
Future link the everyday life and longings of Berliners with the daily activities at the Museen Dahlem and
the expectations associated with the construction of the Humboldt-Forum in Berlin-Mitte. The result is an
emphatic, transdisciplinary essay on a dissolving and an emerging venue housing the lively collections.
24h Dahlem / Project Description
Testing Contemporariness
by Martin Heller
The basic idea behind the Tanz der Archive (Dance of Archives) project which led to the film installation
24h Dahlem was to let the city of Berlin and its museums in Dahlem enter into an unusual dialog. The
municipal archives to be linked were quite different: On the one hand, the collections of the Ethnological
Museum and the Asian Art Museum a huge stock of non-European artifacts located in Berlin due to various
political and cultural constellations and activities. On the other, the archive of the TV production 24h Berlin
A Day in the Life, which attracted great attention in 2009. The 24-hour documentation produced by the
broadcasters arte and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg portrays a day in Berlin in images shot by 80
professional crews as well as amateurs. These images are publically accessible in the online archive of the
Deutsche Kinemathek Museum fr Film und Fernsehen (www.first-we-take-berlin.de), comprising 11,000
videos clips of raw material.
80
These archives are comparable in that human existence manifests itself in both. Tangible in narratives and
rituals, determined by love and pain, and connected by people residing in Berlin. For, of course, Berliners
play the leading part in 24h Berlin, just as they make up a substantial portion of the museum-goers in
Dahlem, who with each visit bring along their own experiences of life, urban perceptions and personal
expectations.
Based on this, the Humboldt Lab Dahlem and the Deutsche Kinemathek organized a two-stage concept
competition in spring of 2013. From the 22 submitted concept drafts, three proposals were shortlisted. In the
end, the Berlin-based American artist Clara Jo was commissioned to realize her project, 24h Dahlem, that
sought to apply the 24-hour formula to Dahlem. Clara Jo was interested in both the daily routines of the
Ethnological Museum and the Asian Art Museum and the major changes that they are undergoing.
Night, Day, Future
As a structure, the filmmaker suggested presenting the 24 hours of a day in Dahlem in three parts. Instead of
the expectable division into three times eight hours, a dramaturgically more convincing and sophisticated
constellation emerged. Part 1 was to be dedicated to the night in Dahlem, Part 2 to the day, and Part 3 to the
future with a spectacular view of the construction site of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin Mitte.
To cope with the entire project in a creative and economical way, a stepwise realization became necessary.
The three parts of 24h Dahlem were therefore produced one after the other and presented at different times,
all in the frame of Probebhne 3, but in spatially separated installations.
But what did the dance consist of? How did the city and the museums get together? The equally surprising
and convincing solution resulted from the artists collaboration with the musician Robert Lippok, who first
searched the online archive of the Kinemathek and then the collections in Dahlem for suitable sounds and
acoustic documents. He succeeded in creating a special and, despite all complexity, comprehensible web of
references between the video and audio track for each of the three parts. This resulted in something novel: a
transdisciplinary essay on this location of the collections in Dahlem, which is on the verge of being closed
down and then relocated to the Humboldt-Forum.
This principle already becomes evident in Part 1, Night, which shows a guard on his nightly round through
the museum. Spectators follow him through the exhibition spaces and depots, experiencing the Ethnological
Museum in a passive state that has little to do with the actualities of the museum, but a lot with the directing
of the nightly inspector. His inspection lamp at times makes grotesque discoveries, while the room lighting
eliminates all differences between day and night. Lippok plays around these images with diverse recordings of
nightlife in Berlin drawn from the online archive, which together with the impressions from the museum lead
to ever new associations. Someone gives an account of his nightshift, while elsewhere people are partying;
prayers can be heard as well as disco basses.
Part 2, Day, focuses on unexpectly cryptic, everyday working processes in the museum. The filmmaker
observed two members of the museum staff with her camera Ulrike Folie in the Visual Anthropology
Archive and Albrecht Wiedmann in the Phonogram Archive and edited the shots in parallel. Ethnological
films are being viewed and catalogued; Clara Jo edits sequences of these films and historical material going
back to the founder of the museum, Adolf Bastian, between her own shots. With the wax cylinders, in turn, a
medium is depicted that radiates a sensually attractive foreignness. This almost poetic flow of images is
accompanied by wax cylinder recordings from East Africa from 1930 and by sounds that Robert Lippok
produced with instruments from the ethno-musicological collection in a literally tentative exploration of as
yet unknown possibilities.
Part 3 is different again: In Future, the city is shown for the first time with the construction site of the
Humboldt Form in the center of Berlin. Of course, the film can only allude to the building under construction.
In a spectacular choreography, it fantasizes about the Palace and simultaneously shows work being
conducted in the Palace Workshop, where historicizing facade elements are manufactured. The substance of
what is to be realized with the Humboldt-Forum cannot be shown; the future remains a promise.
A Telling Speechlessness
The plan was to set the images of Future to excerpts of interviews held by Clara Jo with staff members in
Dahlem. However, a strange imbalance between words and images arose during the realization, so that the
commentary was omitted: a perhaps telling speechlessness. Instead, one can again hear urban sounds from
81
the online archive of 24h Berlin and audio tracks of non-European musical instruments.
The films by Clara Jo and Robert Lippok extract moments of great intensity from the institution of the
museum and the exhibitions in Dahlem, where they were installed. No documentary commission and no
didactics are at play. Artistic freedom, stepwise testing, and the assurance that one is allowed to fail, if that
should be the case, allow results that are convincing precisely due to this openness.
Contemporaneousness is one of the main concerns of the exhibitions in the future Humboldt-Forum.
Contemporaneousness is not just the topicality of contents, but the complex result of emotions, language,
stances, and approaches. 24h Dahlem conveys a sense of what this could entail.
Martin Heller is a member of the direction of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem and responsible for content planning for the
Humboldt-Forum.
24h Dahlem / Positions
"I wanted to expose this feeling of uncertainty"

Discovering Dahlem, creating parallel worlds and the confusion of seeing oneself represented as the Other:
The artist Clara Jo and the musician Robert Lippok on their three-part film installation 24h Dahlem.
Interview: Christiane Khl
Clara Jo, you are an American of Korean descent and have been living in Berlin for four years. What did you
find attractive about dealing with the collections in Dahlem?
Clara Jo: When I first visited the Ethnological Museum in Dahlem one and a half years ago, I knew
immediately that this was where I would like to film. I was completely unfamiliar with the institution and
wanted to understand it and its history. I know that the basic idea of the museum was for people to view other
places and cultures in order to understand themselves. But when I visited the museum in Dahlem, I suddenly
saw myself being represented as the Other. That was a weird perspective shift, and I wanted to understand
that perspective. Thats what I found attractive in the work.
Robert Lippok, you were born in Berlin. Do you remember the first time you visited the Ethnological
Museum?
Robert Lippok: It was shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in the early 1990s. I was shocked by the beauty
of the collection. Especially the room with the boats I had never seen anything like it. And this strange
corner of Berlin called Dahlem that also had something to do with discovering for me. Dahlem, too, was
something foreign and unknown.
Humboldt Labs call for proposals sought a concept linking the museum archive in Dahlem with the archive of
the television film 24h Berlin shot in 2008. Film implies moving images, while a museum archive appears
rather static. Interestingly, you decided not to use any images from 24h Berlin in your project, but only the
audio track. Conversely, you depicted the museum in constant motion already in the first part of 24h
Dahlem, with a camera following a guard on his inspection tour. How did you come up with this concept?
Jo: The decision was made on a practical level. I just had the feeling that the TV image material would not fit
with what I wanted to shoot. Thats why I opted for the audio level and used it more like a parallel story. Also,
considering Roberts experience, I thought it would be a perfect fit.
Lippok: In 2008, I and my band To Rococo Rot did a recording with of Walter Ruttmanns Weekend, a
radio play from 1930, for the Bayerischer Rundfunk. We did an updated version and walked through Berlin
with recording devices to capture the sound of a present-day weekend. When Clara told me that she didnt
want to use the image material of 24h Berlin, I immediately found that very interesting. The audio material
82
of the production is very powerful. You dont need the pictures to understand whats happening. We then
listened to a lot, searching for good quotes, interview excerpts on migration and people moving to Berlin.
The online archive is huge. How did you make a selection?
Jo: The archive is tagged pretty well. I wanted to do the first part of the film on the theme of Night, so we
looked specifically for that. The second part, Day, I wanted to do on returning to Dahlem.
Lippok: We had the entire sound on a large hard disk, so we could do pure audio research.
Jo: It was almost like working blind.
Lippok: I didnt find it hard.
Jo: But for me it was almost impossible!
And how did you approach the museum archives?
Jo: I was a stranger coming to Dahlem and I just decided to speak to as many people as possible. At the same
time, I knew that I wanted to divide the film into three parts, which taken together would show one day in the
life of the museum. I played around with different real scenarios. At times it was strange to work here as an
artist; scientists are taken more seriously in the museum. But all in all, we received a lot of support. That can
be seen especially in the second part of the film, which I shot in the Archive for Visual Anthropology and the
Phonogram Archive. Ulrike Folie and Albrecht Wiedmann were very forthcoming.
I filmed Ulrike at work, cataloging the collections films. I fictionalized the scenario by mixing the image
material she is viewing with material that doesnt belong to the collection: strips from a box of editing rests
that Gerd Koch, the former director of the South Pacific Department, recorded during field studies. This is
accompanied by Robert playing instruments of the collection, which was a further reference to the archive.
What was it like playing these old instruments?
Lippok: I decided not to really play the instruments, because Im not able to. I just wanted to produce their
sounds. I played neither rhythms nor melodies, but tried to understand how the instruments sound in regard
to their body, the resonance chamber. So I only plucked individual strings or hit the drums. Very simple. I
didnt process the recording afterwards either, but used them like raw material and created several layers.
The third part of the film is entirely different. While the first two parts are set in the museum and depict a
self-contained world focused of just a few persons, Future was shot at the construction site on the Berliner
Schlossplatz; the hermetic world opens itself up.
Jo: As we all know, that is where the Humboldt Forum will move to at this point, its difficult to visualize
what exactly will happen to the collection. I wanted to expose this feeling of uncertainty. I by no means
wanted to monumentalize the site, thats why I combined the construction site with the work at the palace
workshop of the Berlin Palace Humboldtforum Foundation in the edit. The screed was just being laid at the
construction site, and in the palace workshop sections of the baroque facade for the Humboldt Forum were
being manufactured. That was the situation in 2013. I wanted to combine part three with the others, the
Schlossplatz in Berlin-Mitte with the collections in Dahlem, I wanted everything to come together... but
somehow I didnt really succeed in doing so.
Lippok: But thats the good thing about the Lab: it allows research and incompleteness. What we are now
presenting is one version of the project. There will be another one.
To what extent was the work influenced by the awareness that it would be shown in the Ethnological Museum
and not in a gallery space for contemporary art?
Lippok: Clara just did her work without thinking about what the audience would think or understand. No
compromises. Thats completely correct. Because if you compromise, you dont know with whom you
compromise. You dont know the audience at all. Its stupid anyway to believe that gallery-goers are smarter
than museum visitors or that children dont want to watch experimental videos.
83
Jo: I conceived the film installation as an intervention. It is not placed in the collection but in spaces in
between: Night in the corridor between the Golden Triangle (Laos, Myanmar, Thailand) and the South
Pacific exhibition space, Future in the foyer between the entrances to the Asian Art Museum and the
Ethnological Museum. I wanted to create a parallel world, so that the visitors could discover areas that are
usually invisible.
How did the work evolve from the concept to the installation?
Jo: I made many decisions spontaneously, since I mostly had to shoot at locations I had never seen before. I
wanted to keep the images open and empty in a certain respect, so that Robert would have a projection screen
to work with. I wanted to give him room to breathe. Thats why there are long takes of places and
architectures, to allow a balance between vision and sound. The use of sound is the most radical aspect of the
film.
Lippok: A nod doesnt make a sound, but ... (nods and laughs)
Did your perception of the museum change?
Jo: Yes, very much.
And? How does it present itself to you as a non-European seeing herself reflected in it as the Other?
Jo: I still have to digest that. Really, I still have to think about that.
What would the ideal Ethnological Museum look like?
Lippok: Yesterday I drove by the House of World Cultures (HKW) and suddenly thought that the
Ethnological Museum and the HKW should be joined, so that there is not only the museum and the archive
but also a political approach to the countries, to contemporary everyday life. Different approaches to other
cultures, not just via the museum but also artistically; through concerts, lectures, exhibitions. Bringing that
together would be an ideal situation, in my view. Ethnological museums virtually cry out for being brought
into society in a different way. But the plans are now different. They should have kept the Palace of the
Republic and made a Centre Pompidou out of it, housing the House of World Cultures and the Ethnological
Museum. That would have been a killer.
Jo: Problem solved. (laughs)
Artist Clara Jo (*1986, USA) received a Meisterschler degree (2013) in the class of Olafur Eliasson (Institutfr
Raumexperimente, UdK Berlin). She received a B.A. in Photography from Bard College (New York) in 2008.
Collaborative performance and film works with artist James Gregory Atkinson have been shown at MMK Museum Fr
Moderne Knste Frankfurt, Kunsthalle Krems, Club Transmediale, Hessische Kunsthalle Frankfurt, West Germany
(received grant from Kulturamt Kreuzberg/Friedrichshain) and HAU2. Groupexhibitions include White Columns (New
York) and the Swiss Institute (New York).
Since his youth, Robert Lippok has been active as a musician and fine artist in various formations. In the1990s, he, his
brother Ronald, and Stefan Schneider founded the band to rococo rot, which became known worldwide with releases on
the labels Kitty-Yo, City Slang and Staubgold, among others. With to rococo rot, Robert Lippok also developed sounded
pieces for artists including Olaf Nicolai (Bonner Kunstverein, 2000,Palais de Tokyo, 2002, HAU Berlin, 2006), Doug
Aitken (Serpentine Gallery, London, 2001) and TakehitoKoganezawa ("On the way to the peak of normal", Montevideo
and Amsterdam, 2000). In addition, to rococorot has collaborated in radio plays for the Bayerischer Rundfunk, among
others, and composed a newversion of Walter Ruttmann's sound montage "Weekend". Lippok also performs as a solo
artist and with theelectronic duo Tarwater. As a fine artist, he deals with architectural spaces and audio concepts. He
participated in the show "space to face" at the Westflischen Kunstverein (Mnster, 2004), among others.
Christiane Khl is a journalist and theater-maker living in Berlin. Together with Barbara Schindler she is responsible for
the online documentation of the projects for the Humboldt Lab Dahlem. The interview was conducted in Berlin in
84
February 2014.
24h Dahlem / Credits

A project of the Probebhne 3, October 17, 2013 through March 30, 2014
Director: Clara Jo
Composition, Sound Design: Robert Lippok
Project jury "Dance of Archives (Tanz der Archive)": Raffael Dedo Gadebusch, Martin Heller, Iman Kamel,
Peter Paul Kubitz
Project director "Tanz der Archive", Production director "24h Dahlem": Claudia Relota
Advice: Jrgen Keiper
Editing www.first-we-take-berlin.de: Christiane Grn
Chapter 1: Night
Director of Photography: Michael Laakmann
Steadycam: Matthias Biber
Boom Operator: Csar Fernndez
Camera Assistants: Sezgin Devran, Jens Hallmann
Edit: Carolina Hellsgrd
Actor: Alexander Abramyan
We would like to thank: Ines Buschmann, Raffael Dedo Gadebusch, Ekultur, Maria Gaida, Leonie Grtner,
Lothar Gnther, Mareen Hatoum, Paola Ivanov, Peter Junge, Hendryk Ortlieb, Uta Rahman-Steinert, Eva
Ritz, Verena Rodatus, Markus Schindlbeck, Christina Werner Institut fr Raumexperimente
Special thanks to: The company Dussmann and the guards of the museums Dahlem
Film equipment: 25p, Delight Rental Service
Technical equipment: cine plus
Image material: Collection depots, study rooms and exhibition spaces of the Ethnological Museum and the
Asian Art Museum, 2013
Audio material: Online archive of the TV production 24h Berlin A Day in the LIfe, 2008
Chapter 2: Day
Boom Operator: Csar Fernndez
Camera Assistant: Jens Hallmann
Speaker: Luise Helm
Sound Engineer: Juri Bader
Thanks to: Jana Bulir, Ines Buschmann, Dussmann Security, Ekultur, Toralf Gabsch, Uta Rahman-Steinert,
Verena Rodatus, Anja Zenner, Maxi Zimmermann
Special thanks to: Ulrike Folie, Lars-Christian Koch, Ricarda Kopal, Carsten Neubert, Markus Schindlbeck,
Albrecht Wiedmann
Film equipment: 25p, Delight Rental Service, Tectum
Technical equipment: cine plus
Image material: Albrecht Wiedmann in the Phonogram Archive and Ulrike Folie at the Steenbeck 6000
flatbed editor in the Ethnologisches Museum (Ethnological Museum), 2013
Audio material: interviews from the online archive of the TV production 24h Berlin A Day in the LIfe,
2008; quotes from letters by Adolf Bastian (1860 to 1904); wax cylinder with a recording by Hamizi bin
Ismaili from East-Africa, Collection Thurnwald, 1930; sounds of instruments from the Musical Instruments
Collection of the Ethnomusicology Department of the Ethnological Museum, played by Robert Lippok, 2013
Chapter 3: Future
Steadycam: Matthias Biber
Camera Assistants: Jens Hallmann, Christopher Haug
Boom Operator: Hans Bramm
85
Set Runner: Semhar Amedeberhan

Thanks to: Kerstin Ischen, Antje Brrmann, Henning Brmmer, Bernhard Wolter, Volker Brggen, Allegretto
Restaurant, Humboldt- Box Projekt GmbH
Special thanks to: Frank Kuckelt, Bertold Just, all workers at the construction site of the Humboldt-Forum
and the Palace Workshop as well as Bettina Probst, Viola Knig, Peter Junge, Raffael Dedo Gadebusch, Uta
Rahman-Steinert, Toralf Gabsch, Richard Haas, Klaas Ruitenbeek
Film equipment: 25p, Kortwich, Rockn Roll Rental
Technical equipment: EIDOTECH
Image material: construction site of the Humboldt-Forum and works of the stone sculptures and strumpets at
the Palace Workshop of the Berlin PalaceHumboldtforum Foundation, 2014
Audio material: cluster of city sounds in Berlin from the online archive of www.first-we-take-berlin.de, and
recorded sounds of old non-European instruments from the sound archive in the Ethnomusicology
Department of the Ethnological Museum, 2014
24h Dahlem / Imprint Documentation

Editor: Christiane Khl
As of August 2014
Film still 24h Dahlem: Chapter 1: Night, Clara Jo
86
Installation view 24h Dahlem: Chapter 2: Day, photo: Jens Ziehe
Concert The Persistence of Memory by Robert Lippok an Nino Errera on the occasion of the completion of
"Chapter 3: Future" of the project "24h Dahlem," photo: Sebastian Bolesch
87
Opening of 24h Dahlem: Chapter 3: Future, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
Opening of 24h Dahlem: Chapter 3: Future, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
88
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 3 - Touching Photography
Touching Photography
Touching Photography / Teaser

The exhibition was based on the Ethnologisches Museums huge stock of portrait and type photographs from
Amazonia. As part of a research project, Michael Kraus had previously reappraised more than 6,500 pictures
in the historical photo collection dedicated to Latin America. The aim of Touching Photography was to shed
light on the moments the pictures were taken and used, as well as on concrete knowledge of individual
persons and forms of encounter. In collaboration with the office for scenography chezweitz, experiments were
conducted with forms of media conveyance, without presenting the original historical prints. The exhibition
was shown in three rooms: after encountering several projected, life-size portraits, narratives based on
historical texts explained the contexts in which the photos were taken. Finally, an archive situation was
provided, in which the visitors could actively take part.
Touching Photography / Project Description
New Narrative Strategies for Historical Photographs

by Michael Kraus
The idea for Touching Photography originated while reappraising the collection of historical photographs
on Latin America at the Ethnological Museum Berlin. I dealt with these photographs for a period of two
years, looking at the persons in these pictures almost on a daily basis. What I found striking was the poor
degree of documentation on the numerous portrait and type photos. In many cases we know virtually nothing
about the lives of those depicted. Only the ethnic group, the photographer and the date of the photograph are
noted down. Were the persons in the pictures even perceived as individuals? Or were they only interesting as
representatives of a collective, possessing features of a certain culture?
89
This led to the idea for an exhibition that raises questions pertaining to personal issues, individual fates and
contexts of encounter. Who were these people? What can be told of their lives today? Can narratives be
developed from these photos that differ from their classical uses, such as the illustration of ethnographic
descriptions or, more seldom, their presentation as photographic works of artnarratives that would help
undermine the application of collection categories that establish a distance? Does a narrative form exist that
could bring us closer to these people today?
The Path of the Pictures Contexts of Origin and Usage
The Berlin-based office for scenography chezweitz was responsible for the exhibition design. One specification
they were asked to follow was that the photographs should be shown life-sized, if possible at one place. The
visitors should be able to look the depicted persons in the eye. However, this eye level was never meant in
the sense of an equal footing, the illusion of an approach free of contextual asymmetries, something that never
existed and would also be hard to find today. But it belonged to the original idea to place the person in the
picture at the center of attention and not the object status of the depiction or the aura of the original
historical print.
To this end, chezweitz developed the idea of living images i.e., the digital animation of selected photographs.
chezweitz also suggested using overhead projectors and transparencies to give the impression of an archive
situation. This made it possible to show a relatively large number of photos. At the same time, the chosen
presentation form enabled the visitors to influence the picture selection on the wall and the attendant search
for information and impressions. In a joint discussion, this design was expanded by a further room dedicated
to the narratives of selected pictures.
Upon entering the exhibition at the designated place, the visitors first encountered three screens hung from
the ceiling onto which the 21 life-sized portrait photos were projected in an alternating sequence. Further
information was deliberately dispensed with here. When meeting a stranger for the first time, one knows
nothing about him or her. The first impression is an external one. It is visual and spontaneous, and our
reaction usually reveals more about ourselves than about our vis--vis. The crucial design element was the
animation of the depicted persons: a young man moved his shoulders, arms and upper body; an elderly
woman started smiling; another person slowly turned to the visitors with a drawn bow and arrow. The
movements caused a moment of amazement and wonder that boosted ones willingness to linger and take a
closer look. The low sound of breathing prevented the room from being completely silent.
In the center room, a large-format wall text gave information on the origin and intention of the exhibition. The
researched scenarios of encounter were presented. In addition to a personally formulated introduction, one
could choose among six stories on the available tablets. The titles were Fear, Empathy, Body, Art,
Ambivalence and Change. Stories, biographical fragments and forms of encounter related to selected
photographs were imparted via headphones. The texts included numerous original quotes from travelogues
and diaries.
The third part of the exhibition included three overhead projectors with 158 transparencies designed like
index cards. 149 transparencies showed persons of the indigenous population of South America, seven showed
selected photographers and two expedition members. The notes under the keyword Link enabled visitors to
view related pictures next to each other. In some cases, several pictures of the same person existed, partially
taken from different perspectives, and more seldom in different years and by different photographers.
Furthermore, there were photos of relatives, persons who were part of the same story, and of course the
connection between the photographed person and the photographer. The pictures and text modules on the
transparencies could thus be supplemented to form a larger narrative. The photographs on display in the first
two rooms were also available on these index cards. In addition to the effect of recognition, the search for
interrelations, the impression of an archive, and the viewing of newly added shots, the transparencies once
again vividly conveyed to the visitors what had already been mentioned in the wall text: how large the number
of existing pictures is and how small the amount of personal data on those depicted. Fragmentation and
reduction, but also standardization and the comparability of scientific data, became just as evident as the
varied pictorial languages of the photographers and the different degrees of effort made by the respective
explorer to also document information on the individuals.
Points of Contact instead of Dogmatism
The aim of the exhibition was both to stage the moments when the pictures were taken and put to use and to
convey concrete knowledge about individual persons and forms of encounter. One reading that the developed
90
dramaturgy offered was the course of an actual encounter: the first meeting (Room 1) followed by the phase of
social negotiation processes (Room 2) and then the ordering and summarization of the impressions gained in
the first two scenarios (Room 3). When viewing the exhibition in the opposite direction, one could experience
the path from the large amount of material in the archive to the animation attempt of a (re)constructed
narrative using a reduced selection of images.
Besides the large-format depiction, two other points were of particular importance. On the one hand, the
complexity, heterogeneity and ambivalences of the encounters at the timeand their resultswere to become
tangible. On the other, the interpretation of what was shown was not to be pre-structured starting with the
first text panel. Instead, the existing information was presented in a way that left the last stephow to
evaluate a certain form of taking photographs, a found mode of behavior, historically reconstructed
expectationsto the visitors. Anyone expecting to be amazed by the achievements of explorers, or a context-
free aesthetics, or postcolonial deconstruction or even condemnation, might have been disappointed. Yet one
should dispense neither with the discomfort caused by complex constellations nor with the demand to position
oneself.
Dr. Michael Kraus has been working for the department of early American studies at the Universitt Bonn since 2013. He
was previously a research assistant in the ethnology department of the Philipps-Universitt Marburg, where he received
his doctorate with the thesis Bildungsburger im Urwald. Die deutsche ethnologische Amazonienforschung (1884 - 1929)
in 2004. He then worked as a curator, among others, for the exhibitions Novos Mundos Neue Welten. Portugal und das
Zeitalter der Entdeckungen (Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin 2007) and WeltWissen. 300 Jahre Wissenschaften
in Berlin (Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin 2010).
For more than ten years, the studio for scenography chezweitz directed by Detlef Weitz and Sonja Beeck has been
designing art and theme-related exhibitions. It was responsible for, among others, the design of the anniversary show
"Modell Bauhaus" in 2009 at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, and the 2011 exhibition "Arbeit. Sinn und Sorge" at the
Deutsches Hygienemuseum Dresden initiated by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. The studio was awarded the
Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Gold 2011 for the Andy Warhol exhibition "Other Voices, Other Rooms"
at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. chezweitz is currently working on the new permanent exhibition of the DB Museum
in Nuremberg, an interactive "European Classroom" for the Route Charlemagne of the City of Aachen, as well as -
together with the FEZ-Berlin - the children's exhibition "POP-UP Cranach" in the Gemldegalerie of the Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin.
Touching Photography / Positions
The Ethnological-Anthropological Portrait

by Paul Hempel
The exhibition installation Touching Photography ventures to deal not with any kind of image, but precisely
with a genre of scientific photography that from todays perspective appears, more than all others, as
problematic or at best outdated: the ethnological-anthropological portrait.
Portraits can be found in large numbers and diverse forms in the photographic collections of ethnological
museums and archives. Yet these images often approach us in way that is even more speechless (if such a
comparative exists) than other photographs. What is particularly outrageous is that, as opposed to shots of
landscapes or objects, they depict humans. Women, men and children gaze at us more or less under
compulsion, more or less clothed, and literally say nothing. This lack of address is most disturbing in the case
of formalized type photographs or race portraits, the hybrid genre that so vividly embodies the permeable
borderline between ethnology and physical anthropology in the long 19th century.
When browsing through the stocks of photographs, these pictures are usually brushed asideas inherited
burdens from a distant and at times inglorious past. They disqualify themselves above all for exhibitions, if
they happen not to be testimonies to this pastand even then, they do (or may) not break their silence.
Instead, they are preferably pigeonholed anew, stylized and reduced to icons of a colonial-chauvinistic
worldview.
91
Such a capitulation to the doubtless difficult material is shortsighted in several respects. What is disregarded
is that precisely these pictures expressed lively debates on adequate visual methods and issues already at the
time, and some of the formulated problems neednt appear all that wayward today: How can ethnological-
anthropological data be defined, acquired and transported? What is the relationship between cultures and
bodies, and can these concepts be projected onto each other? How objective, true-to-life, and authentic are
these images? How autonomous and meaningful are they, after having been placed in other contexts? These
are questions that the image producers themselves raised when dealing with and discussing their
photographs. We neednt adopt all the answers given at the time, but we should take the pictures seriously.
This implies not only viewing them as the expression of fixed notions, but also always as the trigger of one of
the driving forces of science per se, which is so rarely addressed in scientific exhibitions: doubt.
Why do we so often deny portraits, in particular, this creative potential? Probably because they appear so
self-assured and authoritarian in their formal stringency. In order to break through this facade, it seems
necessary to open up the pictures, as is done in the exhibition Touching Photography in several respects
and different dimensions. Visitors are confronted with the diverse contexts of origin of the portraits, with
touching biographical details, as well as with moments of disturbance and confusion when delving into the
image material. The exhibitions contemporary presentation of the images thus also succeeds in transporting
the methodological doubt that many actors at the time brought into the field and back again with their
camera.
Employing such exhibition concepts that focus not only on the product but equally on the process of scientific
image production and utilization, an ethnological museum of science (the Humboldt-Forum) could distinguish
itself more distinctly and aggressively as an inquiring rather than as a knowing institution.
Paul Hempel (M.A.) works at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt
Munich. Within the framework of his dissertation on the use of visual media during expeditions in Brazil between 1883
and 1914, his main focus was on the status of photography in the production and dissemination of ethnological
knowledge. This commentary is based on a keynote address that he held as part of an an evaluation workshop of the
Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
Transmisses e contato: Transmission and Contact

by Wolfgang Schffner
Michael Kraus takes up the crucial challenge of considering how historical research on foreign cultures can
be transferred to a modern notion of working with cultures based on collections of objects. He is especially
concerned with revealing, within the objects and their focus on originality, the processes of transfer to which
they owe their existence. The project shows this in the way it treats historical photographs: what touches in
the case of the photograph is not the originality of the historical print, which, in the sense of the punctum of
photography, rises from the scene, shoots out of it like an arrow, and pierces me, (Roland Barthes1). Instead,
the radical approach of Touching Photography consists in the photographs no longer being presented as
historical objects. What is at issue is the path that the photographs from the Amazonian region have taken to
reach us, covering a spatial and temporal distance.
The historical photographs are transferred to three different media formats: first, the bureaucratic registry of
a dataset attributing metadata to the photos of indigenous persons (ethnic group, date of photograph,
photographer etc.) presented via overhead projectors a technological medium developed at the same time as
photography. A particularly competent manufacturer of these projectors in the 1920s was the Dsseldorf-
based firm Liesegang. The photographs are thus integrated into a presentation and transmission system that
decisively alters their materiality: light turns the photographs into agents; they start shining and are
transmitted through a new active medium. This activation of the original medium also determined, albeit in a
different way, the animation of the photographs on the large scale of 1:1. The photographic stills are
transformed into moving images through digital algorithms. Based on photographs, they simulate filmic
movements by animating only the persons standing in the foreground. Hence, the photograph becomes an
object attaining a new animated presence in the digital medium, something that the photo as a historical
medium excludes. The tablets in the third scenario offer an altered ontology (fear, empathy, or body,
instead of categories of identification), presenting a technological innovation of touching. The touch screen
allows and necessitates that which historical photography indeed forbids: actual contact. Directly touching
the photograph enables zooming into details and moving through and beyond the photos. The digital medium
92
therefore excels customary touch precisely by avoiding the materiality and originality of the photograph.
Moreover, the tablet, as a network-controlled medium, could simultaneously provide access to any kind of
data and images. This would even allow transferring Amazonia to Europe in a topological network order in
which original sites no longer exist. Once the presentation site itself becomes mobile, the separation between
site of find and museum, which is inherent to European collections of non-European objects, becomes
obsolete.
The historical sequence of media, which Michael Kraus and chezweitz present as transmission media based on
photography, essentially determines and changes the way one works on a culture as it is documented in the
photographs of ethnic individuals from Amazonia. This new way of working with the processes of transmission
and their media alters the scenarios in a crucial mannerthey are dislocated: they can visualize their own
processes of transmission through space and time and thus dissolve their fundamental difference. These are
the coordinates of a new method of working with a culture that symmetrically combines different sites. And
what may then complete a presentation of transmission processes, alongside the photographs and objects, are
the jaguar hides, the wood and the rubber, as things that were transferred to Europe and that, conversely, left
their mark in Amazonia in the form of railways or telegraph lines as media of transmission.
The answer given by this experimental exhibition is that photographs touch, or, put differently: they only
arrive in our media-technological present when their processes of exchange and transmission can visualize the
distance they have covered in time and space.
1
Roland Bathes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. New York 1981.
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schffner has held the chair for the history of knowledge and culture at the Institute of Cultural
Studies of the Humboldt-Universitt (HU) zu Berlin since 2009, he is the spokesperson of the excellence cluster of the HU
Bild Wissen Gestaltung. Ein Interdisziplinres Labor and has been the director of the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum
fr Kulturtechnik of the HU since 2013. He is a honorary professor of the faculty of architecture, design and urbanism at
the Universidad de Buenos Aires, where he is also the director of the Walter Gropius Research program. This
commentary is based on a keynote address that he held within the framework of an evaluation workshop of the Humboldt
Lab Dahlem.
Touching Photography / Credits

Curator: Michael Kraus

Assistant: Franziska Hartmann
Design: chezweitz, Berlin Detlef Weitz and Sonja Beeck with Jrgen Willinghfer, Julia Volkmar, Hans
Hagemeister, Stefan Hurtig, Joana Katte
Video/ Animation: Ronny Traufeller
Audio/ Sound: Daniel Dorsch
Speakers: Judica Albrecht, Michael Kraus
Programming: Ivo Wessel
Media Equipment: cine plus
Exhibition Construction: Matzat Museumstechnik and David Christokat
Coordination: Luisa Krger
Thanks to: Manuela Fischer, Boris Gliesmann, Richard Haas, Katharina Kepplinger, Renate Sander, Andrea
Scholz, Dagmar Schweitzer de Palacios, Verena Stemme, and to the Cultural and Social Anthropology
Department of the Philipps-Universitt Marburg
An internal evaluation workshop of the Humbold Lab Dahlem was held on February 15, 2014. It was dedicated
to the two projects that dealt with the stocks of the Amazonia Collection of the Ethnologisches Museum
93
(Ethnological Museum). Touching Photography and Man Object Jaguar. Irene Albers moderated the
discussion attended by around 20 fellow experts:
Heike Behrend (Universitt zu Kln)

Friedrich von Bose (Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin)
Alexander Brust (Museum der Kulturen Basel)
Angela Dreler (Bro Eta Boeklund)
Richard Haas (Ethnologisches Museum Berlin)
Ernst Halbmayer (Philipps-Universitt Marburg)
Paul Hempel (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt Mnchen)
Jens Jger (Universitt zu Kln)
Michael Kraus (Universitt Bonn)
Ingrid Kummels (Freie Universitt Berlin)
Matthias Lewy (Freie Universitt Berlin)
Sebastin Meja
Stefanie Kiwi Menrath (Bro Eta Boeklund)
Mark Mnzel (Philipps-Universitt Marburg)
Wolfgang Schffner (Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin)
Andrea Scholz (Ethnologisches Museum Berlin)
Mona Suhrbier (Weltkulturen Museum Frankfurt)
Viola Vahrson (Stiftung Universitt Hildesheim)
Agnes Wegner (Humboldt Lab Dahlem)
Detlef Weitz (Bro fr Szenografie chezweitz)
Moderation: Irene Albers (Freie Universitt Berlin)
Touching Photography / Imprint Documentation

As of August 2014
94
Installation view Touching Photography, photo: Jens Ziehe
95
Tablet in the exhibition Touching Photography, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
Installation view Touching Photography, photo: Jens Ziehe
96
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 3 - Man - Object - Jaguar
Man - Object - Jaguar
Man - Object - Jaguar / Teaser

The aim of the exhibition was to convey to museum-goers the way in which indigenous groups of the
Amazonian lowlands understand the world, and to visualize the theory of perspectivism. Humans, objects and
animals can equally take on the status of a person. The most important object was a shamans stool in the
shape of a jaguar from the ethnological collection. The ethnologist Andrea Scholz and the artist Sebastin
Meja did not tell a classical story of an object, however, but placed the visitors at the center of a complex
media installation: when walking through the installation, designed like an adventure path, they themselves
underwent a number of perspectival changes from human to object to animal. During the course of the
process-oriented exhibition, accompanying workshops were held for specific target groups. The results were
directly integrated into the installation.
Man - Object - Jaguar / Project Description
An Approach to Perspectivism
by Andrea Scholz
The objects in the depot are alive! This assumption suggests itself when visiting the South American
ethnological collection of the Ethnological Museum in Dahlem, for the stored ethnographic artefacts are made
almost exclusively of (formerly) living material. They are part of the close connection between humans and
their natural environment. However, the transformation of nature into culture is by no means a one-sided
affair: wearing feathers or masks and the use of utensils such as shamans stools or rattles effect a power of
transformation that can grant people entrance to the world of animals or animal spirits.
The basic principle of perspectivism is that all things were originally sentient, connected by a shared culture.
97
The difference lies merely in the outer shell, the natures, and thus in the perspectives. Objects in the
museum that are treated as supposedly cultural-historical evidence often assume the status of subjects
possessing agency in the indigenous ontologies of the Amazonian lowlands.1 Hence, only a small mental leap
lies between the insight that things are alive and the theory of perspectivism.
Despite the great relevance to ethnological museums, these approaches do not play a role in exhibitions. This
may have to do with the difficulties of an adequate conveyance of theoretical discourses that are, for the most
part, only held among circles of experts.
In the Humboldt-Forum, we would like to face this challenge in the future and present the South American
ethnographic artefacts under the title The Life of Things. This includes attempts such as perspectivism,
which are treated in the sense of the writing culture paradigm as subjective approaches to indigenous
ontologies. Moreover, we want to avoid stripping the objects of their magic through prosaic ethnological
theories.
The idea for the Lab project Man Object Jaguar resulted from the search for a corresponding form of
presentation. As a consequence of the representation-critical basic attitude, the realization was conducted
from the outset in cooperation with the artist Sebastin Meja, who in earlier works has dealt with changes in
perspective and the humanity of animals (e.g., Es geht auch anders). The project was additionally
conceived to include the reception by certain target groups and to change specific aspects during the course
of the exhibition. The experienced Eta Boeklund office was commissioned for this task.
From the Idea to its Realization
In realizing the idea in the form of a spatial installation, ethnological theories were to be brought to light
along with the extent to which museal interpretations often deviate from indigenous realities. The aim was to
draw a picture that does not play with exoticism and jungle fantasies, but utilises an analytical approach.
Sebastin Meja and I viewed the collection several times and came upon the shamans stool in the shape of a
jaguar2 as the suitable object. Theodor Koch-Grnberg had acquired it from the Yekuana in the region of the
upper Orinoko in 1912. Along with other utensils and ritual songs, these kinds of stools are (to this day) at the
service of transforming their owners into other forms of being, as the collector describes in his travelogue.3
Sebastin Meja sought to create an environment for presenting the shamans stool that would visually convey
the perspective of the jaguar. Using surveillance cameras integrated as elements of the show, the perspectives
are reversed: upon entering the exhibition, the visitors were filmed by a camera and projected onto a drawn
basket pattern of the Yekuana4 on the opposite wall. The second camera was positioned in the eye of a huge
drawn jaguar. The visitors recorded from the perspective of the predator were projected onto semi-
transparent curtains that simultaneously served as room dividers. On one curtain, a herd of peccaries was
depicted, because: Conversely, animals do not see humans as humans. The jaguars see us as prey, for
example, as a kind of wild pig, or more precisely, as peccaries.5 The other curtain was penetrated by an
arrow directed at half height to the beholder and additionally emphasized the image of the human as prey in
the eye of the jaguar.
The stool was not placed centrally in the room, but on a plinth under the stairs behind several Plexiglas
panels. These were partially embellished with scratched drawings depicting a shaman sitting on the jaguar
stool, smoking a cigarette and turning into a jaguar. This visual comment on the object made its original use
comprehensible for the visitors. The moment of transformation itself was shown on the middle one of the five
panels with the picture of a jaguar. The two adjacent panels depicted the smoking shaman looking in different
directions. The backdrop of the room was a drawn river scene.
At the opening, the wax-cylinder recording of a Yekuana shamans song was played. As with other aspects, the
sound concept changed during the period of the exhibition.
Guide for Further Reflection
In retrospect, the idea of visualizing changes in perspective in an exhibition appears more complex than
expected. The threshold to engage with it was (unintentionally) high; many visitors immediately left the
installation without having actually entered the room or read one of the texts. The images they were
confronted with were too disconcerting: instead of being able to view foreign objects in display cases, as is
customary in museums, the visitors saw a distortion of themselves, while the only ethnographic object was
98
virtually hidden.
Admittedly, there was a lot of room for imagination. A fact that perhaps appealed especially to children, for
according to the accounts of the live speakers, the guides of the Humboldt Lab, the installation went down
just as well with them as with the expert audience. Was it an exhibition only for young visitors and
ethnologists?
Personally, I evaluate the installation Man Object Jaguar less with regard to the polarized reactions
than with regard to the process of development, realization, active reception, and change, which was
accessible for the interested public. In my view, this process and particularly the inclusion of different and
also unusual perspectives are the actual results of the Lab project; something that can also be applied in this
manner to more permanent exhibitions.
1
Cf., for example, Fernando Santos-Granero (ed.): The Occult Life of Things: Native Amazonian Theories of Materiality and Personhood. Tucson,
Arizona, 2009. The probably best-known theorist of perspectivism, Viveiros de Castro, mainly focuses on the relationships between humans, animals
and spirits (see, for example, Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 4). The authors in
Santos-Graneros reader go beyond this interconnection.
2
Jaguar stool, wood, length: 66 cm, height: 23 cm, Inv. no. V A 61093.
3
See Theodor Koch-Grnberg: Vom Roroima zum Orinoko. Schilderung der Reise. Berlin 1917
4
According to David Guss (To Weave and Sing. Art, Symbol and Narrative in the South American Rain Forest. Berkeley, CA 1989), the Wajas
(basketwork plates) of the Yekuana Indians, whose power had to be placated by ritual songs, reflect their entire conception of the world. The
pattern displayed in the exhibition symbolizes the struggle between good and evil.
5
Eduardo Viveiros de Castro: Une figure humaine peut cacher une affection-jaguar. Rponse une question de Didier Muguet. Multitudes, 24-1,
2006.
Dr. Andrea Scholz has been a research assistant at the Humboldt Lab Dahlem since March 2014. She studied ethnology,
sociology and took Romance studies in Bonn, Germany, as well as conducted research in Mexico (2004) and Venezuela
(2007 - 2009). The theme of her dissertation was the recognition of indigenous territories in Guayana/Venezuela, which
was published in 2012 under the title Die Neue Welt neu vermessen ("Surveying the New World Anew"). During the
course of her field studies and internship at the Ethnological Museum (2012 - 2014), Andrea Scholz has intensively dealt
with the material culture of the Guayana region.
Sebastin Meja (*1980 in Columbia) lives and works in Dsseldorf. He studied art from 1999 to 2004 at the Universidad
Javeriana, Bogota, Columbia, and from 2007 to 2009 at the Hochschule fr Bildende Knste Dresden. His objects,
photographs, videos, and installations are experimental arrangements. Exhibitions at, among others, Knstlerhaus
Ziegelhtte Darmstadt and ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, as well as the art fairs Scope Miami Art Show,
Volta, New York, The Others Art Fair, Turin, and Preview, Berlin.
Man - Object - Jaguar / Positions
An Experiment Against the Certainty of Complete

Knowledge
by Mark Mnzel
Museums distinguish themselves from other media (books, for example) through their objects, but they also
fulfill an academic mission that equally corresponds with the audiences curiosity regarding background
information: museums conduct research and comment on the objects in overarching contexts, in themes.
Almost by default, the thematic exhibition is also an exhibition of propositions, since scholarship reflects on
themes by means of propositions. But in scholarships self-understanding, they amount to a search and do not
give final answers to the questions that the audience poses to the museum.
Man Object Jaguar confronts the misunderstanding that the museum is a site of secured truth in an
adroit and innovative way by conceiving a scientific exhibition as an artistic installation. For the audience
does not expect a final truth from an individual arrangement or an experiment. Visitors do not encounter
99
what is allegedly eternally valid in the interplay of interpretation and theory here, but instead, they encounter
a science that is engaged in a quest. This is combined with the ethnological approach of indigenous
perspectivism that explores changing shamanist perspectives.
However, it is precisely the approach of indigenous perspectivism, deriving from structuralisms tradition of
abstraction, that in its genes retains the distorted picture of a university discourse: objects and humans
disappear behind the artful language. It is now in the process of overcoming this non-objective rhetoric by
more strongly including concrete objects.1
An exhibition based on this approach could risk reinforcing the presumption that the university (the lord of
theory) formulates the propositions that the museum (its maid, in charge of practical matters) then only needs
to translate for the audience, which is despised as ignorant.
The project in Berlin avoids this distance to the objects by concentrating on the indigenous object (a small
shamans stool) that the installation stages from several perspectives. The theme of perspective can thus be
experienced with the senses. While an accompanying text may be required for understanding, the direct
impression has priority. Similar to the classical ethnological path, the art installation initially exposes the
viewers (like ethnology does with researchers) to perplexity, which is then replaced by understanding. The
artistic appeal of the exhibition is worth the effort of dealing with an initially incomprehensible object,
demanded from those who prefer to grasp the world through abstractions rather than things.
Man Object Jaguar prompts one to search for approaches stemming less from university abstractions
than from the museum-ethnological exploration of the concrete. This was an attempt made by the exhibition
Augenblicke (Moments) at the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt in 2005/2006, for example: South
American cultures were made accessible by explaining the symbolism of the patterns of a drinking vessel,
while simultaneously presenting a drinking song celebrating the vessel, for instance. The story of the ceramic
object was supplemented by photos and vitas of the ceramists. To explain the initially incomprehensible
object, Man Object Jaguar employs the effect of the installation and the uncertainty that accompanies it
in both art and ethnology. Through precisely this uncertainty and the effort to overcome it, the exhibition
succeeds in breaking open set views of foreign ways of thinking.
1
See, for example, the focus on Perspectivism in Indiana, Vol. 29, Berlin 2012, e.g., the text by Dimitri Karadimas.
Prof. Dr. Mark Mnzel was professor at (todays) Institute for Comparative Cultural Research of the Philipps-Universitt
Marburg as well as the director of the ethnological collection from 1989 to 2008. He was custodian at the former
Museum fr Vlkerkunde (now renamed the Weltkulturen Museum) in Frankfurt / Main from 1973 to 1989. This
commentary is based on the keynote address which he held within the framework of an evaluation workshop of the
Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
Experimental Forms of Curatorial Practice in

Ethnological Collections
by Viola Vahrson
In their search for new educational approaches and forms of presentation, ethnological museums have
recently been inviting artists to work with the artefacts of their collections.1 An important component of this
cooperation is the presentation of the artistic processes and results within the exhibition spaces of
ethnological collections. The Humboldt Lab Dahlem also offers artists a platform for concerning themselves
with ethnological themes and objects.
The museums see this cooperation as an opportunity to provide visitors with new approaches to their
collections. Dealing with ethnological objects and the institutional structures and conditions, in the sense of
artistic research, engenders insights that are rarely granted through customary presentation forms.
Artists take on the function of curators at certain points, acting (relatively) free of institutional and specialist
determinations. This is probably what makes this position so appealing to all sides: the artists deal with the
order of the museum without having to comply with it; they can defy expectations and conventions and
present unexpected results to the public.
100
However, the complex and profound knowledge that is required to adequately delve into ethnological objects
must also be taken into consideration in the artistic endeavor. One possibility is for artists and curators to
collaborate, as was the case with the project Man Object Jaguar. The presentation developed by
Sebastin Meja and the ethnologist Andrea Scholz was so compelling because the exhibited object, the
shamans stool from the Amazonian lowlands, was not presented in a usual display case. It was a component
of a complex multimedia staging that addressed the indigenous experience of the world in the Amazonian
lowlands by academic and artistic means.
With regard to the artistic aspect, such a cooperation implies the consistent further development and opening
of the existing concepts of authorship and artwork. Where scholarship and the museum are concerned, it
entails that the curators, too, further explore the aesthetic dimensions of academic thought and action. The
establishment of artistic research as an independent form of knowledge could conversely serve as a model for
the practice of the museum as well. Inventive, experimental, poetic, and aesthetic methods and approaches
should be grasped more distinctly than has hitherto been the case, as fields of activity of curatorial practice,
alongside scientific insights and methods. A self-understanding of curators in cultural-historical collections
expanded in this sense would certainly enrich the plans for the new Humboldt-Forum and prompt the
urgently needed public debate.
1
The most prominent example in this respect is certainly the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt / Main.
Prof. Dr. Viola Vahrson has been professor at the Institute for Fine Arts and Cultural Studies of the Universitt
Hildesheim since 2010. This commentary is based on a keynote address that she held in the frame of an evaluation
workshop of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
Scenarios for Aesthetic Education

by Andrea Scholz
The Workshop Program
The project Man Object Jaguar was predominantly dedicated to conveying theoretical discourses. One
crucial aspect was the attempt to abolish the conventional separation between the levels of production and
reception and include specific target groups as critical actors in the process-oriented exhibition. The Eta
Boeklund office was commissioned to conceive accompanying interventions and to support this process.
In four mostly one-day workshops, so-called para-experts were invited to deal with selected aspects of the
installation. Body, critique, sound, and taxonomy were the discussion starting points. The results were made
available to the visitors in the exhibition space in the form of references as well as research and reflection
aids.
Taking up the theme of body, the choreographer and dancer Hermann Heisig dealt with the installation and
developed movement instructions for the exhibition space, which were then placed in a cardboard box on the
Reflection Table. The proposed choreographic instructions were supplemented by Polaroid shots of his own
performance.
Taking up the theme of critique and reflection, a group of young cultural journalists engaged in a dialog
with the team of artists/curators and two active museum guides (so-called live speakers) from the Humboldt
Lab Dahlem to write reviews of the exhibition, which were also made available on the table.
The music ethnologist and sound specialist Matthias Lewy developed a new sound concept for the exhibition.
His aim was to sensitize the visitors to the sonic atmospheres of Amazonia.
A group of animal rights activists, vegans and vegetarians shed light on the present-day relevance of the
relationship between humans and animals addressed in the exhibition. Examining the categories of human,
object and jaguar, the group developed a mind map with alternative approaches to the installation. A visual
commentary designed by Sebastin Meja (an equestrian statue on transparent plastic entitled The death is
dead,), and half-masks depicting animals or patterns were tentatively included in the installation.
The series of interventions was rounded off by a final discussion. Most participants from the four workshops
101
were present and had the opportunity to show each other their work.
Dr. Andrea Scholz has been a research assistant at the Humboldt Lab Dahlem since March 2014. She studied ethnology,
sociology and Romance studies in Bonn, Germany, and conducted research in Mexico (2004) and Venezuela (2007 -
2009). The theme of her dissertation was the recognition of indigenous territories in Guayana/Venezuela, which was
published in 2012 under the title Die Neue Welt neu vermessen. During the course of her field studies and internship at
the Ethnological Museum (2012 - 2014), Andrea Scholz has intensively dealt with the material culture of the Guayana
region.
Man - Object - Jaguar / Credits

Concept: Andrea Scholz, Sebastin Meja

Artistic realization: Sebastin Meja, Pablo Fernandez
Sound Installation: Matthias Lewy
Design: Gnter Krger
Texts: Andrea Scholz
Conservational supervision: Diana Gabler, Helene Tello
Media equipment: cine plus
Thanks to: Manuela Fischer, Boris Gliesmann, Richard Haas, Katharina Kepplinger, Renate Sander, Andrea
Scholz, Dagmar Schweitzer de Palacios and Verena Stemme as well as to the Department of Cultural and
Social Anthropology at the Philipps-Universitt Marburg
Accompanying workshops (December 2013 through February 2014)
Concept and realization: Eta Boeklund office
An internal evaluation workshop of the Humbold Lab Dahlem was held on February 15, 2014. It was dedicated
to the two projects that dealt with the stocks of the Amazonia Collection of the Ethnologisches Museum
(Ethnological Museum). Touching Photography and Man Object Jaguar. Irene Albers moderated the
discussion attended by around 20 fellow experts:

Sebastin Meja
Moderation: Irene Albers (Freie Universitt Berlin)
102
Man - Object - Jaguar / Imprint Documentation

Editors: Barbara Schindler
As of August 2014
Visitors at the installation Man - Object - Jaguar, photo: Jens Ziehe
103
Visitors at the installation Man - Object - Jaguar, photo: Jens Ziehe
Installation view Man - Object - Jaguar, photo: Jens Ziehe
104
Andrea Scholz and Sebastian Mejia at the installation Man - Object - Jaguar, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
105
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 4 - Appropriations
Appropriations
Appropriations / Teaser
Rituals, art, everyday routines: many objects in the Ethnologisches Museum have a performative element
embedded in their original use. And yet, the objects of the collection deny us usage for differing reasons. The
performative conference Appropriations aimed to bring alive the act of experiencing, using lecture
performances, reenactments and theatrical installations. Beyond false representations, a rapprochement with
lost profane and sacred practices has been attempted in the full knowledge that appropriations are always
proprietary acts and therefore also acts of violence.
Appropriations / Project Description
Choreographies of Distance and Proximity

by Florian Malzacher
Appropriation, even cultural appropriation, is always a violent act. The (direct or structural) violence, with
which ethnological collections have appropriated many objects, repeats itself in the ongoing reappropriations
of these objects through interpretation and contextualization. However, appropriation also implies a
proximity that does not leave the appropriators themselves unchanged.
The performative conference Appropriations on November 16, 2014 in the Dahlem Museums reflected the
difficulties of appropriation from alien (to the West) knowledge and cultures via the path of performative
reconstruction, reformulation and reenactments. It is an approach that is suggested by the nature of the
collection: a large proportion of the objects, above all those of the Ethnologisches Museum, seem to demand
to be used, yet at the same time their use is denied us for ethical, political but also conservational reasons.
Their performative nature lies in their original usage whether as part of a ritual, in art or in everyday tasks.
Within the logic of performance theory these objects are performance remains.
106
So how can one approach such irrecoverable or inaccessible performative acts, whether profane, artistic or
sacred? This ethnological question resembles one from the performative arts: how do you reconstruct a
performance or choreography without having seen it, or of which there are perhaps only a few photos, notes,
audience descriptions or props? Is it possible to simulate the act of experience? Is it possible to appropriate a
performance that is temporally or also culturally, distant, without simply filling the gaps of the unknown, the
incomprehensible, and negating them? And how can one avoid false representations?
Reenactment as Appropriation and Rapprochement
While the concept of reenactment commonly designates the restaging of historical events in a way that seems
to be as true-to-life as possible, within the performing arts, in recent years a more differentiated discourse
around the term has developed. In dance and performance it mainly describes a critical way of dealing with
the possibility and impossibility of reconstruction or the reinterpretation of central choreographic works of
modernism. What is always at issue is the difference, the incomprehensible, the not-knowing. Appropriation is
seen in its ambiguity, which is inherent in the German word Aneignung: appropriation and rapprochement
in one.
There are also overlaps with the discourse on reconstruction in architecture: David Chipperfields sensitive
handling of the Neue Museum in Berlin is one of the most prominent examples for its emphasis on the gaps,
on what cannot be reconstructed. In contrast to this, the reconstruction of the nearby Berlin Palace represents
the desire to heal historical and architectural wounds without, as far as possible, leaving any visible scars,
while at the same time reformulating Prussian history and whitewashing uncomfortable memories: with the
move to the Humboldt-Forum, the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst are
relocating into an uncritical reconstruction full of hidden agendas.
Ethnological museums are, on the one hand, symbols of the Wests colonial past and, at the same time,
concrete manifestations of this history that is far from past, and in Germanys case, compared to other
countries, has only been partially processed. During the preparations for Appropriations the question was
repeatedly raised as to whether it is even possible to work in an artistically responsible way, within the
context of the Humboldt Lab and the Ethnologisches Museum. Can critically challenging positions be
formulated productively from within, or do they, on the contrary, merely serve as a legitimization of the
institution that produced them? The artistic and curatorial consensus though was that it is necessary to
repeatedly confront these toxic legacies of our Western colonial past especially in and with the collections
themselves. The legacy of a colonial past remains: it will not disappear; it is also part of our present and
something with which we have to come to terms.
The performative conference Appropriations was preceded by an almost year-long research phase with
participating artists and numerous discussions with the scientists and curators of the museum that were often
very productive, but at times also very difficult. As part of a workshop in May 2014 the preliminary results
were sketched out. At the end of this process Appropriations marked an agonistic field, upon which the
various aesthetic and discursive positions confronted the collection: the participants roamed from lecture-
performances by Dorothea von Hantelmann, Ulf Aminde & Shi-Wei Lu and Kapwani Kiwanga to Alexandra
Piricis immaterial additions to the collection, and to the theatrical installation by Ant Hampton and Britt
Hatzius, encountered famous fakes in the depot, accompanied Yael Bartana on a visual journey into the
Amazon and were themselves cast as performers in the choreography of deufert&plischke. Later, in 2015, the
artists cooperative Politique Culinaire plans to bring the crimes of the so-called 1884/85 Congo Conference
onto the agenda, within the framework of a re-dedication of an historical dinner.1
Productive Spaces of the in Between
Positions, ideas, proposals sometimes overlapping, sometimes contradicting each other. Appropriations
was a performative conference, not only because its contributions were of a performative nature, but because
they were performed themselves: by visitors roaming the museum in different groups, their corporeal
presence becoming a significant component of the conference in which time and duration consciously
contributed to the choreography; by excitement, exhaustion, collectivity and isolation, moments of haste and
times of relaxation creating their own dramaturgy of awareness.
Appropriations was not only site-specific but also to a large extent time-specific: in 2014 the Ethnologisches
Museum found itself in an interim phase, in which encounters were facilitated that could not have previously
taken place in the same way, and soon will not be possible again. As Never Before / As Never Again, as
107
Hampton & Hatzius called their work. It is a collection on call; its temporality is tangible. And not only the
actual museum is on call, but also the historical, ideological, philosophical basis on which it was founded.
Ethnological museums are a symbol for the crisis of modernity, enlightenment, Western self-perception and at
the same time their symptom which is especially visible in the Dahlem suburb of Berlin, where the former
West suffers its phantom pain with dignity.
This unstable situation leads to a prevailing sense of irritation, which places its stamp on all the works within
the frame of Appropriations and indeed makes them first possible. Only in this context was it possible for
the artistic soft power (Alexandra Pirici) to have an impact: We are strong in our weakness (as Yael Bartana
expressed it in a different work). It is a fragility, that could well be a strength, because, beyond all the
rhetoric of state museums and Prussian cultural heritage the hegemonic narrative of the Dahlem museums
is porous and can only be formulated as an in between. The Humboldt Lab Dahlem (which, in this respect,
and contrary to all political intentions, is not the precursor of the Humboldt-Forum) is located in exactly this
space of in between, which is precisely why it is such a problematic but, at the same time, often very
productive space.
Only where there is a consciousness of temporality, can performance, whose own ephemerality is one of its
essential themes, begin: the original collection objects that were reproduced by Hatzius and Hampton may,
after the museums move, be destined to remain in the depot for eternity. On the other hand, Kiwangas
installation consists of objects that have yet to reach the collection. deufert&plischke allow us to briefly strike
a pose, Aminde demonstrates the helpless futility of Western attempts at appropriation, and Pirici wishes to
contribute nothing more than intangible additions anyhow
Behind the sandstone-clad concrete walls of the Humboldt-Forum in the new Berlin Palace this kind of soft
power of art will no longer have an impact the soft hegemony, which will skillfully incorporate all criticism
whilst simultaneously casting its position in cement, certainly wont have any need for genuine irritation.
1
For various reasons, the Politique Culinaire project for the Humboldt Lab Dahlem could not be realized (editors note.)
Florian Malzacher is a freelance curator, dramaturge and author, as well as artistic director of the Impulse Theater
Festival. He curated Appropriations. A Performative Conference for the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
Appropriations. A Performative Conference / Positions
Interconnectivity, beyond the Museum Order

by Katrin Bettina Mller
What happens to the object and your own perspective after you spend a day perusing the collections in
Dahlem, guided by theory and accompanied by artistic performances? The performative conference
Appropriations invited visitors to spend eight hours in concentration, taking part in discussions and making
connections beyond the boundaries of museum order.
Why are no artifacts from Taiwan to be found in the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst in Berlin? Is it because of
the complicated political status of present-day Taiwan? Or is it due to its history of being subject to changing
occupying forces? This question was casually raised at the lecture performance by Ulf Aminde, in the
exhibition room that houses the imperial Chinese throne from the Kangxi period. In addition to this testimony
of former power, Aminde talked of the power wielded by present-day corporations located in Taiwan. He dealt
with BenQ and Foxconn, both key partners in the production of Apple products. The artist passed on
information about the suicides of workers who cannot keep up with the work pressures imposed by these
electronics giants.
For performing labour contracts, made in Taiwan (to love is give) #booty_n'dahlem_version2 Aminde used
iPhones and iPads, to project photos of the production sites and demonstrations against the poor working
conditions on the wall. An absurd image was seen of nets, installed under factory windows to stop workers
jumping out of the windows. Short video sequences showed performers from Taiwan and China interpreting
labor contracts in the style of a Peking Opera for the BenQ and Foxconn workers, but also labor contracts of
108
European artists. I came here to earn some money. Now all the dreams are broken, and I think there must be
more, the comments of a Chinese worker read in the English subtitles.
I think there must be more, could well have been the motto of the performative conference, after all, it was
about the search for new connections, different from the previous forms of museum mediation. What can
forms like lectures or performances contribute in terms of addressing the various questions from a
contemporary perspective that impinge on museums and their exhibited objects? To answer this question,
visitors to the conference spent an entire day at the Dahlem Museums, as invited guests to six artistic
interventions, two introductory speeches and a short tour through the depot of the Ethnologisches Museum.
The finale was a collective ritual, a performance by deufert & plischke, who distributed small cards to all the
visitors with instructions on what movements to make, for example: When you see a pattern of imitation
emerging on the dance floor, go onto the dance floor yourself and imitate the imitator. With highly dramatic
music from Stravinskys Rite of Spring conference visitors were encouraged to imitate each other, shake the
hands of strangers, roll around on the floor of their own free will, amused, and also relieved to meet one
another in a playful way, after all the intellectual challenges of the day.
For Florian Malzacher, the curator of Appropriations, ethnological museums present a political and
aesthetic challenge. Because the history of their establishment is inextricably linked to the history of
colonialism, and the original idea to conserve cultures that were destined for extinction in a museum
context appears to be a denial of the fact that the countries in which such museums were built were
themselves among the profiteers of colonial exploitation, the former ethnological museums as institutions
come in for criticism. Malzacher sketches the museums appropriation as an act of violence, which continues
through the presentation, reception and in the interpretation.
Dorothea von Hantelmann, an art historian and ethnologist, formulated a different concept of the function of
museum collections in her keynote introduction. She examined the question of why museums today are so
successful, have so many visitors and are being expanded. In her answer she described how museum practice
removing and separating objects from their everyday context also has an emancipatory aspect, of
releasing things from traditional ties and world orders. The space in which the museum visitor appropriates a
piece of the world through the exhibited objects, is, according to this concept, at the same time a space of
self-appropriation and self-reflection. In this sense she sees the museum as a liberal and democratic format.
What happens to the object in the museum? How does the dominance of the viewpoint impinge on its
meaning? This question is tackled by the installation As never before / As never again by Ant Hampton &
Britt Hatzius in the Mesoamerica exhibition with a lucid image that appears like a small performance by the
sculptures for themselves. The artists have chosen small sitting and standing figures, about whose provenance
and meaning not much is known, but which we are drawn to because of the expressivity of their body
language, their touching mimicry and aesthetically persuasive nature. Copies were created with a 3D printer
and then mounted on small pedestals in front of the glass cabinets like a mirroring of the original as though
the sculptures were engrossed in conversation, not simply exposed to the gaze of the visitor, but immersed in
self-reflection.
This work also includes tracks on the audio-guide in the Mesoamerica exhibition, which remind visitors of the
lack of information about these sculptures. They are historical, cultural, ethnological documents and at the
same time something more. This puzzling something else has perhaps something to do with their autonomy
as works of art, but also with the awe and admiration engendered by things that we cannot understand. This
awe fosters an empathy that precedes the desire to know more.
With the sculptures that contemplate themselves, the museum visitor also begins to look at their own
expectations and to question them. Does the aura of a work of art stand in the foreground or is it the didactic
mediation of a cultural, or cult-like, practice? Are we concerned with style analysis or socio-historical
localization? Is the provenance of an object more important or the interest that led to its being collected?
Such questions also played a role in the more theoretical contributions by Yael Bartana, Kapwani Kiwanga
and Alexandra Pirici. However it was not always easy to follow them. The Rumanian artist Alexandra Pirici
chose an exciting approach with which to confront the forms of museum representation and works of art. A
group of visitors to the conference was led into the exhibition Art from Africa, between the lavishly
presented sculptures. Between the cabinets, three performers reenacted works of art, whose titles they had
announced beforehand: steel sheep from an installation by Amir Nour, an LP cover from Grace Jones and a
portrait of Toussaint Louverture, a former slave, who led the Haitian revolution towards the end of the 18th
century. One could have imagined that the referenced works were part of a trail leading to a culture of Afro-
American empowerment in order to contradict the idea of an extinct culture in the collection of African
109
sculptures. But that would be to assume that visitors had a previous knowledge of the images invoked. Yet it
was difficult to acoustically understand the announcements by the performers of the titles, a technical
weakness that undermined the performance in the museum space.
When visiting the Dahlem museums visitors often pass through or intersect different collection areas, before
reaching the department or special exhibit they have come to see in the first place. Sometimes this results in
visual bridges between apparently disparate objects. The day of Appropriations encouraged such random
wandering through the juxtapositions of the collections and collection concepts, but also fostered the search
for interconnectivity, that lies beyond the museum order.
In her keynote speech Dorothea von Hantelmann spoke about the museum order following the idealistic
concept of a timeline, a continuing narrative of development: what you see in a museum belongs to an episode
of the past. In the guided tour through a small section of the East Asia department in the depot of the
Ethnologisches Museum, Siegmar Nahser, curator of the Korea and Japan collection, pointed out an old
Buddhist Helper Figure that has now become the model for new temple figures and was copied for a new
temple in China. In this way, the timeline sometimes describes a loop. With the asynchronicity of
developments, the museum narrative shifts, just as the function of the collection does. What is conserved as a
document of the past in the museum, is not simply past, but represents challenges to the present. The
performative conference often allowed us to glimpse of this.
Katrin Bettina Mller is arts editor and critic for the taz, die tageszeitung.
A Few Observations on As Never Before / As Never

Again
Britt Hatzius & Ant Hampton on their installation in the Ethnological Museum.
On our initial visit to the Ethnological Museum in Berlin Dahlem, we were immediately drawn to some of the
smaller figures in the Mesoamerica Room and particularly to how the room layout allows the visitor to view
them from behind. On reviewing the photos we took from this angle we noticed how the figures seemed lonely,
cracked, and forlorn, often propped up by their arms or literally held together by support structures. We
started to think about the capacity for photography to give distance and assist critical thought on the one
hand, and on the other, to enhance this kind of emotional identification, even concerning inanimate objects.
We thought about other forms of mimetic representations, especially concerning sculptural objects, and
visited Berlins Gipsformerei (Replica Workshop), which has the worlds largest and most actively used
collection of original plaster casts. Thomas Schelper, our guide there, introduced us to Joachim Weinhold
from the 3D Laboratory at the Technische Universitt, with whom he has started to collaborate. This meeting
threw us into considerations of the future and this rapidly developing new technology whose wide-ranging
implications have barely begun to be imagined and explored. Among the many discoveries made during this
part of our research, we learned about the process of powder printing, whereby forms (based on 3D scanning
- video here) are created by a printer head passing through a chamber of thick powder, bonding it as it goes.
Britt captured on 16mm film one of the figures being excavated from this chamber by a lab technician using
a vacuum pipe and brush. Following the originals first emergence from the earth and kiln, as well as the
second (when discovered and excavated in the late 19th century) its hard not to see this moment as a third
a futuristic, white-on-white, dream-like re-enactment, a re-emergence.
Parallel to this research we were surprised to learn from the museum that the figures we had fallen in love
with will not be shown at the Humboldt-Forum (still being built and otherwise known as the controversial
replica Berliner Schloss, built on the site of the former Palast der Republik). The reasoning behind this is that
the Mesoamerica exhibition at the Humboldt-Forum will focus on graphic communication systems, and
since the space allocated to the Mesoamerica collection will be smaller than it is currently, tough choices had
to be made about what will be displayed. To us, the fact that so little is known about these figures that will
soon disappear into the depot made them especially intriguing to work with. This interest in not knowing
seems to run contrary to the mindset behind contemporary communication systems, which logically would be:
the more concrete an items history, the greater its designated value. How to engage with a lack of knowledge,
via touch screens, headphones and displays? (We attempt this, however, as a kind of rehearsal in As never
110
before / As never again using the current museums own audio guides: there are numbers on the windows
containing the cloned objects, and selecting them on the device triggers a text listing a series of unknowns a
non-info guide). Its easy to imagine that mystery, holes, and cracks (whether in knowledge or material) would
not play to the figures advantage in a world of such slick, high-tech presentation.
We also learned that the archive depot (where any items not on display inevitably end up) is also moving, not
to somewhere next to the museum as it is today, but to somewhere quite far away on the outskirts of Berlin,
meaning that the costs involved in moving these fragile items between the spaces will be far higher. It made
us wonder: when will these figures be seen again after the move? In a minimum of 15 years? What will the
world be like in 15 years time and how will 3D printing have developed? Will there still be ethnographic
collections in Europe in 30 years time? (Did the collectors of the late 19th century ever imagine that their
practices would be challenged some 80 years later?) For the first time, we heard the term digital repatriation
being used by some ethnographic museums in Australia and USA who had sent 3D scans of items (and
computers to view them with) to the communities where they came from. Should we expect them to start
sending 3D copies instead? Or to keep the copies and send the originals? How long will it be until technology
is advanced enough to consider this seriously? How much do we actually need the original object to
remember or explore a cultural past? What in fact is the original state of an object? Could the Humboldt-
Forum make 3D scans of its whole collection and only exhibit replicas? Wouldn't the new Berliner Schloss,
itself a replica, be the ideal venue for a museum of copies? Continuing in this way, we can see a situation
which despite seeming preposterous is nevertheless a possibility - and thus in the tradition of good science
fiction.
If the rationale behind moving the ethnographic museum to the centre of town were based on the promise of
increased visitor numbers, we might also ask ourselves without judgement how a town centre visitor might
differ from one who makes the trip to Dahlem. If the reality of a town centre is dictated to a large extent by
commercial activity, and if a large section of the increased visitor numbers are in fact, for better or worse, re-
directed shoppers and tourists visiting on the fly, then perhaps the Humboldt-Forum, without too much
cynicism, might identify their engagement with any object behind glass as principally a fantasy of ownership
or attainment, and fully embrace that?
The questions and implications of this new mimetic form of reproduction can of course continue into areas of
mind and body, spirituality and materiality. If the original was once believed to be imbued with a kind of
spirit or power, was this to be found in the materiality of the figure, or in the form which it embodied? Or
neither, but rather triggered by the performance involved in using or handling it? The fact that were already
printing human body parts (bones, kidneys) means that on a certain level, the distinction between original and
copy is starting to be ignored even if we are involved in the most physical sense. How long until molecular
structures are replicated and printed, so that it is not just the form of an object which is copied but the
materiality itself?
So, there are many, many questions, some of which we explore with this installation in the Mesoamerica room.
Replacing the visitors usual frontal viewing position with a 3D replica becomes a staging of what looks like a
strenuous effort by the figures and their copies to comprehend each other and the situation they find
themselves in: a tense moment of mutual bewilderment between the ancient and ultramodern. As spectators,
we find ourselves outside this dialogue, and yet at the centre of the conundrum: for us, the unknown goes
both ways, into both an unknown past and a blind future.
The British artist Ant Hampton creates theatre and performance works for the stage, landscapes and public space.
Positioned between visual art, film and ethnography, Britt Hatzius works with different media related to the moving
image and explores forms of knowledge acquisition.
This text is a reworked version that first appeared on the websites of the artists.
Appropriations / Credits
A project of the Probebhne 4, September 23, 2014 through February 8, 2015
Performative Conference: November 16, 2014
Curator: Florian Malzacher
111
Production management: Pamela Schlewinski, Syelle Haase
Appropriations
Ant Hampton / Britt Hatzius: As never before/ As never again
Creative producer: Katja Timmerberg
Scientific consulation: Maria Gaida
Restoration supervision: Kai-Patrica Engelhardt
3D powder prints: Technische Universitt Berlin, Institut fr Mathematik, 3d-Laboratory: Joachim Weinhold,
Samuel Jerichow
deufert&plischke: Position yourself

Concept and artistic implementation: Kattrin Deufert and Thomas Plischke
Artistic collaboration: Flavio Ribeiro
Appropriations. A Performative Conference

With: Ulf Aminde & Shi-Wei Lu, Yael Bartana, deufert&plischke, Maria Gaida, Richard Haas, Ant Hampton &
Britt Hatzius, Dorothea von Hantelmann, Kapwani Kiwanga, Siegmar Nahser and Alexandra Pirici.
Appropriations / Imprint Documentation

As of March 2015
Humboldt Lab Dahlem. All copyrights, unless otherwise indicated, belong to the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
112
"As Never Before / As Never Again," Ant Hampton and Britt Hatzius, 2014, photo: Jens Ziehe
113
"The Exhibition," lecture demonstration by Dorothea von Hantelmann, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
Visitor of the performative conference with playbill, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
114
"Cannibals and Forms of Life," Alexandra Pirici, performed by Maria Baroncea, Sandhya Daemgen, Jared
Marks, Foto: Sebastian Bolesch, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
"Museum for the Blind," lecture performance by Kapwani Kiwanga, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
115
Curator Siegmar Nahser in the depot for the East Asian collection, Ethnologisches Museum, photo: Sebastian
Bolesch
"Ins Tanzen," choreography by deufert&plischke, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
116
"performing labour contracts, made in Taiwan (to love is give) #booty_nDahlem_version2," Ulf Aminde & Shi-
Wei Lu, installation after the performative conference, Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, photo: Jens Ziehe
117
www.humboldt-lab.de - Projects - Probebhne 4 - EuropeTest
EuropeTest
EuropeTest / Teaser
The focus on the European or extra-European museum collections suggests that the world can be ordered
according to regions. But the division of the world into regions, cultural spheres, or ethnic
representations, is outmoded and is based all too often on colonial techniques of hegemonic order. Modern
presentations of collections point to the commonality of history and on reciprocal influences whether in the
production or the presentation of objects. But how can the implicit Europe in the non-European collections be
made visible? And what role can the demonstration of transcultural interrelationships play in the Humboldt-
Forum? EuropeTest approached these questions with exhibition interventions in the Ethnologisches
Museum and in the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst.
EuropeTest / Project Description
Europe a Powerful Fiction

by Helmut Groschwitz
The starting point for the exhibition intervention EuropeTest is a blank space. The persistent focus on the
extra-European collection, to be presented in Berlin-Mitte according to the concepts of the Humboldt-
Forum, creates a division between us and the others that gives rise to discomfort. Does Europe really play
no role in the Humboldt-Forum? In terms of the manner in which the acquisitions were made, in the forms of
knowledge generation and in its presentation, Europe is deeply embedded in the ethnological collections
and objects. Even when the exhibitions purport to represent the alien, the distant, the other, in essence it
is the European perspective that is made visible. So the question should be: How can Europe be integrated
into the extra-European exhibitions; how can the implicit Europe be represented in the exhibits?
As a precursor to EuropeTest, the teaser project Why not? was launched in October 2014. Objects from all
three Dahlem Museums, as well as several objects on loan, were placed in unexpected places between the
permanent exhibitions artifacts, and created a dialog with them: provocative, complementary or contrasting.
118
A transgression of collection boundaries that raised interesting questions, but in its sparse implementation
also provoked head-scratching and cried out for further elaboration.
EuropeTest is the product of this further development: a collaborative project, with curators from all three
Dahlem Museums contributing ideas. For Probebhne 4, six theme islands were created, and placed at
different points throughout the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst. In order to
designate this space clearly as joined in and at the same time to avoid disturbance to the interior
architecture, the islands were marked out by turquoise floor indicators and front panels. In view of the
numerous objects and approaches, only a few central aspects of the project are mentioned in the following.
Exposing Constructs, Revealing Instrumentalizations
Europe is no fact, but a powerful and effective fiction. Neither geographically, geologically, nor historically,
symbolically or culturally can Europe be considered a unified entity: Europe is present throughout the
world not only politically. But the underlying constructs, discourses and instrumentalizations can be revealed
and unmasked. The theme island Making Europe(s) makes this visible by using, in one example, varied
maps of Europe, which all show a different Europe better: some possible Europes. The Europe in our
heads is illustrated by means of a growing cabinet as well as a pinterest board. Throughout the duration of
the exhibition, objects or photos that represent personal concepts of Europe can be added or photos posted.
Collection history and object biographies show that the delineation of borders in the museums and
collections, as well as the categorization of objects, do not correspond to any inherent order of things. With
changing political mores and organizational changes, boundaries have often shifted and they continue to be
negotiable. Europe Collected illustrated this fact with various artifacts whose designated place had changed
several times within the Dahlem Museums. A timeline illustrates how European and extra-European
collections were integrated, then newly categorized.
The talk of extra-European collections suggests that the world can be ordered according to region. But the
division of the world into regions, cultural groups or ethnic representations is outdated. They are often
based on hegemonic colonial techniques, which served as a legitimization for intervention. For a
contemporary approach to the collections therefore, it is crucial to demonstrate their entangled history: the
common and interwoven histories, an equality in terms of the historicity of cultural forms as well as of
transcultural influences and connections. There is no such thing as European cultural history (whatever
demarcation one would use to define it) without relations, cultural contact and cultural exchange beyond
Europe and the reverse. In the exhibition these interconnections could be discerned in the Little Box of
Relationships for example: an ivory box from the 16th century, decorated by Ceylonese ivory carvers with
motifs from a French book of hours, which was a diplomatic gift to the Portuguese, who were being courted
as new players in the field of trade and relations in the Indian Ocean.
It was a colonial technique to keep cultural narratives separate. We are now faced with the task of
reconnecting the narratives and writing a common history. Thus Provincializing Europe juxtaposed a statue
of the cultural hero Chibinda Ilunga, who served to legitimize the rule of the Chokwe in Central Africa during
the 19th century, with the reproduction of a painting of Napoleon. Placing these two images alongside each
another is an attempt at illustrating how the history of African societies is enmeshed in global developments
and does not represent some timeless, traditional culture. Modernity is not a European product, but came
about through the expansion of worldwide relations of exchange as a collaborative project on a global level
which brought about significant changes and crises in a number of regions of the world. Such complex
interconnections require, however, further creative additions in order to adequately communicate the multi-
layered contents.
On a further level of reception the museum visitors had the opportunity to download an app developed
especially for the museum called BorderCheck showing the borders between global regions that are
represented in the different departments of the Ethnologisches Museum. At each border you could test and
improve your knowledge on borders and migration with quiz questions.
EuropeTest and now?
One paradox was embedded in EuropeTest: It persistently asked for something that doesnt exist: namely
the distinguishability between Europe and extra-Europe. With this aim different approaches were taken, to
make Europe visible and to establish connections between world regions within the extra-European
119
collections and vice versa! The potential that lies in the combination of European and extra-European
ethnographics became very clear. But it also showed that merely creating a physical dialog between objects
offers the viewer barely options of decoding what is seen. What is crucial is the contextualization, the making-
visible of links by using further media or exhibits. But as epistemic confrontations, the object juxtapositions
are certainly suitable as starting points for a debate.
Without European ethnographics, the colonial differentiation between us and the others would only
deepen further in the Humboldt-Forum which is diametrically opposed to current academic and
museological discourses. Reflections on museum-historical thinking, the disclosure of the mode of
acquisitions as well as former research assumptions are inevitable. Equally, the historical backgrounds of
(European) concepts like Europe, primitive people, ethnicity, the arbitrary differentiation between art,
and culture, must be critically reflected on and deconstructed. Just as ethnological museums once
underpinned the colonial perspective, the Humboldt-Forum can now help to revise this dominant gaze.
If the Humboldt-Forum wishes to meet its goals of being contemporary and promoting participation, then
relationships, influences and parallels will need to be revealed. Categorical counterparts and the
interconnections of a common history need to be shown. This will require the prerequisite objects from
Europe. They are available in Berlins museums, primarily in the Museum Europischer Kulturen. Which is
why we need to set up an unbureaucratic system of exchange and collaborative presentations. The use of
exhibition interventions is quite suitable as an appropriate solution when it comes to supplementing Europe,
but it also requires the necessary space in the permanent exhibitions, funds for infrastructure and the
involvement of all future participants in the ongoing planning.
Dr. Helmut Groschwitz is a cultural anthropologist and curator with a research focus on the history of science, cultural
heritage, museum theory and narrative research. He curated the project EuropeTest for the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
EuropeTest / Positions
Europe as an Archipelago
by Christoph Antweiler
A Critical Exhibition Tour Around the Theme Islands of EuropeTest
My task was to assess and throw scientific light on interesting aspects of the EuropeTest project, based on
my own expertise. I do this relatively unencumbered, because I made the conscious decision not to gather any
information about the project beforehand, and neither did I know what the curators goals were, nor how
much had been budgeted for the exhibition.
In this respect I represent one position, but adopt two perspectives. On the one hand I comment as a cultural
anthropologist, on the other I take the view of a layman with an interest in anthropology. My own field of
research is not Europe, but rather Southeast Asia, but I read widely on European ethnology. I am interested
in museums and popular-scientific anthropology; I enjoy visiting museums privately and have already been to
the Dahlem Museums five times. I am a member of the Humboldt-Forums international advisory board and so
am broadly aware of the challenges it faces. I am also aware of the current discussion around the Humboldt-
Forum but only to the extent that it has been reported in the press.
To begin with I would like to convey my first impression, concerning, above all, the formal appearance and
orientation. I spent four hours in the Ethnologisches Museum and concentrated solely on EuropeTest well,
apart from ten minutes in between with the Polynesian boats, which is a must for each visit. A flyer explains
that EuropeTest is marked turquoise in the exhibition rooms. There is no audio guide.
The basic idea behind EuropeTest is to supplement the usual museum inventory with various thematic
islands. Great idea, but the complex structure is nowhere explained clearly. The archipelago stretches from
large islands, via concentrated island groups and a dispersed sub-archipelago, all the way to the remote
outlier. The orientation system is a real challenge here: there are terms like Lab, Probebhne, theme
island, the enumerated Probebhnen, theme-island letter-coding, all topped off with aestheticized scribbles
on signs and flyers. The letters themselves are missing on the theme islands, but then are used in the museum
120
map to denote other things. The offer of special guided tours with trained museum staff, on the other hand, is
wonderful because the visitors can decide the direction in which the tour should go and which themes they
are interested in.
Content-wise, the core message of interlacing cultural spaces is conveyed well. Here, history and the present
are in equilibrium. The perspectives on offer, Europe from outside, Europe from above, Europe from
below, are straightforward and easy to understand for a lay person. The concept of Europe as a construct is
well explained. Various world maps succeed in transmitting the different perspectives appropriately. The idea
of Europe as a plural Making Europe(s) is good, but could have been illustrated in a more tangible way.
The same goes for the image of the parade of European loaves of bread in the Japanese Minpaku Museum,
where it could have been made more tangible. What is shown is a museum perspective from outside. But why
show a mediocre photo and no real loaves? Why not show rice as an Asian foodstuff or Sushi as a Berlin
Japan indicator?
Without a guide, it only gradually becomes clear to what extent EuropeTest is orientated on the European
inventory of the Berlin museums. The visualization of the timeline as a river with tributaries is good, but
leaves unanswered whether that is meant purely as a metaphor or whether it actually serves as a timeline for
the years when inventory was added or withdrawn from the European collections. In Making Europe(s)
interesting figurines have been placed in the cabinets but the information on them is as paltry as the old and
venerable presentation of Mesoamerican archeology in the large room next door. Why are small Colon figures
shown, instead of the impressive ones from the South Seas department? The baby slings exhibited under the
title Carried to Europe are a wonderful illustration concerning relations between Europe and extra-
European cultures, but the message remains nebulous. Why is the evergreen bestseller by Jean Liedloff,
which half of all parents have on their bookshelves, not exhibited? In this way the connection could be made
between personal experiences of alternative child rearing methods.
What conclusions do I draw and what are my suggestions? Folklore and ethnology enrich one another in a
museum. The idea of combining inventories of European and extra-European cultures within the same
architecture should be taken on board. In this way, theme islands could be displayed logically and
reciprocally: non-European theme islands in the European presentation, European in the extra-European
collection. In EuropeTest the variety of curatorial presentation formats ranges from descriptive or
essayistic-playful implementation, to the border-crossing app. That is exciting test passed. I would,
however, recommend working with a clear didactic approach. Where exoticized human zoos are concerned,
one should, for example, show a picture of a modern-day theme park in Chinas Yunnan, where replicas of
Neuschwanstein Castle and the Eiffel Tower are placed directly next to traditional houses from Chinese
minorities. I would have liked to see a little more text on the exhibits. The panel texts should be formulated in
short sentences and, in terms of content, should be less reliant on meta-information. The idea of flexible
guided tours is a very good one and should be firmly anchored in the budget plan for the Humboldt-Forum.
My dream would be a content-based training for museum staff, so that they could provide spontaneous
information, as in the Tate Modern. To summarize: Europe must be part of the Humboldt-Forum!
Prof. Dr. Christoph Antweiler is head of the Department of Southeast Asian Studies at the Institute of Oriental and Asian
Studies (IOA) at Bonn University.
Non-Europe is not a Place

by Klas Grinell
Berlin is a city in Europe. Germany is a European country. Europe is in the West, we say. But east and west
really only make sense as directions from where we stand. Earth is a globe that floats in space and has no
center. Non-Europe is not a place.
In recent history, the last couple of hundred years, a few European powers managed to put themselves at the
center of history, economy and science. This was a brief moment in the cultural life of man. Still, we live very
much in the shadow of this period, with many of its results deeply affecting global relations: postcolonial
injustices, industrial ecocide, scientific Eurocentrism. Europe drew maps, divided earth into continents and
civilizations, collected information and objects, and created museums in order to understand in what ways
Europe was more advanced than other cultures. This was identity formation, conquest and a European
superiority complex no open attempt to understand the cultures of the Others.
121
The category of non-Europe only makes sense if the subject of attention is Europe. Continental and
civilizational categories are European and only make sense from a European perspective. This should be
openly stated, not only as a EuropeTest intervention but as an initial explanation stating why there are
sections of Asian art, African or American ethnography. The objects on display were not produced within
those categories. European men collected them from their specific cultural situations to create those broad
categories.
Africa, Asia, America, and Oceania are categories that only exist because of European colonial history. For
example: Africa as a landmass relates to different systems of exchange via oceans and lands. It has never been
a unit per se. The EuropeTest exhibition shows this clearly. It could be taken further; the landmass of
Africa is three times larger than Europe, even if this fact is not visible on the Eurocentric Mercator map
projections most often used. China is four times larger than Greenland, Asia more than four times larger than
Europe. The global North is some 50 million square meters, the South is twice that size.
Dr. Klas Grinell is the curator of contemporary global issues at the Vrldskulturmuseerna in Gteborg. He participated
in the symposium EuropeTest and now? in Berlin-Dahlem in November 2014.
From the Knowledge Perspective of the Present

by Wolfgang Kaschuba
Not only the objects of ethnological collections, but also the idea of collecting itself is a deeply European
construct. Its purpose was once to register, map and represent the world of the others, often in the interests
of colonialism. The future Humboldt-Forum must attempt to historicize and deconstruct this genetic defect
in a conceptual way. The Humboldt Lab can serve as a decisive corrective in this process: its reflections and
interventions can, on the one hand, critically interrogate these Eurocentric perspectives, and, on the other
hand, track the European interconnectedness within global and world cultural contexts. Especially in Berlin,
at this symbolic location of German as well as European ruptures that led to new historical and world views,
this is a particular obligation.
The ethnological collections certainly provide enough points of reference for such an intellectual re-vision:
with regards to cartography and ethnographic inventories, to documentary as well as iconographic pictorial
traditions, ethnic as well as religion-based communal idols. And above all with regard to the multifaceted
patterns of other cultures, from the oriental bazaar to the African kraal. Here it invariably concerns
outstanding analyses of historical objects as well as case-study style references to contemporary topics. The
illuminating perspective on it though must be developed from the present stage of media development and
knowledge as well as be read anew in opposition to the customary logics of collecting.
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kaschuba is the managing director of the Institut fr Europische Ethnologie of the Humboldt-
Universitt zu Berlin. He participated in the symposium EuropeTest and now? in Berlin-Dahlem in November 2014.
Only Intervention Can Provide an Answer

by Schoole Mostafawy
What do interventions signify for the expansion of permanent exhibitions?
If Europe does not wish to see itself accused of intellectual frailty, it must confront the experiences of non-
western societies, with their political, intellectual and cultural traditions. Only intervention can be the answer
to the global crisis in social, political and ecological terms; only through them will cultural exchange become
credible. The origins of our dynamic world, the exchange of goods and ideas, the development of hybrid
cultures and changing identities have already been exhaustively explored. The question now is: do we, as a
museum, want to continue to cultivate the Eurocentric world view or, by re-positioning, confront socio-
political reality? A consistent conceptual change in terms of the ensemble, the public and the content-related
agenda is necessary.
What role do our entangled history and transcultural relations play in the communication of transregional
122
cultural links?
Transcultural, dialog-based and multi-perspectival approaches for the museums of Europe will ensure a new
significance for the future. The Humboldt-Forum should be able to play a pioneering role in this. At a time
when museum collections continue to be divided into different subject categories, according to scientific
specialization (a continuation of the art and curiosities cabinet), we need to search for new paths. A new
way of dealing with ones own collection history should be found, just as with the (post)colonially-tainted
projections, by bringing their motives and intentions into focus. Considering the increasingly intercultural
composition of Europes communities, it is vital to use the potential of the collections to build transcultural
bridges, demonstrate the interlocking aspects and to point out the phenomenon of reciprocal perceptions of
foreignness. The European hierarchy of arts, tiered into fine, applied and everyday art, should be broken
down accordingly, and also circular historical approaches adopted by other cultures (as developed for
example in the 14th century by the Tunisian-born historian Ibn Khaldun) should be allowed to contribute to
the concept. Phenomena like the waves of neo-orientalism and even neo-primitivism, arising in the European
as well as the Islamic realm in the 21st century, can thus be readily explained.
A new museum epistemology should recognize the opportunities for communicating an historical
anthropology, which, despite all diversity and its own cultural modes of expression is also a reminder of the
commonality of humanity-embracing themes.
How can the collections which are in the main historical - be utilized in terms of confronting contemporary
issues?
By presenting the collections in the context of their collection history. Europe needs to question its own
narcissistic universalism, just as, vice-versa, Asian countries should examine why, in the past, they subsumed
the European world view without offering any resistance and set up their own collections on that basis. The
construct Europe must make way for a critical cosmopolitan tradition whose basis was created before the
takeover by American ideology. In this process, transparency and contradiction, with regards to collection
strategies, amongst others, will be the foundation for success.
In order to present cultures literally at eye-level with each other, historical artifacts should be juxtaposed
with those of contemporary artists from different cultural origins. Because only contemporary art can be
called truly international, due to the fact that it is rooted in a common artistic vocabulary.
Dr. Schoole Mostafawy is head of the art and cultural history department at the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
where she is responsible for extra-European art and cultural history. She participated in the symposium EuropeTest
and now? in Berlin-Dahlem in November 2014.
EuropeTest / Credits
Curators:
Making Europe(s): Lontine Meijer-van Mensch, Elisabeth Tietmeyer, Sarah Wassermann
Europe Collected - Adolf Bastian, Rudolf Virchow and the Ethnological Collections Dahlem: Helmut
Groschwitz
Carried to Europe The (Re-)discovery of the Baby Sling: Jane Redlin
Little Box of Relationships Early Forms of Globalized Art: Raffael Gadebusch, Alberto Saviello
Provincializing Europe the Afrocentric Gaze: Paola Ivanov, Concept in cooperation with Peter Junge
The mountains, not near, not far Comparison of 17th-century landscape drawings from the Netherlands
and China: Holm Bevers, Ricarda Brosch, Annkathrin Hoppe, Uta Rahman-Steinert, Klaas Ruitenbeek
BorderCheck: Katharina Kepplinger, Realization: Neofonie Mobile
Concept supervision: Helmut Groschwitz

Technical coordination: Nadine Ney
Design: scala Ausstellungsgestaltung, Gnter Krger
Loans: Danielle Scheuer
Graphic design: Antonia Neubacher
123
Thanks:
- For the loaned items from the museums and libraries of the Stiftung Preuischer Kulturbesitz:
Kunstgewerbemuseum, Skulpturensammlung und Museum fr Byzantinische Kunst, Kupferstichkabinett,
Nationalgalerie, Staatsbibliothek Berlin Handschriftenabteilung und Abteilung Kartographie
- To the Stiftung Schlsser und Grten (Foundation for Palaces and Gardens) as well as the Bildarchiv
Preuischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage archives) for the waiving of copyright
- The Beuth Hochschule fr Technik in Berlin, Labor fr Geomedien, for the support in making the maps,
especially Anika Burmeister
- The companies Neofonie Mobile and Goodsquirrel Apps for the development and design of the apps
- To all the conservators, fitters, craftsmen and women at the Dahlem Museums, as well as to all those who
have contributed to the success of the exhibition
EuropeTest / Imprint Documentation

As of April 2015
The texts displayed here are the work of individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the
Humboldt Lab Dahlem. All copyrights, unless otherwise indicated, belong to the Humboldt Lab Dahlem. Note
Theme island Making Europe(s), photo: Jens Ziehe
124
Theme island Europe Collected - Adolf Bastian, Rudolf Virchow and the Ethnological Collections Dahlem,
photo: Jens Ziehe
125
Theme island Provincializing Europe the Afrocentric Gaze, photo: Jens Ziehe
126
Theme island Carried to Europe The (Re-)discovery of the Baby Sling, photo: Jens Ziehe
App Bordercheck, Neofonie Mobile
127
Theme island Little Box of Relationships Early Forms of Globalized Art, photo: Jens Ziehe
Theme island The mountains, not near, not far Comparison of 17th-century landscape drawings from the
Netherlands and China, photo: Jens Ziehe
128
www.humboldt-lab.de - Projects - Probebhne 4 - [Open] Secrets
[Open] Secrets
[Open] Secrets / Teaser

Sacred and arcane objects have always held an immense fascination for museum visitors and anthropologists;
their prevalence in museum collections everywhere shows how powerfully they attract us. Many of them are
hidden away deep inside museum storage rooms. In the source countries, only certain people in certain
situations would ever have been permitted to see or touch them. How can a museum display such items? Who
decides what should remain concealed? The [Open] Secrets project was an attempt to find an answer to this
key question, which lies at the very heart of what ethnological museums do. A complex exhibition architecture
created by studio TheGreenEyl (re)presented showing/not-showing; here, the boundary between sacred and
profane was seen as political, contingent upon a specific time and space.
[Open] Secrets / Project Description
On the Possibilities (or Impossibility) of Displaying

Secret Knowledge
by Indra Lopez Velasco
Within their vast collections, ethnological museums hold many sacred and secret objects. In the places from
where these objects originated, only certain people in certain situations would be permitted to see or touch
them and for some objects, access would be strictly regulated. The question of how contemporary
ethnological museums may address sacred and secret items in their collections formed the starting point for
the [Open] Secrets project.
The complexities of the topic of the sacred and the profane are evident in the denomination as sacred
objects. Some of them possess the status of a person, so that it may be understood as inappropriate and
129
offensive to call them objects. Being part of the museum praxis may also affect them in different ways; their
meanings may persist, they may lose their significance, or they may change.
The early ethnological museums were aware at least in some cases of the complexity and sensitivity of
their tasks. This is illustrated by a museum guidebook published by the Museum of Victoria in 1900 (Guide
to the Australian Ethnological Collection in the National Museum of Victoria) displayed in the [Open]
Secrets exhibition. This awareness, however, did not, or not sufficiently, result in a practice of display that is
today regarded as both respectful and appropriate.
[Open] Secrets ascertained whether ethnological museums are at all able to engage with the sacred. We
understood the borders between the sacred and the profane as fluid, political, time dependent and situative.
This constructivist approach was not intended to deny the peculiar character of the sacred. Rather, we
searched for ways of exhibiting that consider a variety of perspectives.
Experimental Approaches
The exhibition was divided into two specific regional areas: Central Australia and Sepik, New Guinea. From
the Sepik region, several musical instruments, the sounds of which embody the voices and songs of the
ancestors, were displayed/not-displayed. These instruments were played at secret ceremonies. In the course
of these ceremonies, the initiates, stage by stage, gained access to the instruments. Described in a simplified
way, they were first only permitted to hear the instruments; then to see them played; then, finally, they were
permitted to both produce and play the instruments themselves.
The exhibited human remains, in the form of bones, teeth and hair, were from the Sepik region as well. In
their initial context, they were worn or carried in the everyday life and were at least partially visible to others.
However, this does not mean that they were less significant. In contrast to these openly visible objects and
human remains, the Central Australian Tjurunga mostly flat stones or pieces of wood, bearing signs or
symbols with high sacred relevance were and are secret and sacred for people who believe in them.
The Berlin studio, TheGreenEyl, translated the idea of a gradual initiation into an experimental exhibition
architecture, where different kinds of glass cabinets were used to play with the idea of making objects visible
or invisible. As visitors entered the exhibition, they first encountered an empty cabinet with a sign stating
Object removed; followed by another cabinet that was black and opaque. On both, only the labels referred
to the object supposedly being exhibited: the Tjurunga from Central Australia. The black cabinet referred
indirectly to the existence of the objects in the museum storerooms, and hinted playfully at the fact that only
the curators knew what was really behind the opaque glass. We saw this as a reference to the curators
authority, a question that has long been a subject for discussion in the museum sector.
Visitors initially encountered the Sepik musical instruments via an open cabinet, from which only the sounds
of the instruments could be heard. Corresponding to the various steps of an initiation process, the
neighboring cabinet permitted the visitor to briefly see the instruments before they vanished again behind an
opaque pane of glass. In the final stage, visitors were able to fully see and hear the instruments via a video
projection that showed excerpts of the initiation ritual.
The [Open] Secrets project was accompanied by a research trip to various Australian cities. The results of
this trip were to be integrated into the exhibition in two cabinets displaying changing texts, maps and other
materials; in this way referring the visitors to contemporary museum discourses and attempting to place
historical and current perspectives into context.
Who Decides, and Who Doesnt?
The project principally negotiated the question of who decides what is to be shown and what is hidden. By
asking this, it tested various ways of exhibiting both the poles between what is to be shown and what is
undemonstrable, as well as the many shades of the sacred. To discuss these and other questions in a wider
context, we organized a public workshop as part of the project.
The project and workshop explored in particular the issue of who decides what should and should not be
shown, and once again brought this important debate into the focus of museum discussions. Insufficiently
addressed, however, were current perspectives that potentially go beyond the dichotomy between profane and
sacred. Furthermore, the discussions about what might be shown did not take place between museum visitors,
the people from the regions from where these objects originated and the curators. In order to enable such an
130
exchange, which permits a both open (in terms of being transparent about what is possible and what ones
aims are) as well as protected discourse (in terms of how power is distributed), long-term cooperations are
necessary. Such processes require not only adequate personnel and financial resources, but must also be
institutionally anchored in a manner that permits both experimentation and failure. This attitude, which
presupposes openness and sensitivity with respect to unequal power relations, is to be hoped for in many
areas at the Humboldt-Forum.
Indra Lopez Velasco works as a research assistant in the Oceania and Australia department and for the Humboldt-
Forum at the Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin.
[Open] Secrets / Positions
Relational Secrets
by Anita Herle
Melanesian Techniques of Concealment and Revelation. On the Benefits of Anthropological Research for
Curatorial Practice
Museum audiences and the discipline of anthropology have a long history of fascination with secrecy and
sacred knowledge, as exemplified by the many studies of secret societies and initiation rituals, as well as the
vast numbers of related objects in museum collections. The Humboldt Lab Dahlem project [Open] Secrets
prompts us to consider the potential of displaying sacred objects in a museum and experiments with different
mediums and processes through which secret/sacred objects might be made visible. Drawing on collaborative
work with Torres Strait Islanders and other colleagues in the Pacific this article briefly explores Melanesian
techniques of concealment and revelation and compares them with the processes of museum display. What
are the secrets that are being revealed and to whom? How can anthropological research best inform
curatorial practice?
In the Torres Strait, as elsewhere in Melanesia, there is a propensity for particular forms of knowledge to be
owned, restricted and selectively distributed. The process of concealing and then revealing arcane knowledge,
often as part of a performance or ritual, has tremendous efficacy and dramatic presence, which imbues people
and objects with power and produces a heightened emotional response. It is not just material objects that are
used to contain and transmit secret knowledge, but associated stories, dances, music, bodily decorations and
landscapes. These typically refer to an ancestral past and are managed through complex systems of rights and
responsibilities linked to genealogical precedence, gender and personal disposition. Secret knowledge is not
an intrinsic property it is created and maintained through social relations.
Different levels of knowledge are contained within, and mobilized through, objects and performances, often
simultaneously for different audiences. Knowledge is nested, and the delineation between the secular and the
sacred is porous, variable and context dependent. For example, Torres Strait Islanders are well-known for
their elaborate choreographed dances which incorporate hand-held dance machines, articulated ornaments
which refer to elements of the natural world such as stars or sea creatures. Performed for both secular and
ceremonial occasions, dances are linked to particular stories, totems, places and events. Members of the
audience readily recognize certain elements of the performance but relatively few understand the esoteric or
inside knowledge that may also be referenced. In other cases people may be privy to secret knowledge but
do not have the right to speak about it.
Sacred objects in themselves are not necessarily secret and the same object may be deemed sacred and/or
secret in one context and not in another. In many areas of Melanesia, powerful objects are sacrificed,
destroyed, discarded or sold to outsiders once they have fulfilled their ritual purpose. New Ireland Malagan
are a salient example of objects whose potency and value is limited to the religious circumstances for which
they were produced. Alternatively, objects such as commissioned models may be deemed sacred. Among the
most important Torres Strait objects in the extensive collections at the Museum of Archaeology and
Anthropology (MAA) in Cambridge are a pair of Malo Bomai masks, commissioned by anthropologist Alfred
Haddon on the island of Mer in 1898. Malo was the predominant cult hero and agad (god) associated with a
powerful religious fraternity. The masks, originally composed of turtle-shell, were secretly made by Wano and
Enoch away from the disapproving eyes of missionaries and non-initiates, using cardboard from Haddons
131
packing cases. The production of the masks encouraged a re-enactment of the Malo Bomai ceremonies in
which numerous Meriam men actively participated, selectively making visible aspects of a secret initiation
ritual that had allegedly been forgotten. The masked dancers were photographed and filmed and the sacred
Malo Bomai songs recorded on wax cylinders. As this example demonstrates, it is important to acknowledge
the agency of local people in determining which aspects of elements of secret knowledge may be revealed and
to whom.
In the absence of earlier extant examples, these cardboard masks are sacred objects for many Islanders today.
When MAA organized an exhibition to mark the centenary of the 1898 Cambridge Anthropological Exhibition
to the Torres Strait, produced in consultation with Islander representatives, we sought advice about their
presentation. Here, the concern was not the public display of masks, but the associated stories outlining the
arrival and movements of Malo Bomai on the island of Mer, which have continuing socio-political
implications. Thanks to the islands chairman Ron Day, the exhibition text describing Malo Bomai was written
with the assistance of Meriam elders. The consultative approach that was developed during the creation of the
exhibition has been extremely productive, providing opportunities for cross-cultural exchange and leading to
numerous ongoing collaborative projects.
Many anthropological analyses of secrecy and sacred knowledge attend to political power and the
maintenance of control by initiates over non-initiates, men over women and elders over youth.
Anthropologists thus recognize the mutually constitutive relations of power and knowledge in the
communities in which they work. Likewise we need to acknowledge the asymmetrical relations of power and
knowledge between museums and the communities that are represented by museum collections and displays.
Open secrets thus involve associated political and ethical concerns. While there has been much debate over
issues of curatorial authority and the complexities of collaborative research, recent work has demonstrated
the potential of developing mutually productive relations with our colleagues and assistants in the Pacific and
elsewhere.
So what kind of secrets might be revealed through museum display? The Humboldt Lab theatrically
experiments with techniques of concealment and revelation. Screened areas restrict the viewers perspective
and frosted glass momentarily clears to show sacred flutes from the Sepik. Tjurunga, secret objects of great
significant to Aboriginal people from Central Australia, are shown in the form of plaster replicas,
anthropological drawings and publications. The displays are intriguing, and highlight the experiential aspects
of both ritual processes and museum display. [Open] Secrets demonstrates processes through which
esoteric knowledge is revealed, but although visitors may glimpse restricted objects, the content or substance
of associated secret knowledge remains unknown.
Given the ontological basis of different knowledge systems, museums can never fully decode the multiple
meanings of objects such as sacred flutes and tjurungas. Nor, in keeping with various anthropological codes
of ethics, would it be appropriate to try to do so. Yet the objects in museum collections continue to act as
mediators between source communities, museum staff and broad public audiences. Fieldwork and
consultation with colleagues in the Pacific and elsewhere, combined with an informed but less proprietorial
form of curatorship, provide the opportunity to cultivate interest, respect and understanding for diverse
knowledge systems, beliefs and practices as well as developing insights into our own subjective positions and
perspectives.
Dr. Anita Herle is senior curator for world anthropology at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of
Cambridge (UK). She participated in the workshop Discussing [Open] Secrets in Berlin-Dahlem in November 2014.
[Open] Secrets / Credits

Curators: Indra Lopez Velasco und Markus Schindlbeck

Assistance: Ulrike Folie
Scenography and Exhibition construction: TheGreenEyl
We would like to thank: Leonie Grtner, Heinz-Gnther Malenz
132
[Open] Secrets / Imprint Documentation

As of November 2015
Exhibition view [Open] Secrets, photo: Jens Ziehe
133
134
135
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 4 - Travelogue
Travelogue
Travelogue / Teaser
In the late 19th century, Adolf Bastian, director of the Berliner Museum fr Vlkerkunde (Museum of
Ethnology Berlin), commissioned the Norwegian captain and explorer Johan Adrian Jacobsen with the
procurement of the most original objects from the American Northwest Coast. Jacobsen returned to Berlin
with not only approximately 3,000 artifacts, but also an impressive account of his expedition. As a historical
document, this account is to be part of an exhibition module at the Humboldt-Forum that critically deals with
its own history of collecting. For the project Travelogue, the Humboldt Lab commissioned two groups of
artists to translate the very personal record into a contemporary narrative format. The result was a video by
Das Helmi puppet theater and a computer game along with an augmented reality presentation, by the media
art group gold extra. Both probe the boundaries of knowledge dissemination in the museum in a non-didactic
manner.
Travelogue / Project Description
New Narrative Formats for Exploring Collection

Histories
by Viola Knig, Andrea Rostsy and Monika Zessnik
The travelogue by Johan Adrian Jacobsen1, who toured the American Northwest Coast and Alaska in the late
19th century on behalf of the Berliner Museum fr Vlkerkunde (Museum of Ethnology Berlin), is an
impressive historical document. At the behest of museum director Adolf Bastian, Jacobson was contracted to
collect the most original, i.e. free from European cultural influences, objects he could find. The self-
proclaimed sea captain returned to Berlin with approximately 3,000 items. However, his report of the
expedition was characterized less by precise ethnographic observation than by the exploits of a seasoned
136
adventurer.
As a historical document, Jacobsens accounts will be the subject of an exhibition module in the future
Humboldt-Forum. The goal of the Humboldt Lab project Travelogue was to explore how the personal
account could be vividly conveyed and not simply through the objects Jacobsen collected, but also through
media-contextualizing narrative forms. The experiment was also to address problems of presentation and the
history of collecting itself. It was decided at the outset that two works would emerge, which did not develop
didactic media contextualization analogous to exhibition content, but which instead translated the 19th
century material into independent artistic entities.
Thus, when the Humboldt Lab organized a two-stage concept competition in 2013 to translate the travelogue
into a computer game and a video of a puppet show, the focus was on the exploration of new strategies of
knowledge mediation. From the seven invited teams, a jury selected the Berlin puppet theater Das Helmi and
the Austrian artist group gold extra.
Totems Sound Interactive Game and Discovery Tour by gold extra
With Totems Sound, gold extra created an installation for the Ethnologisches Museum consisting of an
adventure computer game and an augmented reality presentation. The audience could access the latter while
walking through the exhibition with a tablet in hand2. Both parts referenced each other.
By pointing the tablet at one of the markers3 on a display case, a short film was set in motion. Five objects
appeared, which gave first-hand accounts of their history and discovery: a wooden mask, a copper plate, a
canoe, an Indian chiefs chair and a totem pole. In the elaborately designed videos, the objects humorously
talked, in their own voices about the past and illuminated themes ranging from mythology, the potlatch
ceremony, and tourism to the functions of the chieftains today and the exploitation of the environment in the
territories of the First Nations.
The computer game, designed in the post-pixel style4, could be played on site at a console. It focused on the
exploration of the surroundings and the situation based on the game principle. In the game, visitors
experienced a day with Captain Jacobsen and visited a village belonging to the Haida people in Canada: they
encountered shamans, dancers, canoeists, wolves and mosquitoes. Wandering about between marsh and
festively decorated houses, visitors had to solve a specific task in each game segment. The game is also
available post-exhibition as a free download.
The interaction of the two components, the tablet and the game, which had the same five objects as their
starting point, was important to the artists, as it allowed different perspectives to be presented often with a
good dose of irony. In this way, gold extra tried to present Jacobsens view and supplement it with the current
state of research, as well as to reflect on how we deal with strangers and the unfamiliar.
Man from Another Star - Puppet Show Video by Das Helmi
The puppet theater Das Helmi is known for its highly individualistic homemade foam puppets, rambling
improvisations and politically incorrect anarcho-aesthetics. Even for its first elaborate film production, Man
from Another Star, it used these elements of live performance. The performers, who were always visible
behind their puppets, assumed Jacobsens characteristics and heightened them for effect: Jacobsen the
adventurer, ridiculed by the Northwest Coast inhabitants, the frenetic art hunter or the misunderstood-feeling
scientist, who was denied academic honors during his lifetime. In the film, the puppet theater also critically
explored issues that cannot be represented only through an object-based narrative in the museum, i.e.
Jacobsens commission to bring Indians from North America back to Hamburg for the human shows in the
Hagenbeck Zoo.
In the exhibition, visitors were able to sit in comfortable chairs and watch the movie on a large screen. The
drawings, storyboards and images made during the films production covered the back wall of the sitting area
and two large display cases had been used by the artists to exhibit an arrangement made of foam props from
the film.
Everything Understood or just well Entertained?
Is it possible to artistically interpret and dramatize a document such as Adrian Jacobsens travelogue within a
museum exhibition in time-based media without trivializing the material? This issue was repeatedly discussed
137
during the projects implementation phase. How does one avoid stereotypes in narrative formats and when
does it make sense to use them deliberately? Native Americans are depicted by the Helmi as nameless
chirping birds: on the one hand, as a reflection of Jacobsens inability to distinguish strangers from one
another, and, on the other hand, as a reference to the idea of shifting identities, which allows a person to be a
bird at times, a person or even a moose. The dramaturgical staging rendered the double coding
comprehensible and opened up new perspectives within the exhibition presentation.
The questions that arose from the task definition and the travelogues implementation are virulent in current
museological discourse and in discussions about knowledge mediation. How can the mediation of serious
content be successful at the interface between museum, media and art? How does one address and engage
younger audiences without losing older ones? What forms of mediation and communication both live and
digital - do media presentation forms need in advance, during the exhibition and in the follow-up?
Whether or not the computer game by gold extra or the film by Das Helmi will be successful in the museum
setting, and whether these formats can be expanded on or transferred to other information contexts, is still
unclear. Based on the prototypes created here, however, it is possible to perform an analysis that can be
incorporated into a possible transfer of the works to the Humboldt-Forum.
After a two-month trial run and controversial reactions, the computer game had attracted considerable
attention: there were approximately 12,000 views, 3,500 downloads and 2,200 views of the trailer. Even people
who had not visited the museum or the exhibition and, thus, had not seen the show or knew nothing about
Jacobsen and the collections, were interested in the computer game, which was also available online.5 The
expense associated with the development of media formats for knowledge mediation is worth it when their
impact goes beyond the museum in this way. Good mediation opportunities also arise, however, from direct
encounters and exchanges with the participating artists. In November 2014, when the Ethnologisches Museum
conducted the Lets Play Session with members of gold extra, the results were exactly what had been hoped
for: the attending children and adults had their curiosity awakened, connections were revealed and an
educational medium was tested that was clearly enjoyable for all.
1
Johan Adrian Jacobsen: Capitain Jacobsens Reise an der Nordwestkste Amerikas, 18811883: zum Zwecke ethnologischer Sammlungen und
Erkundigungen, nebst Beschreibung persnlicher Erlebnisse. Fr den deutschen Leserkreis bearbeitet von Adrian Woldt, Leipzig 1884. Reprint
Hildesheim 2013
2
gold extra used the augmented reality app Aurasma.
3
Augmented reality markers: The pattern of the marker triggers a sequence on the tablet, in this case, a transparent video, through which the
original artifact and marker are still visible. Through this superimposition, an "extended reality" is created, the augmented reality.
4
The pixel style characterized the first computer games. Because of technical limitations, in game graphics there was a limited choice of colors and
a strongly pixelated representation of figures, etc. The characters were animated with a few pictures. The post-pixel style became popular in the
mid-2000s and deliberately echoed pixel graphics. Particularly with games on mobile platforms, post-pixel graphics provide an alternative, one,
which makes the presentation of graphics appear smooth whilst freeing processor capacity. In addition to these technical components, the post-
pixel style is deliberately used as an aesthetic means of abstraction.
5
A gamer from the USA states, What Totems Sounds ends up being is a slice of enjoyable criticism of museums or, at least, how they conducted
their worldly gatherings and prescribed to the colonialist attitudes of the time. Its an effort to make us think about the historical foundations our
civilizations are built upon, and how we might prioritize our pursuit of cataloging the world above the lives of native people. (Christ Priestman, Kill
Screen).
Prof. Dr. Viola Knig is the director of the Ethnologisches Museum der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin.
Andrea Rostsy is an artist and media curator.
Monika Zessnik is a curator for American ethnology and communications at the Ethnologisches Museum der Staatlichen
Museen zu Berlin.
138
Travelogue / Positions
Ill take the landscape with me, too

by Elisabeth Wellershaus
In dealing with Jacobsens travelogue, the Berlin-based puppet theater Das Helmi has made a film that
visually reproduces the racist prejudices of the time in all their extremes and, in so doing, provoked a
justifiable controversy.
A Berlin museum director commissions a Norwegian adventurer to journey to North America to procure a
few artifacts along the Pacific Coast from the Indians and Eskimos. On the journey, the adventurer battles
with giant squid and killer whales, and later struggles to prove himself among the indigenous population and
cope with the drugs proffered at their celebrations. From his perspective, the indigenous people look like elk,
turkeys or creatures from another planet. Which is why, as well as the art he has acquired, he also brings a
few of them back to Germany for Hagenbecks so-called Vlkerschauen (people shows or human zoos).
This is a short summary of the content of a production commissioned by the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin
and subsequently made by the puppet theatre Das Helmi. Inspired by the work of Egyptian artist Wael
Shawky, who depicted the Crusades from an Arab point of view in the video of a puppet show in Cabaret
Crusades, the museum wanted to explore aspects of its North America collection. In this way, the travelogue
of the self-proclaimed captain and explorer Johan Adrian Jacobsen formed the basis of a 30-minute puppet
film, Man from Another Star. With satirical hyperbole, Das Helmi known above all in Berlin for its
anarchic and irreverent handling of sensitive topics tries to mirror Jacobsens nave observations from 1881
and the prejudices towards Native Americans that were typical of the time. The rapacity of both European
museums and art collectors is also revealed.
However, the project crosses problematic boundaries. Jacobsen and the director of the Berlin Museum fr
Vlkerkunde at the time, Adolf Bastian, are certainly well-pilloried. Above all Jacobsen, who is furnished with
a brash tone by the puppet master, fulfills every imaginable clich of the European art hunter. For example,
when he blusters through the film with phrases like, Ill take the landscape, too. In comparison to this,
however, the indigenous inhabitants dont even look human. Members of the Haida, for example, are
portrayed as a gaggle of startled turkeys. Very few indigenous people have human characteristics in the film.
Seen from a charitable standpoint, this could be interpreted as a reference to Jacobsens interpretation of
legends and myths that were alien to him. Nevertheless, the film, which is intended to express a critical
standpoint toward colonial thought patterns, could be interpreted as simply a further unnecessary
reproduction of racist stereotypes.
Above all, one scene in the film makes its critics baulk: the reenactment of a potlatch ceremony, a tradition
common amongst many peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. In the reenacted film version, painted naked
bodies shake about, arms and legs flail wildly and breasts jiggle around enticingly. It is the only scene in the
film in which the puppets step into the background, behind the actors, thereby emphasizing a consciously
exhibited exoticism. But a potlatch is actually a ritual exchange of gifts, carried out within complex social
hierarchies. And Jacobsen tries to utilize this to his advantage, in order to be taken seriously by his trading
partners in order to enable him to trick them later. In the film this is translated into a red Indian clich of the
lowest order, some ethnologists have criticized.
Yet that is exactly how Jacobsen wrote about it in his travelogue. And this is what the director of the
Ethnologisches Museum, Viola Knig, and the curator Monika Zessnik, wanted to present unexpurgated to
the public. With a view to the current debate and the freedom of satire, art, and opinion, in combination with
cultural sensibilities, they are certainly aware that such satire does not sit well with humanitarian injustice.
Which is why they themselves heighten problematic parts of the film: the almost continuous portrayal of
indigenous people as animals, for example, or a drug-trip scene in 1968 hippie aesthetic that dominates the
potlatch celebration in the video, but which is not even mentioned in Jacobsens travelogue.
The film will not be presented in the Humboldt-Forum for several reasons. Nevertheless, we think
controversial experiments are fundamentally appropriate, because a film like this could be used as part of a
multiperspective approach within an exhibition model in the Humboldt-Forum, says Knig. After all, they are
still looking for new representational formats. We are also pretty sure, that the whole thing wouldn't have
created such a stir if it had been a normal theatre production and not a work commissioned by the
139
Ethnologisches Museum, says Zessnik. And should they also not be allowed to explore their own history in
this case the Wilhelminian era from their own perspective?
In the new exhibition format, the European and the indigenous perspectives are to stand side by side. On the
one hand, contemporary Yupik (artists) will deal with the objects in the collection. They will explore questions
of the significance and the loss of their cultural property in Alaska as well as assess the conservation of their
material culture in the museums. Parallel to this, a project is planned to represent the European perspective
of the collections nascence. The end result should obviously not be offensive to the indigenous communities.
They shouldn't have to keep their children from seeing it, says Knig.
But that may well happen, if the racist prejudices from Jacobsens problematic travelogue are depicted in a
genuinely realistic way. Discrimination based on such stereotypes is especially virulent in the USA and
Canada to this day. A truly adequate way of dealing with the original written document would no doubt only
be possible in direct exchange with the representatives of the relevant cultures; and by asking the question,
whether the faithful and detailed reproduction of the material is really the only way to approach the European
perspective. The internationally rather underrepresented First Nation communities of North America are,
after all, still in the process of regaining their identities. With this in mind, a renewed appropriation of their
traditions through the narratives of western curators or artists should be closely scrutinized again. Every
artist is naturally entitled to determine the form and content of their own work that is exactly why Das
Helmi was commissioned. But when, in connection with the Humboldt-Forum, the power relations between the
cultures remain hidden, one cannot really talk of a genuine exchange.
But it is exactly that which Knig and Zessnik are seeking, as they emphasize. This is why they are now quite
grateful for the critical voices; the deliberation of ones own history can now move on to the next phase.
Elisabeth Wellershaus is a freelance journalist who lives and works in Berlin.
Immersive Worlds of Experience

by Linda Breitlauch
The computer game Totems Sound, by gold extra, spirits players away on the North America journey that
the explorer Jacobsen undertook at the beginning of the 19th century casting them as co-authors of the
story, the trading and the collection of artifacts.
Stories, especially those of adventurers, can be told in many different ways. Museum artifacts usually tell
stories through a broad documentary representation. However, when, in the interests of living museum
culture, the purely historical plane is expanded upon with an additional narrative layer of a seemingly
fictional nature, a reception situation is created, which requires the visitor to enter into an almost intimate
exchange with the work. The Humboldt Lab project Totems Sound is, in the best sense, an unusual form of
the mediation of objects and their history, demanding of its audience a high level of interactive involvement.
By using a computer game, a mode of communication was chosen that addresses a pop-cultural phenomenon
with its corresponding high level of innovation.
Totems Sound takes the players on a journey with the Norwegian adventurer Johan Adrian Jacobsen. The
player assumes the role of the explorer, who, at the end of the 19th century, travelled to the American
Northwest Coast and to Alaska, where he procured numerous artifacts for the museum collection on the
behest of what was then the Berliner Museum fr Vlkerkunde (Museum of Ethnology Berlin). One station of
these travels, which Jacobsen described in detail in his travelogue, led him to a village of the Haida people in
Canada.
Interactive storytelling that uses computer games as a tool is nothing new, but it is nevertheless not yet an
established narrative medium. Since the 1970s, computer games have been a medium with which to approach
stories in a direct exchange. Players take on the role of co-authors, and a common narrative relationship is
forged. Similar to film, an interactive game depicts an alleged current situation, which draws the players into
the action, as though it were taking place today right now. In this way, events long past can be made freshly
accessible.
The aesthetic of Totems Sound is a homage to the legendary Japanese role playing series Zelda, whose
optics and game mechanics it references in the style of old 16-bit action role-playing games. As is common
140
for computer games of this genre, we experience the environment from an isometric perspective that allows
the player an overview of part of the playing field. The story starts in a village in which the protagonist
Jacobsen has just arrived, and from where starts his travels. His first task is to find someone in the forest,
who, after a strange biting ritual, presents him with a blanket. He trades this in the village for an artifact,
which he wants to take back to Berlin. On his journey through the forest, he battles with mosquitoes, wolves
and bears. The moment he hands over the first artifact, the classic genre rules are broken and the game jumps
straight into the 20th century. Suddenly the players find themselves in a TV aesthetic reminiscent of the
1970s, complete with a sequence of sound dissonances and postmodern references.
The tools of a computer game differ substantially from those of books, films or documentations, in terms of
tackling and processing historical events. But the choice of which path to take in the story is not always
completely free in a computer game either. The decisions the players make more or less follow the paths laid
out by the creators of the game the authors, game designers, artists and programmers. When quests are not
fulfilled, the story in Totems Sound comes to a standstill. Just as in real life, inaction is what so often leads
to our remaining stuck sometimes until others come along and make the decision for us. In this sense, the
player is not a completely free agent within the narrative.
With the instructions to procure further artifacts, new communication options unfold for Jacobsen with the
local inhabitants, but also new options for action, like a canoe trip or collecting shells among the seals. In this
way, the player follows the written words of the explorer and procures and collects the artifacts in the game.
Information about the origins of the Ethnologisches Museums collection can be expanded upon through an
immersive journey into the world of Johan Adrian Jacobsen and his travels. The interactive processing
encourages reflections on alien and strange encounters, which is the purpose of the topic and the medium.
Totems Sound thus slots in to the overall concept of a multi-platform exhibition, Travelogue. The players
can also look at the artifacts they have just procured directly in the museum, where, with the aid of tablets
and augmented reality technology, they can view historical objects in the display cases, where the virtual
world and reality overlap. The transmedia quality of the exhibition, which connects the virtual world with that
of the museum space, lends a new dimension, one worthy of repetition, to the principle of storytelling, a
classical medium in itself.
Dr. Linda Breitlauch is professor of game design at the Hochschule Trier.
Travelogue / Credits
Project supervision: Viola Knig, Andrea Rostsy, Monika Zessnik

Project assistance: Henning Thiele
Project jury: Martin Heller, Viola Knig, Heike Kropff, Maryanne Redpath, Stephan Schwingeler
Man from Another Star by Das Helmi

Puppet show performance: Felix Loycke, Emir Tebatebai, Brian Morrow, Florian Loycke
Additional performance: Dasniya Sommer, Solene Garnier
Puppets: Felix Loycke, Florian Loycke
Drawings, sculptures, murals: Felix Loycke
Script: Emir Tebatebai, Florian Loycke and everyone
Direction: Florian Loycke and everyone
Music: Brian Morrow, Florian Loycke, Emir Tebatebai, Solame-Musicshow
Lighting, back projection and objects: Burkhart Ellinghaus
Camera and editing: Francis dAth
Subtitles: Theatris Theaterbro
Film processing: Sergej Range
With thanks to: Ballhaus Ost, Berlin
Totems Sound by gold extra

Concept and texts: Karl Zechenter, Georg Hobmeier
Video concept and production: Reinhold Bidner
Programming: Tilmann Hars
141
Mapping: Georg Hobmeier

Sound effects and music: Karl Zechenter
Assets and graphics: Adeline Ducker
Graphics: Brian Main, Reinhold Bidner
Tablet mounts: Severin Weiser
Voices in the German version: Martina Dehne, Georg Hobmeier
Voices in the English version: Steve Crilley, Lisa Nielsen-Spieler
With thanks to: Thomas Freina, Frieder Wei and Harald Hackl (Yurp.at), Schwerpunkt Wissenschaft and
Kunst Salzburg as well as the game testers Patrick Borgeat, Stephen Colling, Tibor Rostsy, Henning Thiele
and Kasia Zielinska.
Travelogue / Imprint Documentation

Collaboration: Carolin Nser
As of July 2015
The texts included here represent the authors own views and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the
Humboldt Lab Dahlem. Unless otherwise specified, copyright remains with the Humboldt Lab Dahlem. Note
for the PDF print version: all the links are available on the corresponding sub-pages of
www.humboldt-lab.de.
Installation view Travelogue: Man from Another Star, photo: Jens Ziehe
142
Installation view Travelogue: Man from Another Star, puppets made by Das Helmi, photo: Jens Ziehe
Performance by Das Helmi at the opening of Probebhne 4 in the Dahlem Museums, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
143
Performance by Das Helmi at the opening of Probebhne 4 in the Dahlem Museums, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
Installation view Travelogue: Totem's Sound, photo: Jens Ziehe
144
Visitor with tablet of the augmented reality presentation Totem's Sound at the Ethnologisches Museum,
photo: Sebastian Bolesch
Screenshot computer game Totem's Sound, gold extra
145
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 4 - Seeing South
Seeing South
Seeing South / Teaser

The Ethnologisches Museum has an extensive archive of ethnographic films that were reviewed and
categorized for the first time in 2014 as part of the Humboldt Lab project Sighting. The follow-on project
Seeing South explored the potential of dialog between objects and moving images by integrating ten of
these films into the South Seas collection. Can film material reveal meanings and connections that would not
be communicated through an object presentation alone? Does the medium provide historical artifacts with a
contemporary context that would otherwise not be attainable? And what does a successful object-film
exhibition, which creates connections without imposing its own interpretations, actually look like? The
exhibition parcours Seeing South punctuated the collection with film excerpts from different decades in an
attempt to update object presentations with moving images.
Seeing South / Project Description
Illuminating Objects. Ethnographic Films as Windows

to Multiperspectival Knowledge
by Andrea Rostsy
The archive for visual anthropology at the Ethnologisches Museum contains around 1700 films. Until recently
they were almost inaccessible. Only in 2014 did the Humboldt Lab project Sighting systematically assess the
museum film archives and add them to the museum data base. Thanks to that, the museum now has a
comprehensive film list detailing content, techniques, material state an invitation to exhibit the films or use
them as part of future exhibitions.
Seeing South accepted this invitation, or challenge. With a selection of ten films the project realized and
146
researched the possibilities of film integration into object-based exhibitions, by way of example. The primary
question was whether film can facilitate multiperspectival access to ethnological information whether
interpretations and connections can be made visible where mere object presentations cannot. How could a
contemporary relevance be demonstrated which at the same time did not obstruct the temporal difference
between the creation of the object, its collection and its museal presentation? What kind of dialog could be
created with a combination of a filmically interpreted theme together with an exhibited object? How can you
present formal-associative, or thematic references in a clear way without imposing them on the collection
objects? And here too: How can films be shown within object installations without losing their coherence?
A Film-Object Parcours
Markus Schindlbeck, then head of the Australia and Oceania collection at the Ethnologisches Museum, and
the filmmaker and ethnologist Ulrike Folie, who curated the project together, developed a film-object
parcours with ten stations for Seeing South in the permanent exhibition South Seas and Australia. This
meant developing a suitable presentation situation that takes into account the required duration for
understanding the film excerpt and illustrates the films connection to the objects at first sight. Every station
was marked out clearly by graphic and textual elements. Along the non-sequential parcours visitors could
discover film-object installations that dealt with various thematic fields, from issues of representation to the
effects of climate change to tourist encounters. The films were shown here in excerpt; the full-length films
were available to watch on the upper floor of the exhibition in a special screening room. In the stairwell
gallery and on the upper floor contemporary photographs by Santiago Engelhardt and Jrg Hauser were
shown.
The parcours kicked off with the film Taking Pictures by Les McLaren and Annie Stiven (1996), which
explores the political, ethical and practical aspects as well as aesthetic of ethnological film work. Excerpts of
the film were shown, juxtaposed with short statements (limits of comprehension) or questions (filming for
whom?), displayed on a second screen. The questions raised on representation and critical viewing of
ethnological films were intended to accompany the visitors on their further path through the exhibition.
The subsequent stations all created a connection either in terms of content or form between the film excerpt
and objects. Assuming Responsibility is the title of one of the stations, for example, which shows only one
scene from the 73-minute film The Disappearing of Tuvalu. Trouble in Paradise by Christopher Horner and
Gilliane Le Gallic (2004). The scene shows just water, seemingly washing up against the screen. At the same
time you hear the voices of Tuvalu locals talking about the clearly discernable effects of climate change on
their lives. In the vitrine, fishhooks from Tuvalu were exhibited. What relevance do these objects have today
with the backdrop of rising sea levels and Tuvalus threatened environment?
Excerpts from the film Paikeda. Man in Stone by Ineke de Vries (2002) in combination with stone figurines
comprise the station Limits of Understanding. The film shows the current re-purposing of mysterious
prehistoric stone implements by the Me people in Papua. With the station Fascination of the First Contact
and the film A Reminder. A Cultural Center in Eipomek by Ulrike Folie and Gugi Gumilang (2014, 11:03
Min.) shown in full-length, a circle was completed to the first station and the film Taking Pictures: A
Reminder reports on the re-acquaintance of the inhabitants of Eipomek with their old knowledge and stories,
due to the establishment of a new cultural center in Eipomek in 2014 supported by German researchers who
had collected exactly this knowledge 40 years prior as part of a research project for the Ethnologisches
Museum. In this way the film deals with the connection between the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin and the
Eipo and the responsibility of the museum in this context.
Design Challenges
The use of film as medium enabled Seeing South to contribute additional layers of contemporary relevance
to the knowledge imparted via the artifacts. Different perspectives were perceived as more tangible and
complex than could have been communicated purely on a textual basis. At the same time the use of film
heightens the complexity of the exhibition work to a large extent because the film material has to be
processed. This raises questions in terms of content, design, and of a legal and technical nature. Whether the
presentation of a film in full length is intended, or an excerpt, or even the re-editing of a film, a change in
presentation format or digitalization permission must be explicitly granted by the authors. At the same time
the films themselves must be critically reflected upon: that means the specific historical and social context of
their naissance must become more apparent than was possible in Seeing South.
147
A central aspect of the exhibition design is the creation of a relationship between film and object. This is easy
to grasp if monitors and objects lie on the same visual axis and are positioned in a uniform way within the
exhibition: recognizably connected to one another. This was not possible within the permanent exhibition and
led to the visitors having to re-orientate themselves anew at each station.
In its succinctness, the excerpt of lapping water shown at the station Assuming Responsibility, to be
interpreted as the rising sea levels, worked most powerfully of all. The effect was further condensed with the
statements taken from the film and the newly recorded voiceover statements, which literally carried the
current situation of loss and destruction of the Tuvalu into the exhibition. With this more creative, rather
than purely documentary, approach not only did the present become tangible along with its relationship to
the objects on display, but in its succinctness also functioned almost as a film preview, and thus as a pointer
to the complete version shown on the upper floor.
In the Humboldt-Forum the combination of films, images and documents will be used as continuous element,
working with a combination of uniform media tables, touch screens or iPads. With the aid of special
technology it will also be possible to watch films in complete length or access background information that
not only provides background on the artifacts but also on the films themselves. This kind of presentation was
not feasible within the framework of the Probebhne 4.
Even if the myriad possibilities in terms of film usage within object presentations has only been hinted at in
Seeing South the great potential of the medium in the Ethnologisches Museum was certainly underlined.
Andrea Rostsy is an artist and media curator.
Seeing South / Positions
Not depicting what once was, but documenting

processes
How can the present be brought into the museum by means of film without obtruding upon the world of the
object? The filmmaker Bettina Renner, the ethnologist Steffen Khn and the exhibition developer Martin
Heller on the potential of the medium and visual anthropologys perspective.
Ms. Renner, you are a documentary filmmaker for cinema and television. You have now made a film
commissioned by the Humboldt Lab Dahlem for the Ethnologisches Museum, entitled Being HMONG. A
Family Encounter. Did the idea of making an ethnographic film influence your view of the people and your
working methods?
Bettina Renner: Not really. The heart of the project was: what is the identity of the Hmong living in the
Swabian Jura? And how has it changed over the three generations in which the Vang family has lived there?
My approach was based on my experiences as a director, and I received additional tools from the curator who
told me which questions were of interest to him. At the same time I set tasks for myself and my team, to
involve the protagonists themselves. From the outset, in the form of extensive conversations. Thats something
that differentiates this film from others. I knew it would be difficult because it can sometimes be taxing for
the protagonists. Because they think you have certain expectations and then want to fulfill them.
Steffen Khn, you have seen the film by Ms. Renner and also the historical film material that Ulrike Folie put
together for the project Seeing South. As a cultural anthropologist, how can you tell that one is a film from
the twenty-first century and the other films are mainly recordings from the twentieth century?
Steffen Khn: Thats a good question but I think the cut isnt really between the twentieth and the twenty-
first century. The Seeing South exhibition covers a long time span, which makes it so fascinating, and you
can see large shifts in the filmmaking methods there. What makes these films so interesting, also in terms of
the history of visual anthropology is that Papua New Guinea, after opening its borders in the 1960s, was one
of the few places in the world where first contact situations were still to be had. So a new generation of
148
ethnologists could test out new ideas of filmmaking with their theories and methodologies. One can see in the
exhibition that the films became increasingly reflexive and how, above all in the 1980s, the view pivots onto us
Europeans and our way of seeing.
Films not only ask to be seen, but also to be shown. Mr. Heller, this question goes to you as director of the
Humboldt Lab Dahlem and as exhibition developer: why are the films we are discussing not being screened in
the museum cinema but in the exhibition between the artifacts?
Martin Heller: For the Humboldt Lab there were two main motivating factors for Seeing South. On the one
hand a previous project had only just enabled access to the archives of ethnographic films in Dahlem. Now we
were looking at a case-study situation, where we wanted to explore the potential of connecting these two
worlds: the medial world and the world of objects, with which, primarily, we are concerned in a museum. One
should note that in the museum there is a generation gap. There are older curators who find it hard to see the
potential in film material. But its not about just piecing things together in a medial way. The museum can
also be active: it can commission work, as was the case with Being HMONG. We can think prospectively:
Where do we want to implement the medium? Of course there is the younger generation of ethnologists who
see things completely differently. What was your impression when you saw the exhibition?
Khn: I thought it was fascinating to see this thread between the objects and the films, which on the one hand
showed the context of every day life, but on the other, not simply a one-to-one translation. The fact that there
was friction and that some films led you to new paths. The film Ich bin ein Kanake for example really made
you think. It wasn't about a strange culture from the outside, but about how you yourself grew up with the
term. Watching Being HMONG was a similar experience: the most fascinating aspect was listening to the
Hmong speak Swabian and French. And thats the point at which I hit on one of the problems of the
collections, which are so taxonomically cleanly categorized, according to nationality and state and
ethnicityas ethnologists today we are much more concerned with transnationalism, syncretisms and
migration. The question surely is: how can you bring globalization into an exhibition context? And your film
brought that across successfully for me, merely on the strength of the language aspect.
Renner: I am always interested in how films can work in exhibitions, without being simply reduced to a
flickering accessory or something that dictates what you are seeing, but that instead creates something new
by its presence. And it was exciting to find out how to edit a 25-minute film so that it works as a loop. In the
sense that you have the classical narrative arc but at the same time you enable the viewer to leave or arrive at
any point.
Khn: I think ethnographic collections could learn a lot from contemporary art exhibitions. Take the two-
channel installation All That Is Solid Melts Into Air by Mark Boulos, which shows a battle of the Ogono
rebels in the Niger Delta in Northern Nigeria on one screen, where Shell is extracting oil, and the other screen
shows a Canadian stock exchange with trading taking place in so-called futures of raw materials. That is a
good image of globalization. I would wish to see more of that in an ethnological context. That probably means
having to let go of the collections to a certain extent. Or one has to succeed in putting the objects back into a
transnational context. Questions of provenance are all too often overlooked.
Heller: Collection history is a project all of its own, which we follow up with Object Biographies as part of
the Probebhne 6. But the question of how to present and examine, in which medium, that is posed time and
again. With Seeing South it was the declared aim to bring the present into the game, without imposing ones
own agenda onto the objects. Would it have been possible to show the films together with the objects in the
vitrines? Would that have made a difference?
Renner: One would have to try that out. Also in terms of spatial use one could get inspiration from art
exhibitions. In Artur Zmijewskis installation Democracies for example, the room was full of monitors,
showing protests from all over the world. But the sound came from the ceiling, and depending on where you
stood you could listen to one of the many stories. Whether you stand, or sit, whether you hear the sound
directly or via headphones all that makes a difference and has an effect on what you take in.
All That Is Solid ... as well as Democracies are fantastic works of art. But they do not deal with objects
within an exhibition space. This is what we were interested in though: how can a film enter into a productive
dialog with an object? Or, in reverse: how can one prevent the film from stealing the show from the object?
Because that can happen quite easily; the moving image easily draws attention to itself.
Khn: Many objects in the museum, especially if they are cult objects, have a practical value. To reduce them
merely to the aesthetic is a very western approach, a concept of art that has nothing to do with the local
149
contexts. It would be great if a film could be produced especially for those objects, placing them in a social
and cultural context. In the Seeing South exhibition however it is more a symbolic relationship that is
created. I like that a lot, because in this way the objects attain the role of signposts that point the way to
somewhere completely different. Thus the exhibition functions as a kind of small network.
Heller: The proportion of the objects to the amount of film material shown plays a significant role. With the
films we have undertaken a kind of punctuation of the collection. On the one hand you could argue that
Seeing South didn't go far enough in its experimenting with other forms of representation. But on the other
this restraint ensured that the objects are still intact. I found it interesting, that restraint, used systematically,
can have an effect. Ulrike Folie and Markus Schindlbeck consciously tried to display a whole range of
different connections. Its a massive difference whether I use film to show the present, in which I have no
background or context for the objects, or if I as was done here attempt to emphasize the world of objects
with the film, sounding them out. Where the Humboldt-Forum is concerned, we are still thinking about
whether we can integrate a repertory cinema with current global films. But that only impacts on the
exhibitions to a minor extent.
Renner: In preparation for the film I read a lot about the Hmong. Also about American Hmong production
companies who were making films about Hmong and sending them into communities so that they could see
their homeland and watch the traditions. The Vang family also proudly showed me one of these films. That
also contributed to my worry that the family members would think they had to fulfill certain expectations.
One day the women said they wanted to do something for us. As a filmmaker you usually recoil when
someone tells you they want to explicitly do something for the camera. In this case I just said to myself
Bettina, just let it happen, this is part of the project. They then baked rice cakes, which is usually only done
at New Years. For the women it was really important that this tradition be shown in the museum. That's why
they wanted to do that especially for the film. That made me very happy, because at that moment I realized
that they had come to see the film as theirs.
How did you explain your motivation for making the film to the family? Surely its a little strange being
musealized whilst still alive.
Renner: I told them that I was interested in how they live and how their lives, their culture, have changed over
generations. The fact that the film would be shown in a museum made them proud. At the same time the
editor Mona Bruer and I were well aware that we had a special responsibility to the family, with their lives
suddenly on display to a public audience, and that for a very long time. You always have a responsibility
toward the people you film but the duration and location make this quite different.
Heller: Responsibility drives everyone, the museum curators too, who are always reassessing their connection
to the object and the source communities. But it is very difficult to show that here in the exhibitions; the
objects alone do not communicate that. Thats the appeal of Seeing South, with its combination of film and
the permanent exhibition.
Khn: You could take that further and say if an object is given back or repatriated then the display case could
stay empty: instead of the object you could show a film about the negotiation process. I believe that that is the
challenge of a good ethnographic museum today: not depicting what once was, but to document processes.
And in those terms film has a great potential.
Heller: These Humboldt Lab projects are intended to provide the initial spark for concepts at the Humboldt-
Forum. We have experienced that collaboration between ethnologists and filmmakers can be difficult. Why do
you think that is?
Khn: There is a fear that film will bring a superficiality into the field of ethnology, because it is essentially
populist and not a medium suited to expressing theories.
Renner: The potential of film to be an enrichment is often overlooked. It is not automatically a challenge to
the preexisting body of knowledge or to the collection of objects. That is a misunderstanding.
Khn: In Aarhus in Denmark there is a new ethnographic museum, the Moesgaard, which has almost no
collection, but has very good facilities for screening films. I will be fascinated to see if that will become the
blueprint for an ethnographic museum that doesn't even try to carry its colonial ballast. Instead, dealing with
contemporary themes in a contemporary way.
150
Martin Heller is a member of the board of directors of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
Steffen Khn is a research associate for the visual and media anthropology masters course at the Freien Universitt
Berlins Ethnological Institute.
Bettina Renner is a Berlin-based documentary filmmaker. She made the documentary Being HMONG: A Family
Encounter for the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
Christiane Khl is a journalist and dramaturge based in Berlin. Together with Barbara Schindler, she supervises the
online documentation of the projects for the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
The conversation took place in March 2015 in Berlin-Dahlem. It is equally pertinent to the project Being HMONG: A
Family Encounter, Probebhne 5, which is why it also appears in this dossier.
Seeing South / Credits

Curators: Ulrike Folie, Markus Schindlbeck

Collaboration: Indra Lopez Velasco
Design: scala Ausstellunggestaltung, Gnter Krger
Copy editing: Elke Kupschinsky
Translation: Karl Hoffmann, Galina Green
Our thanks for their support to Leonie Grtner, Heinz-Gnther Malenz, Santiago Engelhardt, Jrg Hauser and
Andrea Rostsy.
Our sincere thanks to all the institutions and individuals involved, for permission to use the films or film
excerpts. We have attempted to contact all copyright holders and to obtain the necessary permissions to use
the materials included. Should any rights have been inadvertently and, either in part or in whole, infringed or
not appropriately credited, we would request those concerned inform the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
Seeing South / Imprint Documentation

Collaboration: Carolin Nser
As of July 2015
The texts included here represent the authors own views and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the
Humboldt Lab Dahlem. Unless otherwise specified, copyright remains with the Humboldt Lab Dahlem. Note
for the PDF print version: all the links are available on the corresponding sub-pages of www.humboldt-lab.de.
151
Installation view Seeing South, photo: Jens Ziehe
Installation view Seeing South, photo: Jens Ziehe
152
Installation view Seeing South, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
Photographies by Jrg Hauser in the South Seas-exhibition of the Ethnologisches Museum, photo: Jens Ziehe
153
Photographies by Santiago Engelhardt in the South Seas-exhibition of the Ethnologisches Museum, photo:
Jens Ziehe
Film still Zur Erinnerung. Ein Kulturzentrum in Eipomek (A Reminder. A Cultural Center in Eipomek,)
Ulrike Folie
154
Film still Zur Erinnerung. Ein Kulturzentrum in Eipomek (A Reminder. A Cultural Center in Eipomek,)
Ulrike Folie
155
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 4 - Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa
Yuken Teruya:
On Okinawa
Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa / Teaser

During 1884/85 the Ethnologisches Museum acquired a stock of textiles and objects from the Ryky Islands
(the present day Okinawa Prefecture, and part of Japan). Like all collections from comparable museums, this
one too needs to deal with the imperialist politics of its nascence in a critical manner. At the same time,
presentations of the objects need to reflect issues from the current discourse that is taking place in the
regions of origin. The project Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa set out to discover what role artists from the
objects cultures of origin could play in this process of negotiation. How can the Eurocentric museum-like
presentation be shaken up? An answer was provided by the Okinawan artist Yuken Teruya, with his
installation. On invitation from the Humboldt Lab Dahlem, he presented a subjective selection of objects from
the historical collection, supplementing them with the most varied artifacts from every day culture, combined
with contemporary artistic positions.
Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa / Project Description
Illuminating Negotiation Processes

by Alexander Hofmann
Like most collections in comparable European and American museums, the Ethnologisches Museum
collections and, in part, those from the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, were
acquired largely at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Due to the context of Euro-
American colonialism and imperialism at that time, collections such as these, and their means of acquisition,
are generally viewed with skepticism. Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa explores the role that artists from the
cultures of origin can play, in an attempt to involve the collections in current discourse and make tangible the
negotiation processes of the present between the represented and the representing.
156
Within the framework of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem, the artist Yuken Teruya, from Okinawa, who now lives
and works mainly in New York, was invited to enter into a discourse with the Okinawa collection belonging to
the Ethnologisches Museum together with the curators there and the curators of the Museum fr Asiatische
Kunst. This is one of the worldwide most significant portfolios of material culture from the archipelago that,
until 1879, was known as the Ryky Kingdom. The core of the collection consists of 147 artifacts, largely
textiles. They are the remainder of originally 469 artifacts, that, on instructions from Berlin, were collected
between 1881 and 1884 by representatives of the imperial Japanese government in Okinawa. The Japanese
emissaries task was made a lot easier due to the fact that the Ryky Kingdom had been dissolved by force
some years ago and subsumed into the territory of the young Japanese national state in 1879. Although the
acquisition by the Berlin museums is legally unimpeachable, having been bought for the princely sum of 5843
Goldmarks, the existence of the objects in Berlin, in the context of the troubled history of Okinawa in the 20th
century is, at the very least, not unproblematic. The islands were a major site of war in 1945 in battles
between Japanese and US-American troops. After significant human losses, in particular amongst the local
population, the traditional textile culture was largely destroyed. The islands were occupied by the US military
from 1945 to 1972. To this day there is a massive military presence on the islands, which were, however,
returned to Japanese jurisdiction in 1972.
Dealing with Issues of Local Identity
The artist Yuken Teruya was selected for this Humboldt Lab project because he had dealt with questions of
local identity in previous work, often in cooperation with local textile craftsmen and women from his place of
birth. He also brought with him experience in the dealing with artifacts from historical collection from
previous projects. For On Okinawa the artist came to Berlin several times over a period of a year: to view
the collection, choose a selection of historical objects for the presentation, hold conversations with the
curators, and finally for the realization of the exhibition in the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst.
The final form of presentation was developed in cooperation with all the participants. The curators had
expected the artist to deal with the historical collection, the objects of which had been taken from Okinawa to
Berlin, articulating it as a loss. However, for Teruya, the fact that the objects had been kept in safekeeping
and protected from the catastrophes of Okinawas history in the 20th century by being in Berlin, along with
the fact that this history just like the present situation in the group of islands was not being talked about
in Berlin, held much greater relevance to him.
For the exhibition, Yuken Teruya chose a combination of different strategies. First he chose objects from the
historical collection and interposed them with his own critical works dealing with the current situation in
Okinawa. Second, he took on the role of ethnologist himself, and with the help of a network of friends and
acquaintances he gathered a new collection of artifacts from the material culture, which were representative
of the history of the islands during the 20th century and the current situation. The artist placed a special
emphasis on the protests against the American military presence, the politics of the Japanese government,
activities by environmentalists and on the World War II Reference Center run by Isamu Kuniyoshi. The
collection, which artfully combines historic events like the brutal battles of Okinawa in 1945, as well as
contemporary everyday life, like local printed flyers for burial sites, is a welcome new addition to the
Ethnologisches Museum.
Thirdly he created a new textile piece of art together with local craftsmen and women, combining motifs from
historical collection objects, episodes and figures from the past, present and a utopian future in Okinawa into
an artful projection. Fourth, he wrote commentaries about the exhibited objects from a fictional perspective,
looking back from the future. Fifth, Teruya filmed a concert in Okinawa, with traditional songs, one of which
is the musical score of a poem that is inscribed on a scroll in the original Berlin collection. The poem was also
the origin of a traditional dance, which was being regularly performed in the 19th century. Yuken Teruya
invited the dancer Erina Nakamine from Okinawa to perform the dance for the opening of the exhibition in
Dahlem, wearing cloth designed by him. This performance was also documented on film and later shown as
part of the exhibition. And sixth, he talked about his intentions in a video interview.
The history and parameters of the historical collection were documented by the responsible curator in the
form of an illustrated information panel. Most of the exhibited objects were hung from the display cabinet
ceilings, presented, in part, floating in space, thus emphasizing the constructed character of any object-based
narrative of past, present and future.
The dialog of the historical artifacts, contemporary artwork and the new collection allows the public, as well
as the participants in the project, to take a fresh, complex and reflective look at the historical collection
157
inventory from Okinawa. As far as the museum participants were concerned, they were very grateful for the
valuable contacts they had made thanks to the artist. There is an explicit wish to show the presentation to an
audience in Okinawa and to intensify exchange between Berlin and Okinawa.
The final result was a multilayered installation, which integrated the historical artifacts in a current discourse
on representation. Questions of local identity, as well as domestic and intercultural power relations were dealt
with. As an art installation, naturally the show had no claim to being representative. However, the
mechanisms of re-exclusion as a result of the subjective position taken by the artist were received in very
different ways. At least one reviewer was irritated by the fact that the issue of representation in the Museum
fr Asiatische Kunst was handled representatively by an artist, and/or through the medium of art. In this
respect, artistic media seem suited only to a point, to fulfill the request for a dissolution of the curatorial
monopoly on interpretation through the involvement of those being represented. However, they certainly
serve as a welcome contribution to the updating of the historical collection inventory by tying into
contemporary issues.
Alexander Hofmann has been the curator for the arts of Japan at the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst since 2004.
Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa / Positions
Past, Present, Imagined Future

by Titus Spree
Okinawa has been shaped by the might of the ocean and various colonizing forces. The exhibition Yuken
Teruya: On Okinawa succeeds in communicating an experience of the hybrid cultural identity of the
archipelago beyond the boundaries of historical categorization.
On first sight the exhibition by Yuken Teruya appears to blend harmoniously with the historical collections in
the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst in Berlin-Dahlem, so that you could almost overlook the fact that you are
visiting a contemporary art installation. Found objects from modern day Okinawa, and works of art by the
artist himself, blend, apparently without a rupture, with the collection of objects from Okinawa; only on closer
inspection does the viewer become aware of a second layer of meaning.
Kimonos from the museum collection hang side by side with brightly printed panels of fabric by the artist; in
direct proximity to rusty Japanese imperial army helmets from the Second World War, brightly embroidered
patches are displayed, along with other mementos from the US soldiers still stationed there, 70 years after the
wars end. Each of the objects seems to tell a story of its own. And each of these stories draws you further into
the multifaceted culture of Okinawa, which, despite being part of Japan since 1871, unlike any other region in
highly centralized Japan, has succeeded in maintaining its own distinct identity.
The vivid variety in the exhibition invites the viewer to embark on a journey of discovery and become
immersed in the distinct culture of this East Asian chain of islands, which was once known throughout all of
Asia as the Ryky Kingdom. On maps of East Asia the tiny Ryky Islands look like stepping stones that
will take you, with a skip and a jump, from southern Japan to Taiwan and southern China. And, as with so
many other things, here too, one can draw conclusions about the history of the place: the story of a small
group of islands on the geopolitically significant periphery of the two Asian super powers, China and Japan.
While from a Western perspective, Okinawa, being an integral part of Japan, is hardly considered to have had
a colonial past, many Okinawans feel they have been colonized more than twice. The first time was at the
beginning of the 17th century in Okinawa the Ryky kings still ruled when the Satsuma aristocracy from
southern Japan invaded the islands. They took over the Ryky Islands as an unofficial colony, which had to
be concealed from the Edo shoguns. For almost three hundred years, Ryky provided the Satsuma
aristocracy with a small window onto the outside world, in a Japan that was otherwise strictly sealed off by
the Tokugawa shoguns. As a cosmopolitan appendage it was key in the preparation for the modernization of
Japan through the Meiji Revolution.
The second time the islanders felt colonized was when Ryky was officially integrated into Japan as the
Okinawa Prefecture in 1879, but with nowhere near the same rights. And then again after the Second World
158
War, when Okinawa became a military colony, annexed by the US after the only land-based battle in the
Pacific War on Japanese soil. When Okinawa was returned to Japan in 1972, the Okinawans had hoped, after
almost 400 years of subjugation, to be finally recognized as equal citizens in a democratic state. However,
they soon realized that they were once again the victims of decisions that had been made without their
participation. Only in recent years was it revealed that, before returning the islands to the Japanese, the USA
had pressured the Japanese government, against the will of the local population, to sign a secret treaty, which
permitted the stationing of US military bases on Okinawa for an unlimited time. Thus, the archipelago of
Okinawa remains caught in a geopolitical tug of war between two self-interested and powerful protagonists
over an East Asia catapulted into the modern world. Light is thrown on this, in the meantime, final chapter in
a history of impotence and structural dependency, by many details in the exhibition. For instance, the military
themes hidden in the colorful, apparently traditional, textile patterns of Yuken Teruyas work.
When I moved to Okinawa in 2001 to take up a teaching post at the University of the Ryukyus I knew very
little about the eventful and painful history of this sub-tropical archipelago. Curiously, I had been appointed
to the art department in the faculty of education and, as a city-socialized mainlander, I was expected to teach
in a program that, loosely translated, was entitled the pedagogy of island culture.
Even though I had previously dealt in depth with exceptional places and cultures, I needed some time before I
understood what the term island culture implied as far as Okinawa was concerned. It is the combination of
confinement and vastness that defines the island experience: confinement because you are hemmed in by the
ocean, and vastness, because you are surrounded by the ocean. You are simultaneously dependent on yourself
but also directly connected to the wider world. Over the centuries, Okinawa has developed an entirely distinct
way of life that feeds off this polarity while also under the cultural influence of China, South Asia, Japan and
North America.
Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa manages to communicate an experience of this hybrid cultural identity beyond
the boundaries of historical categorization. Avoiding ossified didacticism, a carefully arranged cabinet of
curiosities, from the past, the present and an imagined future of Okinawa, is presented in the two exhibition
rooms. In his installation, Yuken Teruya unravels the chronological timeline, which we invariably seek as the
basis for our historical perspective, thus frustrating the small archivist in us from meticulously organizing
everything in the compartments of our mind. The more you allow yourself to become immersed in the world
of the artist, the more the items in the exhibition lose their object-character and are liberated from their
temporal and spatial context, to become part of a narrative that can be told only by someone who is free of
the shackles of a scientific perspective that strives for objectivity.
The exhibition, which has superficial similarities with an ethnographic presentation of objectified artifacts, is,
in reality, a highly subjective interaction with the contemporary reality of Okinawa. Unlike Western museum
concepts, the objects dont only represent the culture from which they originate, but also function as artists
tools, wielded in order to promote a dialog a dialog with the context of their origins, but also with the
visitors to the installation. One senses that Yuken Teruya himself has embarked on a voyage of discovery into
his own culture, but, unlike the Western explorers, not with the aim of objectifying and dissecting, but in
order to synthesize.
Even though much is learnt about the travails of this small island people through the installation, the visitors
leave more relieved than when they entered. That is largely thanks to the printed textile scroll, several meters
in length, made using the traditional bingata technique, on which a fictional parade for the countrys festival
of unity is depicted. This exhibitions central work transcends the military and war-scarred history of
Okinawa in a joyful procession, in which history is overcome. Within this, something akin to an Okinawan
identity, in its archetypal quality, emerges all the more clearly. It is a colorful design that attempts to give a
visionary yet tangible shape to the aspirations of the Okinawans and in so doing it links in to the post-colonial
discourse.
Yuken Teruyas Okinawa has liberated itself from the victim role that it was forced to assume over the last
two or three hundred years, and is now again in control of its own destiny. The artist has expanded the
Okinawa collection by a dimension that breaks the boundaries of the museum as an institution and invites a
discourse about the living concept of collecting, research, and archiving.
It is hoped that this kind of subjectively-involved interplay between the collection and an artist, who is at the
same time a concerned party, can be continued. It would be exciting to return the experience that such a
contemporary interplay with the collection inventory makes possible, to its place of origin, and in this way
take the artifacts out of their cabinets and stockrooms, and return them to a living discourse beyond the
boundaries of cultures and institutions.
159
Titus Spree is associate professor of art in the faculty of education at the University of the Ryukus in Okinawa, Japan.
The Okinawa Collection in Berlin

by Siegmar Nahser, in collaboration with Linda Havenstein and Alexander Hofmann
Excerpt from the information panel on the documentation of Okinawas history and the historical collection of
the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin. The text was part of the exhibition Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa.
The first director of the Knigliches Museum fr Vlkerkunde in Berlin (todays Ethnologisches Museum)
founded in 1873, Adolf Bastian (1826-1905), had at his disposal a network of contacts that were intensively
maintained through numerous travels and correspondences, and he was therefore able to make acquisitions
from all continents. 469 objects from Okinawa were ordered and purchased via the Japanese Embassy in
Berlin. The Japanese Minister of Trade and Industry, Saigo Tsukumichi (1843-1902), was given a wish list
with 14 subject groups via the German Embassy. It mainly contained testimonies of everyday culture along
with requests for exact information on origin and usage. The letter with the wish list reproduced here[LINK]
is fully in line with the notions of ethnological collecting at the time, as it was repeatedly conducted by Adolf
Bastian. As a result of the negotiations, the Japanese government on January 24, 1884, presented a list with
prices[LINK], and for a payment of 5,400 marks, the collection was brought to Berlin.
The notification of dispatch of the German Embassy to the director general of the Knigliche Museen zu
Berlin, Herrn Schne, dated October 25, 1884 states in regard to the acquisition:
"Your Highness will already have been informed by the Foreign Office that the collection of ethnologically interesting
objects from the Liukiu Islands, whose acquisition was the reason that Your Highness made use of the mediation of the
Imperial Embassy at the time, arrived several weeks ago in Tokyo and was put at my disposal.
After the collection consisting of 469 numbers was packed into 20 boxes, the consignment was sent on the 14th of the
month by Messrs. Simon, Evers & Co in Yokohama with the Hamburger ship Atlanta to the Directorate-General of the
Knigliche Museen.
The costs for the forwarder, freight and insurance are charged to Your Highness directly on delivery by the mentioned
company.
I have requested the mediation of the Foreign Office to reimburse the local government for the costs arising from the
acquisition and the Imperial Embassy for the expenses for packaging and so forth. The former amounts to 1490 yen
27sen 5rin, the latter to 152 yen 25sen, i.e., at the current exchange rate approx. 5843 M. (five thousand eight hundred
and forty three marks). I have the honor of enclosing a comprehensive catalog of the collection and a list in the Japanese
original and the German translation.
The Imperial Ambassador: signed Graf Dnhoff"
Shortly after arriving in Berlin in 1885, the artifacts were inventoried as is customary in museums and
recorded, in part bilingually, on index cards with short descriptions. A part of this collection was exhibited for
the first time in Berlin in 1892, as shown by a brief text in the tour guide of the Museum fr Vlkerkunde. Due
to the Second World War, only around 30 percent of the objects, exactly 147, are in Berlin today. The
majority of the objects were presumably confiscated by the Russian occupying forces. According to
eyewitness accounts, several others are located in special depots of the State Hermitage Museum in Saint
Petersburg.
Since 1991/92, publications with objects of the Berlin collections, including subsequent acquisitions, have
been issued. In 2000, there was a special exhibition with 50 works in the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin-
Dahlem. In 2013, after extensive preparatory work, Shukumine Kyko, professor at Okinawa Prefectural
University of Arts in Naha, was able to publish the entire Berlin stock of 70 fabrics of this provenance in a
two-volume catalog.
The Okinawa collection for Berlin was built up along ethnological and cultural-historical lines, as it has been
intended since Adolf Bastian. Further acquisitions, albeit to a lesser extent, were made from 1895 to the
present, and the collection now comprises a total of 197 objects: 70 valuable fabrics, as mentioned, and 127
objects of everyday culture.
Siegmar Nahser has been custodian of the Korean and Japanese collection of the East and North Asia department of the
Ethnologisches Museum since 1997 and has been responsible for the entire department as curator since 2006. Linda
Havenstein lives and works as a media artist in Berlin. Alexander Hofmann has been the curator for Japanese art at the
160
Museum fr Asiatische Kunst since 2004.
The Artist Yuken Teruya on his Work on a New

Okinawa Collection for Berlin
As a response to the historical objects from the Okinawa collection of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, I
proposed to enhance the collection into the present, by gathering and adding objects and textiles beginning
from the time the first collection stopped. Remnants from WWII and recent objects from Okinawa are
displayed amongst visual ideas of the future.
During the research process for this new collection, I considered the time following the development of the
historical collection (after 1846). I asked myself questions as a starting point. What were the crucial aspects
in choosing objects? What should be considered, specifically for an ethnological collection? What would I like
to see preserved for hundreds of years?
Instead of trying to determine objects that would hold the highest monetary value in the future, I started
looking for items that reflect the current Okinawa peoples movement. The items represent local cultural
activities including peace movements and activities to protect nature. I continued to ask questions throughout
my research. What is the root that inspires all these movements?
Another aspect of the collection is that the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation preserved the culture of
the Kingdom of Ryky. The kingdom was about to vanish into Japanese culture in the 19th century, when
Okinawa became part of Japan. Already having these works that address the past, my ambition developed into
considering how to capture a visualization of Okinawa in the future.
Contributions by Mr. Kuniyoshi
With Mr. Kuniyoshis generous contributions, I was able to bring 43 objects in total from his collection to
Berlin. 13 of these are on view in the show.
For more than 50 years, Mr. Kuniyoshi has been collecting objects from World War II battle sites and natural
caves, which were used as shelters and military hospitals for casualties. He unearths objects from these
locations and carefully cleans the items, removing rust. He documents all the objects, recording the date the
item was excavated and where it was found. All the objects are then displayed in his viewing room. Hand
grenades, helmets, water tanks and broken eyeglasses: all these remnants seemed to have gotten lost in time.
They do not appear to be 70 years old at all. When the objects form a collective unit, they seem to refuse to
become part of the present.
[Link Mr. Kuniyoshis contributions to On Okinawa: Collections from the Past and the Future.]
Mr. Kuniyoshi still visits the caves. Most of the caves are at the southern end of Okinawa Island, the area with
the highest reported death toll. Here, many people were forced to commit group suicide in the shelters or
people jumped off the edge of the cliff into the ocean.
Mr. Kuniyoshi has many visitors to his viewing room. As a peace education process, he offers visitors the
experience of joining his research. He lets participants collect human remains from the soil. While joining in
this process, it was a shocking experience not only to face the death and wartime, but to realize that the
deceased have been waiting for this moment for almost 70 years without being uncovered. The bodies are
being discovered at a time when populations are beginning to forget the brutal mistakes and large-scale loss
during the war.
While I joined Mr. Kuniyoshi, he found a bullet deep in the soil inside the cave and quickly parted it in two.
Crisp, shiny gunpowder poured out. He said it was a live American bullet, which he identified by the shape of
the particle gunpowder. He set it on fire with his lighter, and immediately a fresh, yellow/orange, bright flare
popped up against the blue dark cave.
This was my first sensational experience connecting to the past war. 70 years ago, suddenly becoming present
in color, and then returning to darkness in front of my eyes.
These objects of war appear to be floating in the display as if intended to be released from their historical
161
context, in a reexamination of the meaning. The floating horizontal display also continues into the other forms
throughout the exhibition, connecting past, present, and future with a new narrative.
Katsuyuki Taira: Yanbaru Forest Dwellers
Mr. Taira has been photographing wildlife in the Yanburu Forest for decades. In his images, forest residents
stare at the viewer. Mr. Taira approaches animals from a worms-eye view. When he crawls on the ground and
adjusts to the perspective of the snake (or another animal), Mr. Taira captures the relationship between
humans and animals through their eyes.
The grouping of animal photographs is like a family gathering, mirroring the collection of family photos found
on the shelves of homes worldwide.
Mr. Taira is a member of Yanbaru Donguries, an environmental protection group seeking to preserve the
forest of Yanbaru. The name derives from an oak tree within the forest that has the largest Donguri (acorns)
in Japan. Concerned lawyers and citizens established the group in April 2012, with the representatives
Attorney Jinen Kita and Attorney Asako Akamine. The purchase of these photos for the exhibition helped in
funding the work of Yanbaru Donguries, which includes research and a lawsuit against the destruction of the
forest.
[Link Contributions from Katsuyuki Taira and Yumi Nakamura]
Yumi Nakamura: Dragon
Above the animal photos by Mr. Taira is an image of the night sky.
Yumi, my close friend in Okinawa, went outside during a bright full moon one summer night to take this
photograph. When she captured the sky with her iPhone, she realized a dragon showed up in her picture
frame. This subject repeats throughout her iPhone pictures. She frequently shares these casually taken
pictures with me. Ms. Nakamura claims to see and communicate with dragons. She explains the images as
portraying a force of nature, appearing to her as a dragon.
I had a hard time accepting these images as portraits of dragons. As I view this image over and over, however,
I have found that her explanation of the images as a force of nature becomes clearer. A dragon is a rich
aspect of her worship of nature. In the same way, she interprets a passing breeze as a greeting from nature.
To me, both these instances serve as evidence of surviving animism in contemporary life. Her image is open to
be accepted as either a dragon, a picture of clouds in the light of the full moon or as something else entirely.
[Link Yumi Nakamura, Image of a Dragon 2014]
Yambaru Forest Dwellers and Dragon Display
In the combined display, I find pleasure in the fusion between life on land and life within the sky. The skys
realm joins the family of nature in Okinawa.
Parade From Far Far Away
Throughout this exhibition, my aim is to visualize what the future might look like in Okinawa. My ideas are
based on analyzing what people are currently discussing in Okinawa, and they are inspired by the over 150
works in the Dahlem Ethnological Museum/Asian Art Museum historical collection from Okinawa.
My initial introduction to this historical Okinawa collection was an emotional and moving experience. It was
as though I was just getting to know formerly unknown family members. This collection would have been
purchased from Japan in 1884/85, 120 years ago. It survived WWII in Germany. This discovery from years
ago led me to investigate what Okinawa might look like in the next 120 years.
Creating the future: The parade in Parade From Far Far Away" occurs in the future. It is a representation of
the future I want to see.
I believe that envisioning the future relates to an understanding of the past. This scroll Parade From Far Far
Away is a regeneration of the historical Okinawa collection of the Ethnological Museum. The Court dress
162
Bingata kimono (Pre-1879, cotton, bingata dye, Shuri, Okinawa) on display from the historical collection
influenced the main pattern of zigzags on the scroll, which are reminiscent of lightning bolts. The lightning
pattern traditionally symbolizes wishes of health for growing children.
The kimonos from the Okinawa collection of the Ethnological Museum also inspired the peoples clothing in
the parade. The referenced kimonos are displayed in the same room as the scroll. When I visualized the future
in terms of the clothing, I imagined a mix of past and contemporary style. Most of the kimonos in the Dahlem
Ethnological collection from the 18th century are made of dyed Basho fabric (banana leaves). In response to
this, I prepared Basho fabric from Okinawa especially for this work.
More than 110 participants were dyed within the parade. Most of the figures are based on actual people from
the past and the present. There are Okinawan politicians, writers, artists, dancers, musicians and activists,
with some people represented from different countries. Specific portraits include Tetsuo Kinj (writer of
Ultraman), Yoko Gushiken (boxer), Mao Ishikawa (photographer), Cocco (singer), Pussy Riot (artist group),
Kamejiro Senaga (politician), Iha Fuy (writer), Douglas Lummis (writer), and Susumu Inamine (current
mayor of Nago City). Some of my close friends and family members appear as well. I believe that the influence
of these past and present figures will contribute to the future.
In the parade, people walk in a demonstration style. It is conceived as a scene in the future, occurring at a
conceptualized land unification festival, held annually to celebrate the demilitarized island of Okinawa. The
event praises civilians who overcame military base issues and who preserved nature, while remaining
steadfast to cultural identities and reuniting with neighboring countries.
The parade expresses the path of history, to insure that struggles are not forgotten. The present
demonstrations are thus transformed into a future memorial festival.
[Link Parade From Far Far Away, View from On Okinawa: Collections from the Past and the Future.]
Born in Okinawa, Japan in 1973, Yuken Teruya received his BFA from Tama Art University in Tokyo, and his MFA from
the School of Visual Arts, New York. He lives and works in Okinawa and New York.
Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa / Credits

Concept and artistic realization: Yuken Teruya

Assistance: Linda Havenstein
Curators: Silvia Gaetti, Alexander Hofmann, Siegmar Nahser
Project coordination: Carolin Nser
Restoration supervision: Susanne Buch, Kerstin Flemming, Birgit Kantzenbach
Exhibition setup: Gnter Krger, Horst Gsche, Christian Markl, Mercedes Raspe
Translation: Galina Green, Angela Rosenberg
Advisors: Kyoko Shukumine, Ichiko Yonamine, Tsugiko Taira, Naoki Onaga, Masahiro Kinjo, Toshikazu
Kinjo
Bingata Production: Hiroji Kinjo, Haruka Kuniyoshi, Aimi Miyagai, Misako Aka, Makiko Shashiki, Shoko
Hentona, Sawako Tokuda, Masami Morine
Lacquer Paint: Makiko Shashiki
Translation calligraphy: Masanari Inafuku
Video Production: Hitoshi Shimoji, Kenji Oyama, Akie Yamauchi, Fija Byron, Erina Nakamine; Linda
Havenstein
New Collection: Katsuyuki Taira, Isamu Kuniyoshi, Tsukazan Public Hall, Akie Yamauchi, Yanbaru
Donguries, No Helipad Takae Residents Society, Yumi Nakamura
Special Thanks to: Manabi Muraat, Eri Kawamura
163
Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa / Imprint Documentation

Kulturbesitz (2012-2015). Directors: Martin Heller, Viola Knig, Klaas Ruitenbeek, Agnes Wegner.
As of May 2015
Exhibition view Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa, photo: Jens Ziehe
164
Exhibition view Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa, photo: Jens Ziehe
Yuken Teruya, Parade From Far Far Away, 2014, photo: Jens Ziehe
165
Yuken Teruya, Parade From Far Far Away, (detail,) 2014, photo: Jens Ziehe
Yuken Teruya, Riot Over the Ocean, 2014, photo: Jens Ziehe
166
Yuken Teruya: On Okinawa, objects from the New Collection, photo: Jens Ziehe
Dance performance by Erina Nakamine at the opening, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
167
168
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 5 - Audio Guide Special - Storylines
Audio Guide Special

Storylines
Audio Guide Special Storylines / Teaser

A museum information system that enables a clear, unobstructed view of objects? One that even lets visitors
discover the stories that link different exhibits and get a glimpse of the bigger picture? The Audio Guide
Special Storylines, developed by Serotonin for the exhibition Myth of the Golden Triangle in the
Ethnologisches Museum, aims to be just that: a non-linear audio guide that enables personalized museum
walkabouts. The sound art duo collaborated with the HTW Berlin - University of Applied Sciences to create
a gesture-controlled headphone prototype. Its potential was tested in two workshops in Dahlem and then
demonstrated in the museum as a 72-minute audio mash-up.
Audio Guide Special Storylines / Project Description
Individual Pathways through the Exhibition Landscape

by Katharina Kepplinger
Exhibition audio guides are usually based on one of two different principles: First there is the linear guide
that lays out a specific route and with it a dramatic composition. Then we have what is called a random
access guide; all audio tracks can stand alone and there is no predefined route to follow. Linear guides build
up suspense which is resolved at the end of the tour. They show links between different objects and
coordinate facts and contexts. With random access guides, the visitor is in charge. He or she decides the
length of the tour, which objects to spend more time on, and where it all starts and ends. Random access
guides allow visitors to design their own audio tour and the museum can also easily modify or expand the
guides.
With the project Audio Guide Special, the sound art duo Serotonin, made up of Marie-Luise Goerke and
Matthias Pusch, attempt to combine the advantages of these two audio guide concepts. The idea is for users
169
to find their own way through the exhibition and still create a dramatic arc. Serotonin developed a dense web
of storylines that are interwoven in different ways. Similar to a circular railway, this system lets users to
decide when they would like to stop, switch cars, continue, or even return to a previous station. A novel
approach in its current museum context, this principle can be adapted for many different exhibitions.
The Stories between the Objects
How to convey non-linear text elements in an exhibition was a central question that the Humboldt Lab
Dahlem had grappled with before the project for the Audio Guide Special was commissioned. The objective:
to reveal the stories connecting the objects. Serotonin was interested in finding an information medium that
would allow visitors to keep their focus where it mattered: on the exhibits. In cooperation with the Hochschule
fr Technik und Wirtschaft (HTW) Berlin University of Applied Sciences, the two artists collaborated with
engineers to develop a device prototype with gesture control. Thanks to a device in this case, headphones
that can recognize nodding as an affirmative gesture, visitors can decide how to navigate through the
collection without having to take their eyes off the objects or images.
Given the complex technical demands, the development of a fully functional prototype could not be completed
within the project time frame. The guides potential was therefore simulated in a 72-minute mash-up for
visitors, who could listen to recorded instructions and learn about future applications. An initial feasibility
study was completed by the HTW Berlin and a gesture-controlled headphone prototype was created and
tested during two workshops in Dahlem.
The Visitor as Curator
The Audio Guide Special was developed for the exhibition Myth of the Golden Triangle at the
Ethnological Museum. This permanent exhibition was conceived by Roland Platz, curator for South and
Southeast Asia, whose arrangement of objects, pictures, and text panels informs visitors of the lives of
mountain people in Southeast Asia. Curating an exhibition always involves decisions: choices about objects,
but also topics, emphases, and information. Because of their size, text panels cannot contain comprehensive
historical information or storylines. Nor can they be responsive to individual visitors: What are their interests?
What prior knowledge do they bring to the space?
The Audio Guide Special asks visitors to step into the role of the curator and make decisions as they go.
The guide contains audio topics defined by Marie-Luise Goerke and Matthias Pusch, which they then paired
with central exhibition pieces. Visitors choose their own path through the exhibition depending on their
interests, energy level, and state of mind: I want to find out more about opium. Stories alone are boring;
Im going to activate the sound score on my audio guide. I have a tight schedule today; the interview with
the collector Hansjrg Mayer needs to wait until next time. I am already pretty tired and dont feel like I can
absorb any more information. Im going to turn on the music score for the rest of the exhibition and just let
the objects speak for themselves. For their next visit, visitors can compose a different audio guide by making
different selections.
Mobile Guides in the Humboldt-Forum
Developing hardware that is fully dictated by artistic ideas and that enables a non-linear audio guide is both
an ambitious and a welcome endeavor. Serotonins cooperation with the HTW Berlin to develop gesture-
controlled headphones for their Audio Guide Special presents a model approach in this context. In terms of
its content and creativity, the Audio Guide Special can also be viewed as an exemplary audio guide for the
Humboldt-Forum in addition to outstanding text, sound, and narrator quality, it also offers an excellent mix
of original recordings, sounds, and music that come together to create new auditory content. The Audio
Guide Special initiates a dialog with its listeners by prompting them to make active decisions; the dynamic
software responds accordingly. Visitors receive a tour that matches their interests and follows the questions
they have about the objects and the exhibition. The Audio Guide Special can therefore be grasped as a
positive contribution to the culture of multiperspectivity that the Humboldt-Forum hopes to foster.
Katharina Kepplinger joined the Humboldt Lab Dahlem and the staff unit Humboldt-Forum in May 2015. Previously she
worked as a specialist museum assistant in professional training at the Ethnological Museum of Berlin and as a sales
assistant for audio guides and audio tours for museums and exhibitions.
170
Audio Guide Special Storylines / Positions
We took Internet hypertext and transferred it to an

audio format
The sound art duo Serotonin on their Audio Guide Special
Interview: Gaby Hartel
Marie-Luise Goerke, Matthias Pusch, lets talk about names: What made you decide to call your audio guide
special?
Matthias Pusch: An audio guide that just gives listeners snippets of information and explains different objects
doesnt serve the actual purpose of a museum. Thats our firm opinion. That purpose, to me, is to form a
connection between the objects and their hinterland. That question includes why these exact pieces were
chosen for the museum and not others. Or topics like provenance, which is currently under a lot of scrutiny.
And maybe the different issues that surround an objects origin?
Pusch: Exactly. The Pergamon Museum here in Berlin has the Pergamon Altar in its collection. Fortunately,
you could say, if we think about the recent destruction of cultural heritage that has been happening in the
Middle East. But its not enough to leave it at that and say nothing about the rather problematic idea of a
Western museum as a safe harbor. During their formative years in the 19th century, museums were
established for much different reasons than they are today.
They were conceived as institutions of teaching, collecting, and learning that met with the support of the
educated classes. Museum visitors were well-read; they could already connect the dots. Today text is used to
supply those links. Now your approach is to use the polysensory medium of sound art to convey things a
very different principle than text on a wall panel.
Marie-Luise Goerke: At the beginning of the project we started out with the very basic question of how people
approach text. We found that today, in the 21st century, linear text is still the standard, even though the
entire online world is based on a non-linear structure. We took this basic idea of non-linearity and applied it
to a complex text structure in an educational context. Definitely a big challenge.
Pusch: Because theres still no standard way to do it. We could just hand out portable devices with standard
browser-based internet access. It would be a familiar method for implementing non-linear text and visitors
would know how to use it. But the screen would come between them and the objects. And the reason why we
go to the museum is to be in a room with original pieces, to feel their aura.
Your approach is less about transmitting information, and more about knowledge transfer through
remediation, which is to say, moving from concrete objects to a more general understanding. Whats exciting
about your Audio Guide Special is that it creates direct sensory and experiential links to things that are
very distant in time and space.
Goerke: Yes, its different than a lexical approach. Most conventional audio guides rely on a text-object
correlation. There might be a few breaks and sound, music, or original recordings could be inserted into the
text. But they still dictate a prescribed pattern of how visitors should see and understand an exhibit piece. So
theyre basically about describing, providing a description of an artwork or another piece.
What role does the selection of narrators play in your work?
Goerke: An absolutely critical one! I dont want to start bashing audio guides, but the voices that you
normally hear in this context are all wrong: They are either those smooth voices you hear in advertising or
they sound clinical and perfect. There is no emotional spark and the voices have nothing to do with what is
being conveyed. We decided to use voice as an instrument to appeal to visitors and make them want to keep
delving deeper into the exhibition.
Pusch: The subtitle storylines already contains the idea of a non-hierarchical, interwoven texture thats
made up of overlapping narrative threads. The concept of storylines comes from the Australian Aborigines,
who inspired our work. The Aborigines do not grasp a landscape, or in other words their living environment,
171
as a Cartesian system of cartographic coordinates, but as an individual or collective experience, as a lyrical

system in the broadest sense.
Based on an embodied, stimulating aesthetics of walking that is currently the topic of spirited debate in art
and philosophy. Paths through the exhibition are created as an open design, and you speculate that your
storylines will be enriched by the visitors memories, prior knowledge, and interests as they decide how to
move from exhibit to exhibit.
Goerke: Walking and storylines are interwoven. Visitors dont move in a progression of numbered objects, for
example onethreeeight. Instead they try to follow a path that relates to a specific subject like economic
trade in the Golden Triangle, for example. That can take place independently of the objects one, three, and
eight, but it doesnt have to. We started by producing our idea as a 72-minute sound mash-up that we
provided to visitors during a test and evaluation phase as the Audio Guide Special. We also held workshops
using a dedicated prototype we developed with HTW the local University of Applied Sciences. The device
contains an interface with gesture recognition and we wanted to test the options for an interactive, non-linear
walkabout through the exhibition.
You draw your audience to certain thematic magnets that you use to show the complexity of life underlying
the exhibit. Your approach is more about conveying knowledge than information.
Goerke: That was the plan. For this exhibition we chose key objects like a typical Chinese shopping bag
made of plastic for certain themes and used them to get to the bigger picture: in this case, the economics of
a cultural region, with ideas we thought were important to relate.
In a different case, we werent looking to provide an exact description of Mien scroll paintings of Taoist
deities. Instead we wanted to get at what motivated the collector Hansjrg Mayer, whose voice we hear in the
audio guide, to collect these objects. He tells some really beautiful stories about them, I think. The deities
needed to be convinced to leave the paintings before they were sold. Only after this ceremony were the
paintings ready to be moved to a different cultural context. The direct narration of this ritual to prepare the
paintings for their journey is important in order to grasp the divine character of a scroll painting. A
description of the images never could have conveyed that. Our goal was to reveal these different thematic
layers.
Pusch: The artistic idea behind our work is that everyone who visits the museum depending on their
educational background and interests as well as their individual story can understand, feel, and hear it
differently. Thats why we set up certain transfer stations where visitors can dig deeper if they would like.
Basically, we took internet hypertext and transferred it to an audio format.
Your Audio Guide Special lends a personal or private aspect to the exhibition although the listener is
moving through public space.
Pusch: It does. We wanted to view the relatively manageable number of exhibits as a landscape and give
visitors the opportunity to have their own conversation with this landscape, to ask their own questions.
Dr. Gaby Hartel is a curator, art publicist, and radio journalist who works at the intersection of the visual arts,
literature, and sound art. Currently, she is a sound art curator at the Museum fr Naturkunde Berlin for Art/Nature, a
pilot project in cooperation with the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
The Berlin-based sound-art duo Serotonin is made up of author Marie-Luise Goerke and sound engineer/composer
Matthias Pusch. Together they create fictional and documentary work for radio broadcasting and audio books, as well
as numerous spatial and sound installations.
Audio Guide Special Storylines / Credits

A project of the Probebhne 5, November 9, 2014 through April 6, 2015
Exhibition curator for Myth of the Golden Triangle: Roland Platz

Artists behind the Audio Guide Special mash-up for Myth of the Golden Triangle: Serotonin (Marie-Luise
Goerke, Matthias Pusch)
172
Narrators: Friedhelm Ptok, Simone Kabst

Interviews: Hansjrg Mayer, collector; Gretel Schwrer, ethnomusicologist, Martin Luther University Halle-
Wittenberg
Composition: Martin Daske
Artistic consultant: Gaby Hartel
Device engineers: Thomas Schwotzer, HTW Berlin - University of Applied Sciences; Niclas F. Jagoda, HTW
Berlin student
Duration: Approx. 72 minutes
Audio Guide Special Storylines / Imprint

Documentation
Translation: Sarah Matthews
As of July 2015
Visitor with the Audio Guide Special in the exhibition Myth of the Golden Triangle, photo: Sebastian
Bolesch
173
Prototype of headphones that work through gesture recognition, photo: Serotonin
174
Chart visualizing the flow of a non-linear text, Serotonin
175
Installation view Audio Guide Special, photo: Jens Ziehe
Visitor with the Audio Guide Special in the exhibition Myth of the Golden Triangle, photo: Sebastian
Bolesch
176
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 5 - Waseem Ahmed Dahlem Karkhana
Waseem Ahmed
Dahlem Karkhana
Waseem Ahmed Dahlem Karkhana / Teaser

So far, the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst has presented its inventory as a historically closed chapter.
Meanwhile, lively and complex debates on the artistic tradition are taking place in the contemporary art
scenes of Asian countries themselves. An artist-in-residence program for young artists, who come from the
regions where the old artifacts were collected, is an attempt to take this reality into account more. The first
guest was the Pakistani artist Waseem Ahmed, a prominent representative of the socio-critical school of
contemporary miniature painting. He spent seven weeks in Berlin-Dahlem, creating four new works in
response to and in dialog with the museums collection. These were exhibited at the end of Ahmeds residency
along with some of Ahmeds older works, together with old album pages from the museum that contained
comparable motifs. An intensive workshop as well as open atelier hours allowed visitors to partake of the
artistic process.
Waseem Ahmed Dahlem Karkhana / Project

Description
A Young Artist, an Old Collection, a Space for

Encounter
by Martina Stoye
Up to now, the art collections from South, Southeast and Central Asia in the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst
have been organized on an archaeological and art historical basis. The inventory (2nd century BC to 19th
century AD) has been presented as a historically closed chapter; visitors still leave the permanent exhibition
without hearing a single word about the survival of corresponding artistic traditions into the present. The
177
contemporary art movements in the places of origin of these old objects are not addressed, although, since the
opening of the Bornemann version of the museum in 1970, a markedly increased intercontinental mobility and
the internet have brought a completely new quality to the interaction between European and non-European
cultures.
In the future Humboldt-Forum this living, contemporary artistic practice is to be brought into focus. With this
in mind, the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst has decided to do justice to the most recent developments in
South, Southeast and Central Asian art by setting up an artist-in-residence program, bringing young artists
from the places of origin of the older items in the collection, and giving them a platform. To establish a clear
demarcation between the museum and institutions of contemporary art, this will take place in a way that is
only possible in a house that holds a collection such as that of Berlin-Dahlem: establishing a relationship with
the classic masterpieces and permitting a comparison with them.
Pilot Project: Contemporary Miniature Painting with Waseem Ahmed
As a test-run, the Humboldt Lab Dahlem mounted the project Dahlem Karkhana or, to put it another way,
set up a Miniature Studio Dahlem. It consisted of two phases: a studio phase during the Probebhne 4 and
an exhibition during Probebhne 5. Waseem Ahmed, a prominent representative of the so-called
contemporary miniature painting a socially-critical art movement in Pakistan was invited to be resident
artist. He graduated from the National College of Arts in Lahore and is an expert not only in traditional South
Asian painting techniques, but finds inspiration in post-modern discourse and current social issues. His
paintings subtly deal with themes like abuse, religious indoctrination and fundamentalist violence. On first
glance they appear to be idyllic, impressing with their masterful technique and harmonious compositions. But
a deeper examination reveals disconcerting, deliberately placed alienation effects: blood seeps from the roots
of a tree, its leaves become characters of an imaginary text. The idylls become friable.
For the museum visitor there arises a surprising linkage between the old miniatures in the museums
collection (ostensibly belonging to a past epoch) and the topical, totally divorced from art, largely
catastrophic media images from the region. To the voices of the media reporters, who, despite intensive
research give essentially an outsider perspective, there is added an artistic language of imagery, a (critical)
insider viewpoint.
Studio and Exhibition as a Space for Encounters
For the residency, the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst set up a temporary miniature studio with a Pakistani
ambience: the rooms perimeters were laid out with carpets and cushions for prospective students; the
designated workplace for the Ustad, the master, was established in a prominent place on a particularly large
and beautiful carpet, with a low South Asian writing table. Here, in painstaking hours of work every day,
Ahmed produced four fantastic new works, drawing inspiration from four art works in the Berlin collections
(three from the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, and one from the Gemldegalerie).
Very much to the surprise of the curators, after long deliberation, Ahmed decided not to work with any of the
numerous miniature paintings in the Berlin-Dahlem collection. Instead, the artist was drawn to the Buddhist
murals from Central Asia, which had previously been completely unknown to him. Their special color palette
and motifs had him enraptured, and the empty spaces left by the passage of time (i.e. large areas of damage),
as void spaces, inspired him to create his own original additions. They offered him a rich, new repertoire of
motifs for his own core themes, mainly a discourse with forms of religious fundamentalism, which he also
pursued during the Dahlem Project. Finally, for the fourth Dahlem miniature, he was inspired by The Man in
the Golden Helmet from the Gemldegalerie in Berlin. In this way, a completely new body of work was born.
In several open studio sessions and a full weeks intensive workshop, the public was given the opportunity of
gaining insight into the art of painting miniatures and the use of traditional techniques, and even to take the
first steps themselves. At the same time the public could become involved in the whole artistic creative
process and also enter into a personal dialog with the artist. For the workshop participants it was particularly
impressive to witness how much contemplative tranquility and patient practice is necessary, in order to coax
the necessary fine lines from the squirrel-hair brushes, the primary tool of the miniature painter; or the
mixing of pigments, gum arabic and saphed (white base paint) in order to make the paints and subsequently
create the picture, layer by layer, in painstaking craftsmanship, building gradually from the rudimentary
areas to finer detailing.
178
The exhibition displayed during his residency in Berlin Dahlem showed Ahmeds newly completed pieces,
together with 33 of his older works. For this purpose 18 of these were on loan from Pakistan, England,
Belgium and Switzerland. The exhibition was able to reveal important themes from Ahmeds work, from his
final period as a student, up to the present, with a personal commentary by the artist himself. At the same
time the exhibition connected his work explicitly with items from the South Asian collection, in the sense that
the contemporary miniatures were confronted with thematically related old album pages in the collection of
the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst. These entered into a multi-layered dialog with Ahmeds own paintings. The
filmmaker Lidia Rossner, lecturer in visual anthropology at the Freie Universitt Berlin, accompanied the
painter during his residency. The short film Sound of Painting that resulted, managed to capture important
aspects of the project.
Outlook
For the curator, the exchange with Ahmed was very important, and through their dialog she gained insight
not only into the works he had created but, in addition, to many aspects of the old tradition. Through
discussions on contemporary artistic creativity, as well as the way we look at art itself, the old miniatures in
the collection could be seen in a different light. Alongside the opportunity of communicating with the artist
directly, the public was, above all, impressed by the vitality of a skilled tradition that was thought to be
defunct, and by the connection between that old tradition and the highly socially critical topicality of the
paintings subject matter. It is precisely here that the commissioning and the success of a future artist-in-
residence program for the Humboldt-Forum could lie.
Martina Stoye is curator for South and Southeast Asian art at the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst Berlin.
Waseem Ahmed Dahlem Karkhana / Positions
The Intricacy of Realistic Details

For seven weeks Waseem Ahmed worked in the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst in a miniature workshop set up
especially for him. Concentrated, in solitude, without daylight. It was a good time, says the artist: he is a night
person anyway, and for inspiration there were the Central Asian murals from the Buddhist era in the
collection next door.
Interview: Sarah Khan
Waseem Ahmed, the Dahlem Museums are in the midst of a bourgeois neighborhood. What did you think
about this working environment when you arrived?
I brought a lot of materials with me from Lahore, so it soon looked a lot like my atelier at home. I am used to
working in different places and have had several artist residencies.
You grew up in Hyderabad?
Yes. My father was a blacksmith, my mother a housewife; both are illiterate, they never went to school. But we
children received an education: one brother became a physiotherapist, one sister a radiologist and I became
an artist. My father was very skeptical about my job; 20 years ago there was practically not a single gallery in
Pakistan and in Hyderabad no one was an artist. My father was very concerned about my choice of career and
didn't speak a single word to me throughout my entire studies at the National College of Arts (NCA). I lived
in a hostel; we were housed like animals. I had no financial support and could hardly pay my bills. Only after
my studies could I sell my art, and after that things improved. That's why I always tell myself I am a lucky
fellow: I have seen and lived through all kinds of conditions.
How did you experience Berlin?
My schedule was very busy, so I was mainly working, but I could learn quite a bit about Berlins history.
Yesterday we were at the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall. That was very moving for
me. I have had very positive experiences with the museum staff. I did not just live like a prisoner in the
museum.
179
But a little bit like a prisoner?
A prisoner of my schedule. There were a lot of meetings and a film was made with me.
The film was surprising; they filmed you cooking. A Pakistani who cooks, one automatically expects a special
dish, a fantastic curry. But we see you cooking a simple omelet.
It was the first time I had cooked anything. I didn't know how. My wife explained it to me beforehand over the
phone.
You spent time concentrating on the collection of Asian art in Dahlem. In the archive there are 25,000
artifacts. Which objects interested you most?
The frescoes, Central Asian murals from the Buddhist period.
The region of present-day Pakistan has a multi-religious history, defined mainly by Buddhism and Hinduism.
Now, Pakistan is a theocracy, based on Islam. Miniature painting, on the other hand, uses the imagery of an
opulent Moghul era, a flowering of Islamic culture. Is that one reason to concern oneself with miniature
painting: because it confers a positive energy to help deal with the troubled times of the modern day? Does
that explain the popularity of miniature painting?
When I began studying those were different times. Everything was very calm, there were no mobile phones, no
internet, you hardly had any contact to the outside world. During that time I studied oil painting according to
the western ideal. I grew my hair long and tried to paint in a wild way. French painters were my role models,
above all Manet, whose colors fascinated me. My teacher had quite a few books about him, and I would look
at them. But I was a bad painter, my teachers criticized that I filled the canvases with far too much detail.
Only after six years of painting did I discover miniature painting as a minor subject at the National College of
Arts. I realized straight away that I loved the wealth of detail and the intricacy of the details, I could simply
immerse myself in them. That has nothing to do with a fashion. Nowadays many students want to study
miniature painting, the courses are in demand and numbers of students are restricted, because at least now
there is an international market for it.
Lets talk about the European paintings that you deal with in your work. You reference for example Edouard
Manets Olympia. The painting unleashed a scandal in its time because it dealt with the topic of prostitution
in a new way. What connection does that have with Pakistani miniature painting?
In Old Lahore there is the prostitution district Heera Mandi, it has been there since Moghul times. Heera
Mandi means diamond market, which actually means woman market. Prostitution was always illegal but still
went on. When Zia-ul-Haq came to power in the 1970s Heera Mundi was shut down, but that only meant that
prostitution was spread all over the other districts.
How did you utilize the Manet painting in your own work?
I painted the figure of a woman with a transparent burka. That is a big difference. It is not about prostitution,
it is about the thoughts that all men have when they see a woman in a burka. They ask themselves, what kind
of body does the woman have beneath, what does she look like naked.
The Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin owns several Manets. Did you see them?
Yes, I saw the Manets, and above all the Rembrandt in the Gemldegalerie, Man in a Golden Helmet. I was
completely thrilled to see the painting of the soldier here; I sat in front of it for hours. I have had a strong
connection to the painting for a long time, because the director of the Institute for Miniature Painting at the
NCA had the poster in his office, and I saw it there every day. He bought it in Berlin during a restoration
workshop.
The painting you made in reaction to it in the Dahlem Karkhana is called Golden Bullets. In the upper
picture segment there are bullets to be seen. Gold and silver bullets are a reoccurring motif in your paintings.
They represent the Talibans propensity to violence. Sadly it has gone so far that the people turn themselves
into weapons. By imbuing violence with a halo of glory. The shine of the golden helmet has rubbed off onto
the modern bullets. Where I grew up everyone had weapons, even young kids. I was also offered weapons, but
I refused. I don't like guns.
You use gold leaf and silver leaf overlays. Is that part of the miniature painting tradition?
180
Yes, the material was also used traditionally. You can see it in the paintings in Lahore Museum, but on the
old paintings the silver has turned black.
By coincidence I know your gold leaf and silver leaf supplier at the Old Bazaar in Lahore, he sells gold leaf
mainly for celebratory dcor materials, for sweet desserts and spices. He believes that eating it is good for
you. Many well-known Pakistani artists are his customers, but he is not particularly interested in art is he?
Yes, he is not easy to impress (laughs). He always tries to persuade me to eat powdered gold and silver for my
health, but each time I tell him I don't believe in it.
I almost have the impression that quite a few Pakistani miniature paintings use gold leaf to impress; they use
it a bit too lavishly, as though you were at the jewelers.
During the Dahlem Karkhana I only used gold leaf for one picture: for the bullets. Usually I use gold and
silver leaf rarely. I prefer to use gold as a color, painting with it. I don't want to impress anyone with it: See
here, I am rich. No.
You've been working in the Dahlem Karkhana for two months, in a museum room without daylight. How did
you manage?
Im a night owl. In Pakistan I prefer to work at night, so I am used to working with artificial lighting. I know
about the problem that the colors are different when you work under white lights. There are sometimes
mistakes when it comes to the white and yellow tones and all the light colors. But I had special daylight lamps
installed by a light specialist for the workshop. The walls were painted white beforehand to avoid distracting
reflections. They were good working conditions.
How did the miniature painting workshop with the Berlin participants go?
It was a very nice experience. At first the participants were nervous: on the first day they had to paint squares
and fill them in with fine lines. Initially I thought they would all run away as they kept looking at their
watches. Only drawing squares and lines until 12 o clock? But then they noticed that it wasn't that easy and
time flew by. Afterward they didn't want to leave Even after 5pm.
How do you feel about seeing Asian cultural heritage here in Berlin? What is your opinion on restitution?
I think the artifacts are better taken care of here. If they were with us, half of them would have been long
gone by now. In the Lahore Museum water runs down the walls, because there isnt enough money to repair
the roof. The artifacts are sold to private collectors or are simply destroyed.
Would it be important for more Pakistani artists to come here to see their cultural heritage?
For me it was important to see the sculptures and frescoes. Other things however, that are displayed in the
ethnological museums, like clothing and household objects, are of course not so important for us as we see
them in everyday life. But to discover the old art would certainly be valuable for other artists.
The last question may be a little premature, but what significance will this Berlin residency have in terms of
your biography, do you think? Have you learned something for your life or for your art?
I have learned how to use a map, read a timetable and travel by bus and subway. That is a very important
experience, even for an artist (laughs).
Sarah Khan is a freelance journalist living and working in Berlin.
The interview was held on November 10, 2014 in Berlin-Dahlem.
Wastelands
The anthropologist and art historian Virginia Whiles on the potential of interdisciplinary dialog between art
and anthropology, illustrated by case studies from her practical work in teaching and curating contemporary
art.
My shift from art history towards anthropology has been a gradual one. I have taught both Western and Asian
181
art history for over forty years in Europe and South Asia, but fifteen years ago I introduced a seminar called
"Ethnography as a Tool" for Artists into my teaching in art schools in the UK, France, India and Pakistan.
I had experienced mild yet confirmed prejudices throughout my teaching and curating of non-Western art in
both France and England. Despite the new perspectives brought into art history from semiotics,
psychoanalysis and feminist film studies there remained a huge gap in critical art history in the West, it had
quite simply left out the rest: African, Asian and Amerindian cultures. Postmodernism had scarcely affected
the modernist ethnocentric concept of Internationalism, still based on political, economic and cultural
alliances between Europe and North America, as the artist and curator of "The Other Story" (1989), Rasheed
Araeen, asked Why has the history of art of the 20th century remained a white monopoly?
Angered by this absence and enthused by my encounters with South Asian culture in the sixties (when I first
travelled overland to India), I chose to run a course on non-Western art history in my first teaching post. A
significant point here is that whereas the textile department saw this step as important, the Fine Art
department viewed it as an unnecessary option... Shades of the hegemonic structuring of colonialist art
education, as witnessed by the art institutions set up under the Raj in South Asia, dividing and ruling by
imposing westernised Fine Art over indigenous art, re-classed as craft. The indifference on the part of the
institutions towards such problems of ethnocentricity was not reflected in the student body whose
increasingly multicultural formation was in demand of changes in the curriculum.
Western arts avant-garde in the early 20th century extended the orientalist self-othering through its mode
for neo-primitivism. It entered, more or less consciously, into a relationship with both anthropology and
psychoanalysis: the two fields described by Foucault as the most privileged of modern discourses. With
increasing globalization there have been various Western postmodern efforts to curate the world, the Third
World in particular, as described by Gerardo Mosquera, the Cuban art critic: The world is practically
divided between curating cultures and curated cultures.
I turned towards anthropology in the hope of finding in its critique of ethnocentrism a means of developing a
de-orientalised understanding of how different modes of representation relate to their cultural context, to
show how ethnographic theory and practice can explore ways of understanding diverse cultural formations.
The seminar has proven to be both popular and useful to the multicultural student body due to the changing
dynamics of cultural production and the diasporic shifts in cultural identity. Since Western cultural discourse
has dominated and manipulated the processes and marketing by which cultural values are produced, the need
to challenge such processes is sensed by art students everywhere who feel the crucial need for a postcolonial
critique of globalization.
The context of the current art world is described as global yet the production is always local and scarce
attention is paid to indigenous cultural histories. Citing art practice within a particular social field shows how
ethnography can be a tool towards an understanding of other art stories: those which disturb the
ethnocentric narrative of Western art history. Ethnography denotes an empirical description of specific
cultures. In my experience, this focus on context and agency motivates the self-reflexivity critical for the study
and practice of art as a social fact. The initial reflection on the anthropological turn was written by Hal
Foster in his text "The Artist as Ethnographer" (The Return of the Real, 1996), a text that inspired my own
turn. The issues arising from the exhibitions I have curated and the consequent debates have fed into the
seminar where various topics are discussed.
Recent art has revealed a number of practices which apply ethnographical modes, in particular participant
observation, but also sociological mapping and documentation. Artists apply these methods, often through in-
situ installation. The important questions posed by Foster refer to the oft discussed problem of the
authoritarian role, either ethnographic or academic. The issue of specialisation throws up the fine line
between specific and general, particular and universal, so the question is how to integrate such methodology
into critical art practice in ways that can subvert the threat of post-colonial theory to re-inscribe the Wests
cultural authority (Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 1992). One positive side I believe is
that ethnographic fieldwork and its recent pressure on self-reflexivity may help reduce the generalized
assumptions often witnessed in writings on the art of diverse cultures by Western art critics.
Ironically one example of the risk of authoritarianism is illustrated by the curatorial tendency, ever since the
critiques of the shows Primitivism at MoMA (New York, 1989) and Magiciens de la Terre at the Centre
Georges Pompidou (Paris, 1989), to frame works from other cultures within an ethnographic discourse. Sally
Price warns that this fails because its aim to legitimize or academically contextualize the exhibition is
nevertheless based on a selection framed by Western aesthetics particularly on account of the fascination with
the primitive or exotic manifested by certain curators. Jean-Hubert Martin once stated that since any object
182
is decontextualised by being placed in a museum, the question as to its derivation is irrelevant. He later
reversed this attitude with his exhibition Partage dExotismes (Lyon, 2000), by inviting anthropologists to
select ritual artefacts that were placed alongside Western artworks. However, the focus on visual affinities
between art works and artefacts all but cancelled out the cultural and historical differences. Nancy Sullivan
wrote that although works appear contemporary by sharing the site of display, it is the lack of shared history
that produces authenticity, the less history shared the more genuine the outsider.
It is curious indeed just how little serious attention is paid by anthropologists towards contemporary art, far
more space is given to material culture and its focus on artefacts and craft production. As Everlyne
Nicodemus, African artist and former anthropologist, wrote: Surviving ritual image-making and folkloric
artefacts, with no bearing on the time we live in, have been raised to the status of authentic cultural
expression. This is the bugbear for any movement that plays with tradition, as also my experience working
with contemporary Pakistani miniature painting revealed. Their use of traditional technique is based on their
recognition of its potential function as a signifier of genuine religious tolerance. This is argued through the
reclamation of the Mughal context as one of eclecticism and cultural diversity: values threatened today by the
instrumental politics of the 'Arabist shift'.
Dr. Virginia Whiles is an art historian and anthropologist. She has been working as a critic, curator and lecturer on art
history and cultural studies in Great Britain, France and South Asia for more than 40 years. From 1999 to 2002 she
developed and ran a masters program in theoretical education at the National College of Art in Lahore.
The text is an edited version of the lecture Wastelands: Between Art and Anthropology, which she held on
January 22, as part of Waseem Ahmed - Dahlem Karkhana exhibition at the Dahlem Museums. The lecture
can be accessed as an audio file here.
Waseem Ahmed Dahlem Karkhana / Credits

A project of the Probebhne 4, September 23 through November 1, 2014 and Probebhne 5, November 9,
2014 through April 6, 2015.
Artist: Waseem Ahmed

Curator: Martina Stoye
Assistant: Laura Voigt
Administrative support: Mareen Hatoum
Restoration supervision: Juliane Wernicke
Depot assistant: Ines Buschmann
Exhibition setup: EMArt Ruben Erber
Lighting: Victor Kegli
Graphic design: Renate Sander, Antonia Neubacher
Copy-editing: Elke Kupschinsky, Galina Green
Video Production: Lidia Rossner
We would like to thank Laura Gowen, Geneva und Laurent Delaye, London and all those who loaned us
exhibits and gave their support.
Dahlem Karkhana / Imprint Documentation

As of April 2015
183
Waseem Ahmed painting at the atelier, photo: Lidia Rossner
Colours and material at the atelier, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
184
View of the atelier at the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, photo: Jens Ziehe
Waseem Ahmed talking to visitors, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
185
Exhibition view Waseem Ahmed Dahlem Karkhana, photo: Jens Ziehe
Installation view Waseem Ahmed Dahlem Karkhana, photo: Jens Ziehe
186
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 5 - Being HMONG. A Family Encounter
Being HMONG.
A Family Encounter
Being HMONG. A Family Encounter / Teaser

With the working title The Hmong Diaspora in the Swabian Jura a filmic snapshot of a family has been
created, that lives as a small ethnic minority in Baden-Wrttemberg, now in its third generation. Central
questions of identity and self-perception were elaborated on site together with the family and then
subsequently transposed into a flexible shooting script, allowing for impromptu changes and ideas,
contributed by family members, to be taken into account. The key aspects taken up by this Humboldt Lab
project were the ideas of multiple perspective and contemporary relevance, thereby picking up on the
Humboldt-Forums main themes.
Being HMONG. A Family Encounter / Project

Description
by Roland Platz, Bettina Renner and Barbara Schindler
Diaspora in the Swabian Jura
Since 2011 the exhibition Myth of the Golden Triangle has been on show at the Ethnologisches Museum in
Berlin-Dahlem and illuminates the current situation of various mountain peoples in Southeast Asia. In order
to draw attention to the fact that members of these ethnic minorities also live in Germany, texts and photos of
a Hmong family living in the Swabian Jura were displayed. In order to give this group, living in the diaspora,
a voice of its own, and to strengthen the contemporary relevance of the museum in a prominent way, the
curator Roland Platz suggested making a film for the Humboldt Lab about the Vang family, with whom he
had remained in contact over the years. The documentary filmmaker Bettina Renner who was, at that time,
working on the installation Vision: Humboldt-Forum for the Humboldt-Box, also joined the project. In joint
talks between the curator, film director and the Vang family about the feasibility of representing identity, the
187
curatorial idea was developed further into a concept and the real Humboldt Lab project took off from there.
Home Visit with a Camera
The Hmong are an ethnic minority numbering between two to three million people, living in several countries
across Southeast Asia and in southern China, largely in mountainous regions. Their culture and language
differ markedly from those of the surrounding lowland populations. Towards the end of the 1970s, many
Hmong people fled the encroaching Vietnam War, which had also spread to Laos, emigrating to Canada,
America and to Europe predominantly France and Germany. As one of ten Hmong families, the Vang family
is living in Baden-Wrttemberg and is now in its third generation. On the occasion of the 50th birthday of Yao
Vang, the curator and film director visited the southern German province. After a curatorial briefing and
establishing the themes to be raised in the film, Bettina Renner discussed all further details with the Vang
family. Together they talked about diverse issues centered on the perpetuation and transformation of their
identity as Hmong: What role did language, religion, the family, or their own culture play? How was their
relationship to Germany, to the neighbors in the village? What did they miss most, and how did the answers
given by the different generations diverge within the family? All these questions were integrated directly into
the shooting script and continually elaborated upon with the Vangs. Accordingly the first script was
intentionally quite flexible and was adjusted where necessary during shooting. This method allowed the crew
to react to the dynamic within the family and also to accommodate their impromptu suggestions. For example,
Mrs. Vang and her sister-in-law spontaneously decided to make traditional sticky rice cake usually a new
years tradition among the Hmong, but this ritual was so important to them that it was integrated into the
filmic documentation, despite the fact that filming took place during the summer. For various reasons (for
example, lack of permission to film), individual family members decided against being filmed at their
workplaces, at school or in further education, preferring to stick to their own private sphere.
One of the aspects of the project in which the family was actively involved was when it came to the choice of
language: because it is a significant part of each individuals identity, every family member decided for
themselves in which language they wished to speak. Depending on which generation they belonged to, they
spoke in Hmong, or German, in Swabian dialect or in French. Accordingly, the director chose a bilingual
Franco-German film team. The entire film has German and English subtitles.
The film team was available for eight days, while the director remained on site for a few days before and after
the shoot, in order to answer any additional questions the family might have. After completing shooting,
Bettina Renner returned to the Alps several times in order to translate the narratives from Hmong into
German together with the eldest son, Tchoua Vang, and the cousins, Rosana and Liliana Vang. She also took
the rough cut back to Baden-Wrttemberg in order to discuss the final version with the family. The consent
and participation of the Vang family during the entire process was a core aspect of the project.
Loop and Short Cut: Two Film Formats as a Method of Approach
In order to integrate the product optimally into the exhibition, the director, together with the editor,
developed a longer film version as well as several so-called shorts.
The 25-minute film was intended to work on a visual plane as well as acoustically as a loop, providing the
exhibition visitors with the opportunity of engaging with the film at any point, and being able to get
something out of it, even by watching a brief scene. Spatially somewhat separate, with seating, in an
appropriately darkened space, the documentary was shown in the permanent exhibition Myth of the Golden
Triangle during Probebhne 5.
The shorts have a duration of between one and two minutes. Because no material was to be used here that
had already been used in the long film, the shorts were completed only after the finalization of the longer
version. Varied approaches were used in terms of content, providing a direct reference to objects from the
permanent exhibition (for example on the theme of clothing), or with more abstract references (like weddings,
families). The five shorts were not available within the permanent exhibition, but they are available to watch
on the Humboldt Lab website.
As in her other documentary work, the director wanted to forgo any kind of commentary or use of music. The
idea then arose of working with the songs and music created by the family themselves, as well as background
sounds from the local environment. Thats why, in the post-production phase, the sound design was worked
on extensively.
188
The Experiment of an Encounter
The Humboldt Lab project Being HMONG. A Family Encounter was an attempt to generate an authentic
portrait of the protagonists in cooperation with them, and to talk about what it means to live in the diaspora.
The twelve main protagonists who came to the film premiere together with other family members (Yao Vang
and Lao Vang, Tchoua, Tcheng and Anja Vang, Xou Vang and See Lee, Rosana del Carmen, Liliana and Khai
Vang, Flavia and Miguel Vang) were very happy with the results and proud, as representatives of their
culture, to be able to share their story with others in a museum context.
The filmic snapshot Being HMONG documents the new positioning of minorities living in the diaspora, and
thus fulfills the fundamental requirements of the Humboldt-Forum: to engender a contemporary relevance
and, at the same time, permit multiple perspectives. That is the reason why the 25-minute film will be utilized
in the new exhibition module Struggle for Self-Determination, which will have as its theme the situation of
minorities in Northeast India (Nagaland) and the so-called Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia.
Dr. Roland Platz has been curator for South and Southeast Asia in the Ethnologisches Museum since 2009. After
studying ethnology and sociology in Freiburg, he spent extensive periods doing fieldwork in Northern Thailand and many
years as a freelance lecturer, trainer and journalist. His special field of interest is the minorities of Southeast Asia and
the associated questions of identity.
The director Bettina Renner has been making documentaries for broadcast channels like ZDF, ARTE and ARD since
2006, as well as producing video installations. Her films have been screened at international film festivals and won
awards. For her latest documentary bury my heart in dresden she received the Achievement Award for Documentary
Filmmaking in Los Angeles in 2013. Bettina Renner has completed various courses in American studies,
communications and, economics, in Dresden and the USA.
Barbara Schindler works in the field of cultural PR. After completing degrees in general and comparative literary studies
and French, she worked for the Carl Hanser Verlag, the Volksbhne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin, and Tanzplan
Deutschland. Together with Christiane Khl she supervises the online documentation of the projects for the Humboldt
Lab Dahlem.
Being HMONG. A Family Encounter / Positions
Not depicting what once was, but documenting

processes
How can the present be brought into the museum by means of film without obtruding upon the world of the
object? The filmmaker Bettina Renner, the ethnologist Steffen Khn and the exhibition developer Martin
Heller on the potential of the medium and visual anthropologys perspective.
Ms. Renner, you are a documentary filmmaker for cinema and television. You have now made a film
commissioned by the Humboldt Lab Dahlem for the Ethnologisches Museum, entitled Being HMONG. A
Family Encounter. Did the idea of making an ethnographic film influence your view of the people and your
working methods?
Bettina Renner: Not really. The heart of the project was: what is the identity of the Hmong living in the
Swabian Jura? And how has it changed over the three generations in which the Vang family has lived there?
My approach was based on my experiences as a director, and I received additional tools from the curator who
told me which questions were of interest to him. At the same time I set tasks for myself and my team, to
involve the protagonists themselves. From the outset, in the form of extensive conversations. Thats something
that differentiates this film from others. I knew it would be difficult because it can sometimes be taxing for
the protagonists. Because they think you have certain expectations and then want to fulfill them.
Steffen Khn, you have seen the film by Ms. Renner and also the historical film material that Ulrike Folie put
together for the project Seeing South. As a cultural anthropologist, how can you tell that one is a film from
189
the twenty-first century and the other films are mainly recordings from the twentieth century?
Steffen Khn: Thats a good question but I think the cut isnt really between the twentieth and the twenty-
first century. The Seeing South exhibition covers a long time span, which makes it so fascinating, and you
can see large shifts in the filmmaking methods there. What makes these films so interesting, also in terms of
the history of visual anthropology is that Papua New Guinea, after opening its borders in the 1960s, was one
of the few places in the world where first contact situations were still to be had. So a new generation of
ethnologists could test out new ideas of filmmaking with their theories and methodologies. One can see in the
exhibition that the films became increasingly reflexive and how, above all in the 1980s, the view pivots onto us
Europeans and our way of seeing.
Films not only ask to be seen, but also to be shown. Mr. Heller, this question goes to you as director of the
Humboldt Lab Dahlem and as exhibition developer: why are the films we are discussing not being screened in
the museum cinema but in the exhibition between the artifacts?
Martin Heller: For the Humboldt Lab there were two main motivating factors for Seeing South. On the one
hand a previous project had only just enabled access to the archives of ethnographic films in Dahlem. Now we
were looking at a case-study situation, where we wanted to explore the potential of connecting these two
worlds: the medial world and the world of objects, with which, primarily, we are concerned in a museum. One
should note that in the museum there is a generation gap. There are older curators who find it hard to see the
potential in film material. But its not about just piecing things together in a medial way. The museum can
also be active: it can commission work, as was the case with Being HMONG. We can think prospectively:
Where do we want to implement the medium? Of course there is the younger generation of ethnologists who
see things completely differently. What was your impression when you saw the exhibition?
Khn: I thought it was fascinating to see this thread between the objects and the films, which on the one hand
showed the context of every day life, but on the other, not simply a one-to-one translation. The fact that there
was friction and that some films led you to new paths. The film Ich bin ein Kanake for example really made
you think. It wasn't about a strange culture from the outside, but about how you yourself grew up with the
term. Watching Being HMONG was a similar experience: the most fascinating aspect was listening to the
Hmong speak Swabian and French. And thats the point at which I hit on one of the problems of the
collections, which are so taxonomically cleanly categorized, according to nationality and state and
ethnicityas ethnologists today we are much more concerned with transnationalism, syncretisms and
migration. The question surely is: how can you bring globalization into an exhibition context? And your film
brought that across successfully for me, merely on the strength of the language aspect.
Renner: I am always interested in how films can work in exhibitions, without being simply reduced to a
flickering accessory or something that dictates what you are seeing, but that instead creates something new
by its presence. And it was exciting to find out how to edit a 25-minute film so that it works as a loop. In the
sense that you have the classical narrative arc but at the same time you enable the viewer to leave or arrive at
any point.
Khn: I think ethnographic collections could learn a lot from contemporary art exhibitions. Take the two-
channel installation All That Is Solid Melts Into Air by Mark Boulos, which shows a battle of the Ogono
rebels in the Niger Delta in Northern Nigeria on one screen, where Shell is extracting oil, and the other screen
shows a Canadian stock exchange with trading taking place in so-called futures of raw materials. That is a
good image of globalization. I would wish to see more of that in an ethnological context. That probably means
having to let go of the collections to a certain extent. Or one has to succeed in putting the objects back into a
transnational context. Questions of provenance are all too often overlooked.
Heller: Collection history is a project all of its own, which we follow up with Object Biographies as part of
the Probebhne 6. But the question of how to present and examine, in which medium, that is posed time and
again. With Seeing South it was the declared aim to bring the present into the game, without imposing ones
own agenda onto the objects. Would it have been possible to show the films together with the objects in the
vitrines? Would that have made a difference?
Renner: One would have to try that out. Also in terms of spatial use one could get inspiration from art
exhibitions. In Artur Zmijewskis installation Democracies for example, the room was full of monitors,
showing protests from all over the world. But the sound came from the ceiling, and depending on where you
stood you could listen to one of the many stories. Whether you stand, or sit, whether you hear the sound
directly or via headphones all that makes a difference and has an effect on what you take in.
190
All That Is Solid ... as well as Democracies are fantastic works of art. But they do not deal with objects
within an exhibition space. This is what we were interested in though: how can a film enter into a productive
dialog with an object? Or, in reverse: how can one prevent the film from stealing the show from the object?
Because that can happen quite easily; the moving image easily draws attention to itself.
Khn: Many objects in the museum, especially if they are cult objects, have a practical value. To reduce them
merely to the aesthetic is a very western approach, a concept of art that has nothing to do with the local
contexts. It would be great if a film could be produced especially for those objects, placing them in a social
and cultural context. In the Seeing South exhibition however it is more a symbolic relationship that is
created. I like that a lot, because in this way the objects attain the role of signposts that point the way to
somewhere completely different. Thus the exhibition functions as a kind of small network.
Heller: The proportion of the objects to the amount of film material shown plays a significant role. With the
films we have undertaken a kind of punctuation of the collection. On the one hand you could argue that
Seeing South didn't go far enough in its experimenting with other forms of representation. But on the other
this restraint ensured that the objects are still intact. I found it interesting, that restraint, used systematically,
can have an effect. Ulrike Folie and Markus Schindlbeck consciously tried to display a whole range of
different connections. Its a massive difference whether I use film to show the present, in which I have no
background or context for the objects, or if I as was done here attempt to emphasize the world of objects
with the film, sounding them out. Where the Humboldt-Forum is concerned, we are still thinking about
whether we can integrate a repertory cinema with current global films. But that only impacts on the
exhibitions to a minor extent.
Renner: In preparation for the film I read a lot about the Hmong. Also about American Hmong production
companies who were making films about Hmong and sending them into communities so that they could see
their homeland and watch the traditions. The Vang family also proudly showed me one of these films. That
also contributed to my worry that the family members would think they had to fulfill certain expectations.
One day the women said they wanted to do something for us. As a filmmaker you usually recoil when
someone tells you they want to explicitly do something for the camera. In this case I just said to myself
Bettina, just let it happen, this is part of the project. They then baked rice cakes, which is usually only done
at New Years. For the women it was really important that this tradition be shown in the museum. That's why
they wanted to do that especially for the film. That made me very happy, because at that moment I realized
that they had come to see the film as theirs.
How did you explain your motivation for making the film to the family? Surely its a little strange being
musealized whilst still alive.
Renner: I told them that I was interested in how they live and how their lives, their culture, have changed over
generations. The fact that the film would be shown in a museum made them proud. At the same time the
editor Mona Bruer and I were well aware that we had a special responsibility to the family, with their lives
suddenly on display to a public audience, and that for a very long time. You always have a responsibility
toward the people you film but the duration and location make this quite different.
Heller: Responsibility drives everyone, the museum curators too, who are always reassessing their connection
to the object and the source communities. But it is very difficult to show that here in the exhibitions; the
objects alone do not communicate that. Thats the appeal of Seeing South, with its combination of film and
the permanent exhibition.
Khn: You could take that further and say if an object is given back or repatriated then the display case could
stay empty: instead of the object you could show a film about the negotiation process. I believe that that is the
challenge of a good ethnographic museum today: not depicting what once was, but to document processes.
And in those terms film has a great potential.
Heller: These Humboldt Lab projects are intended to provide the initial spark for concepts at the Humboldt-
Forum. We have experienced that collaboration between ethnologists and filmmakers can be difficult. Why do
you think that is?
Khn: There is a fear that film will bring a superficiality into the field of ethnology, because it is essentially
populist and not a medium suited to expressing theories.
Renner: The potential of film to be an enrichment is often overlooked. It is not automatically a challenge to
the preexisting body of knowledge or to the collection of objects. That is a misunderstanding.
191
Khn: In Aarhus in Denmark there is a new ethnographic museum, the Moesgaard, which has almost no
collection, but has very good facilities for screening films. I will be fascinated to see if that will become the
blueprint for an ethnographic museum that doesn't even try to carry its colonial ballast. Instead, dealing with
contemporary themes in a contemporary way.
Martin Heller is a member of the board of directors of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
Steffen Khn is a research associate for the visual and media anthropology masters course at the Freien Universitt
Berlins Ethnological Institute.
Bettina Renner is a Berlin-based documentary filmmaker. She made the documentary Being HMONG: A Family
Encounter for the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
Christiane Khl is a journalist and dramaturge based in Berlin. Together with Barbara Schindler, she supervises the
The conversation took place in March 2015 in Berlin-Dahlem. It is equally pertinent to the project Seeing South,
Probebhne 4, which is why it also appears in this dossier.
Being HMONG. A Family Encounter / Credits

A project of the Probebhne 5, November 9, 2014 through April 6, 2015
With: Cha Soua Vang and Cha My Vang; Yao Vang and Lao Vang; Tchoua, Tcheng, Pagou, Blong and Anja
Vang; Xou Vang and See Lee, Rosana del Carmen, Liliana and Khai Vang
Author, Director: Bettina Renner
Produced by: Bettina Renner
Idea and Academic consulting: Roland Platz
Narrator: Barbara Philipp
Camera: Frank van Vught
Sound: David Amsalem, Charles Grgoire
Montage / Editor: Mona Bruer
Postproduction: credo: film gmbh
Sounddesign: Ricarda Holztrattner
Sound mixer: Florian Beck
Grading: Christoph Sturm
Translation Hmong: Rosana del Carmen Vang, Liliana Vang, Tchoua Vang
Translation French: Magali Gerberon, Sarah Maret
Subtitles: Babelfisch Translations
Being HMONG. A Family Encounter / Imprint

Documentation
As of April 2015
192
Film still Being HMONG. A Family Encounter, Bettina Renner
193
Film premiere at the opening of Probebhne 5, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
194
Installation view Being HMONG. A Family Encounter, photo: Jens Ziehe
195
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 5 - Music Listening
Music Listening
Music Listening / Teaser

In the future Humboldt-Forum, the unique character of the extensive ethnomusicological collection will be
reflected in a unique Listening Space, equipped to the latest technical standards. In the Humboldt Lab
project, members of the Department of Audio Communication at the Technische Universitt Berlin tested a
fully equipped model space which was about 30 percent smaller than the future one. Music Listening was an
experiment, both in terms of its technology and its content. It endeavored to make different acoustic and
visual programs tangible using a unique acoustic playback system. Beyond this objective, it also tested new
approaches to exhibition design and involved the development of an innovative prototype for the presentation
of a comprehensive sound archive.
Music Listening / Project Description
Creating a Sound Archive

by Lars-Christian Koch and Ricarda Kopal
Based on current plans, a new Listening Space with an innovative design and equipment will serve as the
centerpiece of the ethnomusicological exhibition area in the Humboldt-Forum. The complexity of this space
requires the early development and testing of program formats, a task which was assigned to the Department
of Ethnomusicology, Media Technology and the Berlin Phonogram Archive. One central question for the
current project status is how ethnomusicological archive content in other words, sounds can be exhibited
and linked with other collection items such as photographs, film clips or video recordings, and other
ethnomusicological exhibition areas.
196
A Listening Space Takes Shape
Existing blueprints and design plans for the Humboldt-Forum were used to construct a Listening Space, albeit
one about 30 percent smaller than the future space. This space served as the platform for different programs
which, owing to their conceptual diversity, all placed different demands on the space: specific technical
equipment, sound and audiovisual material of divergent quality, or the availability of supporting information.
These programs also covered a broad spectrum in terms of content. They ranged from finding an artistic
approach to a specific sound phenomenon (Activated sounds by Werner Durand) to an introduction to
Northern Indian Kathak dance (Kathak dancing by Nicole Manon Lehmann), as well as broadcasting a Sufi
ceremony (sufisonics by Ulrich Wegner and Marcus Thomas) and, finally, channeling the noises of the North
African megacity Cairo (Ambisonic city by Albrecht Wiedmann). The programs, which were played in a
consecutive loop in the Listening Space, varied in duration from 10 to 28 minutes.
As part of the project Music Listening, designers and project participants also set out to discover how the
audiovisual documentation of an intercultural instrument-making project could be prepared for an exhibition
outside the Listening Space and made to interact with musical instruments from the collection. This
culminated in Making of ... Musical instruments construction techniques, design, aesthetics of sound. This
area combined the presentation of string instruments from the ethnomusicological collection with audiovisual
material developed in the course of the Humboldt Lab project to document the conversion of two instruments
on display and give visitors impressions of how the instruments sound and how they are played. The
audiovisual material was shown in a short format on a centrally positioned screen; two iPads were available
with more in-depth project material. The room offered ample space to take a seat and engage with the
comprehensive documentation (approximately 90 minutes total).
Music Listening coincided with the temporary exhibition Phonographed Sounds Photographed
Moments1. This overlap, in both time and space, was used to test how an audiovisual program could be used
to embed historic audio recordings and archive documents into an existing exhibition. The Humboldt Lab
program Phonographic commission by Friederike Heinze was on display in an intermediate space which
connected the temporary exhibition above and the Listening Space. Image material was displayed on a wall
using a projector; headphones attached to the opposite wall could be used to listen to acoustic elements.
Three-dimensional Sound
The Listening Space itself was built as an elliptical form and equipped with a wave field synthesis system
including Ambisonics panning, installed by project participants from the Department of Audio
Communication at the Technische Universitt (TU) Berlin. In addition, this setup included a total of 21
speakers to enable a nuanced acoustic range. Both the technical equipment and the design of the Listening
Space are based on current plans for the Humboldt-Forum. Project members from the TU Berlin describe how
the system operates: Ambisonics panning is based on decomposing virtual sound fields into spherical
harmonics. On the playback end, this type of signal display enables a simple, real-time-compatible movement
of virtual sound sources in a three-dimensional space. Added leeway in terms of design, like the ability to
manipulate volume, spatialization, distance, range or tone can make this process interesting for artistic and
creative applications.
The program sufisonics. Sounds of Mystic Islam in Hamburg provides a good example of the technical
options that come with the Ambisonics system. This sound program was conceived to introduce a Sufi
congregation in Hamburg and convey an acoustic impression of a Sufi ritual. The recordings, interviews with
congregation members, and sound bites were produced in 2014 and 2015 in Hamburg in a spatial environment
similar to the Listening Space model. The Ambisonics system was used to develop this initial recorded
material in an on-site artistic process in the Listening Space. The result largely retains the documentary
character of the raw material. In this case, the main focus was on the auditory experience; spatial design
elements were kept to a minimum.
In the Listening Space, a centrally positioned screen also provides the option to integrate image material
(photos, film, and video). The different installations applied this possibility in different ways. Kathak
dancing relies heavily on video material, for example to show movement sequences or how different
accessories required for this dance form are worn. For Ambisonic city and Activated sounds, the screen
displayed the program title as well as a brief description as a guide for visitors. Because the programs lasted
up to 28 minutes, the Listening Space was also equipped with seating.
197
The Humboldt Lab experiment Music Listening was the first trial run for a Listening Space destined for
construction in the Humboldt-Forum. Of the numerous ideas for possible audio installations in the space,
some were chosen and tested. The main selection criteria were based on preserving a broad range of content
and ideas, as well as the realization within a very narrow time frame. For subsequent planning, project
participants generated a number of important discoveries: in the future, the focus will lie more squarely on
the acoustic design of the space. Visual options should provide as much flexibility as possible so that purely
acoustic installations can also be realized. To let visitors know what they are hearing when they enter the
Listening Space, information needs to be provided about the programs (for instance in the form of a
schedule). Explanations of the innovative technical features installed in the space need to be given, especially
for the speakers and other technical components in the Humboldt-Forum, since they will no longer be visible
later on. These findings will be actively integrated into further planning for the Humboldt-Forum and phased
into both new programs and any possible changes to material generated during the Humboldt Lab project for
their further use.
1
Phonographed Sounds Photographed Moments. Sound and image documents from WWI German prison camps (from October 10, 2014 to May
3, 2015) involved a collaboration between the Department of Ethnomusicology, Media Technology and the Berlin Phonogram Archive at the
Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum of European Cultures, Berlin.
Prof. Dr. Lars-Christian Koch directs the Department of Ethnomusicology, Media Technology and the Berlin Phonogram
Archive of the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin. He is Adjunct Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Cologne
and Honorary Professor at the Academy of Arts, Berlin (UdK). His main research interests include theory and practice of
Indian music, especially Northern Indian raga, organology, the intercultural study of musical aesthetics, interpretations
of non-European music in historical context and music archeology.
Dr. Ricarda Kopal is a research associate and curator at the Department of Ethnomusicology, Media Technology and the
Berlin Phonogram Archive of the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin. In her research, she primarily focuses on (popular)
music in and from Northern Europe, interactions between new media technology, music cultures and ethnomusicological
research, as well as how ethnomusicology can approach classical music.
Music Listening / Positions
Interim Results for Future Exhibition Planning

Results from the Humboldt Lab project Music Listening are slated for integration in current exhibition
plans for the Humboldt-Forums ethnomusicological collection. With the goal of reviewing which aspects of
the technology, design, and content had proven successful and which could be recycled as well as which
could be improved or even discarded , on February 4, 2015, the Listening Space served as the venue for a
half-time talk for the project participants: Lars-Christian Koch, Ricarda Kopal, and Albrecht Wiedmann
(Ethnologisches Museum), Martin Heller and Agnes Wegner (Humboldt Lab Dahlem), Alexander Lindau
(Technische Universitt Berlin) and Vanessa Offen (Ralph Appelbaum Associates).
Compilation and editing: Barbara Schindler
Dimensions of the Interplay between Acoustic and Visual Aspects
Ricarda Kopal: The first question that we want to talk about is the combination of acoustic and visual
elements (in both the Listening Space and the Making of space) and how that works. Weve reached a
good point, I believe, where we can discuss this topic: The first program from Werner Durand was purely
acoustic, the second program, Kathak dancing by Nicole Lehmann, has very strong visual elements. Both
have helped us understand how the screen works in this space and what we can learn as we continue our
planning in the Humboldt-Forum or where we need to take a different approach.
Lars-Christian Koch: There were strong opinions as to whether we should even include a screen at all now
in Humboldt Lab and later in the Humboldt-Forum and whether we should use two or four monitors.
Because an ideal setup wasnt compatible with our budget, we agreed to not include any visual elements for
the opening of Music Listening and then add the screen later for Kathak as a test of sorts.
Martin Heller: Right now, the number of screens in the Listening Space seems like a secondary issue. What
198
really counts, I think, is being able to tune out everything else and concentrate on a purely acoustic
production. Supplementary information could be provided on a leaflet. Our current setup has a concentric
symmetry, with a central screen and chairs arranged around it. Adding the voice of a speaker to the mix
would create what Id call a classic slideshow situation and destroy the spaces potential.
Kopal: How to combine acoustic and visual components was a very basic issue we faced. But I think it went
too far; at some point the visual aspect was getting too much attention.
Albrecht Wiedmann: I think its a shame to be talking about visual components when what were doing is
designing a Listening Space. We should be looking at the technical equipment and features that have been
integrated so far and ask whether the current program is using its full potential. I think that holds for
Durands program; for Kathak a 5.1 surround system could have done the job as well. We need to decide
whether we want to integrate those types of programs in this type of space. Kathak is interesting, no doubt,
but it doesnt need all that this system can do.
Kopal: You could even say that the visual and acoustic aspects are at odds. The acoustic experience doesnt
develop its full potential because the visitor is focused on the screen probably because there is only one.
Alexander Lindau: There are also some technical and dramaturgical options that could be employed to
dissipate that tension, both in time and space. If images are going to be used, then you could give visitors the
option to move through the space if they want to see them, but its not a requirement. Another great idea that
came up was to project footsteps onto the floor to encourage visitors to follow along and dance with Kathak.
Another option for decoupling acoustic and visual program elements would be to interweave the programs.
For example, you could start off with Kathak, and then cut to black and listen to Werner Durands piece for
five minutes. That would be an option for consciously switching between visual and acoustic time-space
arrangements.
Wiedmann: But that doesnt eliminate the need to give visitors some form of orientation as to their location in
time and space.
Lindau: Thats exactly why I imagined a screen that would show the days schedule, for example. Then visitors
would see what had just happened and what was coming up. The current program would be shown in bold
and include the progress in minutes...
Vanessa Offen: Right, normally the individual programs shouldnt last longer than 20 minutes.
Kopal: Early on it also wasnt clear whether we would play the programs in a consecutive loop or whether it
would be better to set a thematic focus, to play one program Tuesdays and another Wednesdays, and
alternate on a weekly or daily basis. Thats something we could try. Then we could also rearrange the interior
furnishings and get rid of all visual elements (basically, the screen) to listen to Durands program or the Cairo
soundscape, because its not necessary in either of those contexts.
Heller: Another interesting aspect is very important: Kathak is a spoken program, and in terms of regulating
the acoustics, the sounds are probably relatively subdued in comparison with the vocal elements. Ultimately
its a didactic piece about a phenomenon but it doesnt matter whether I am sitting in the Listening Space or
at a computer. What I have is a learning session or an educational unit and at the end I have a certain
takeaway, but its no longer an experience.
Koch: The initial plans were different. We originally wanted to have four different information settings on
four screens located at different points in the space so what you hear would vary depending on your
location.
Wegner: Now thats an idea with potential! And we should definitely not forget the idea about footsteps on the
floor. That would provide an added element to an educational program then it would double as a dance
class.
Kopal: Thats exactly what we thought and its why we did these recordings with Nicole Lehmann where she
shows basic steps in Indian dance. It would have been possible to link that to illuminated spots on the floor
that would encourage people to dance. It would have been an informational program on the one hand, where
people learn something about the history of Kathak dance, for example, and then also give visitors the option
to try it for themselves. But the project took a different course.
Heller: Those are things that people can take with them: one part thats information and another thats
entertaining; it could also be interesting for other projects to decouple those two aspects.
199
Why Text and how to Integrate it
Kopal: Thats a good segue to the next question we want to talk about, which is whether a textual layer makes
sense for each program and if so, how it can be integrated.
Wegner: Whats important is to give some sort of orientation in terms of time. When people are not
immediately fascinated, they shift to stroll mode and wander through the house. Statistically, visitors spend
1.2 seconds at an object they do stay longer here because of the seats and the screen, but then they keep
strolling because they dont know how long the program lasts.
Offen: And that effect will be reinforced in the Humboldt-Forum: first, because there will be more visitors and
second, because there will be even more to see, especially in the neighboring rooms.
Heller: Getting back to the topic of text with the Kathak program I thought the shift to the information
layers was interesting, but just too packed. Up until the very end, I couldnt help but wonder how many
topics do they want to convey here? It was never really clear: from colonial history to a comprehensive history
of dance and then scenes from feature films there were so many different elements competing for attention.
Kopal: Nicole Lehmann was striving for accuracy from a scientific perspective especially when it came to
representatives from the local source community and her colleagues from India. She didnt want to make any
mistakes and she wanted to provide a comprehensive picture.
Heller: In that case I would try to apply the principle of falsification as a guideline: nothing should be
communicated that the source community would reject as incorrect. With other, more complex productions, we
need to maintain a dialog with the authors about the material thats been created and where the main focus
lies.
Wegner: What are you planning for the new Sufi program?
Wiedmann: Our colleague Ulrich Wegner recorded a religious ceremony in Hamburg in a space thats about
the same size as what we have here and he now wants to collaborate with a sound artist to broadcast the
sound recordings in our Listening Space. The installation will also include interviews with members of a Sufi
congregation in Hamburg. All in all, the piece should last no longer than 30 minutes. Wegner wants to include
a prayer corner as a fixed image; the picture should face toward the east. This program wouldnt permit a
random arrangement of screens...
Intensified Sight and Sound
Heller: Can we integrate what weve been talking about in our future planning: the idea of separate
information and entertainment blocks, keeping a clear structure for the four levels speaking, listening,
seeing, and reading text and making sure that there are less ambiguous passages, where I only see or only
hear, so unlike the radio feature we always have variety.
Kopal: That will definitely be the case. Ulrich Wegner has also scrutinized the programs weve developed to
date and given us some very specific feedback about things he would do differently. And he wants to hone in
more on listening and make it the main focus.
Offen: So there wont be a video or a still shot not even for the Sufi, where the first thing that comes to mind
is dance? I think one important issue that remains is to determine the programs or exhibits that really stand
to gain from this technical setup. Of course there will also be situations in the Humboldt-Forum where
acoustic elements will be part of an exhibition (for example old cassette recordings) and not require this type
of sound system. We need to ask what situations its best suited for and when this effect takes hold.
Lindau: The Ambisonics equipment develops its full potential with dynamic scenes that develop a presence in
space with many individual acoustic objects. The system gives us the possibility to manipulate each object in
terms of its position, distance, and spatialization.
Koch: In the future we will also design these recordings differently (see the Sufi program). Thats the true
added value that will transform our work, because these options will change how we make recordings in the
field and the material we generate.
200
Martin Heller is a member of the management board of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem and responsible for the conceptual
content of the Humboldt-Forum.
Prof. Dr. Lars-Christian Koch directs the Department of Ethnomusicology, Media Technology and the Berlin Phonogram
Archive of the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin. He is Adjunct Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Cologne
and Honorary Professor at the Academy of Arts, Berlin (UdK). His main research interests include theory and practice of
Indian music, especially Northern Indian raga, organology, the intercultural study of musical aesthetics, interpretations
of non-European music in historical context and music archeology.
Dr. Ricarda Kopal is a research associate and curator at the Department of Ethnomusicology, Media Technology and the
Berlin Phonogram Archive of the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin. In her research, she primarily focuses on (popular)
music in and from Northern Europe, interactions between new media technology, music cultures and ethnomusicological
research, as well as how ethnomusicology can approach classical music.
Dr. Alexander Lindau studied communication science, electrical engineering, and engineering acoustics at the
Technische Universitt (TU) Berlin, and completed his PhD at the Telekom Innovation Laboratories and the Department
of Audio Communication at the TU Berlin. He currently works as a postdoctoral associate and research coordinator at
the German Research Foundation (DFG) research group SEACEN (Simulation and Evaluation of Acoustical
Environments). Alexander Lindau has authored, co-authored, and co-edited more than 50 conference presentations,
journal articles, conference transcripts, and book chapters. His publications include contributions on the psychoacoustic
and cognitive assessment of virtual acoustic environments as well as their technical optimization.
Vanessa Offen became an Interpretive Planner at Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Inc. (RAA), Berlin, in 2012 and is
responsible in this capacity for all content-related matters in conjunction with the Humboldt-Forum. Prior to joining
RAA, she worked at the offices of Praxis fr Ausstellungen und Theorie [Hrlimann | Lepp | Tyradellis] as a project
manager for large temporary exhibitions which included the projects Wunder (Hamburg, 2011), Schmerz (Berlin,
2007), Arbeit. Sinn und Sorge (Dresden, Frankfurt am Main, 2009/2012), Max Frisch (Zurich and Berlin, 2011/2012),
PSYCHOanalyse (Berlin, 2006). She worked in press and PR for Studio Daniel Libeskind after studies in history, art
history and law.
Agnes Wegner became Managing Director of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem in July 2012.
Albrecht Wiedmann completed training as a sound technician and studied comparative musicology and journalism. He
currently works as a sound technician in the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin.
Barbara Schindler specializes in PR for cultural projects and events. Together with Dagmar Deuring and Christiane
Khl, she is responsible for the online project documentation of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
Words meet Sound. Accompanying Text for Musical

Exhibitions
by Elisabeth Magesacher
As part of a project for the German Research Foundation (DFG), my research involves examining current
musical exhibitions that present musical instruments from non-European contexts. Analyzing the concepts
and interpretations offered by exhibits in the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin, the Muse de la musique in
Paris, or the Mnchner Stadtmuseum is part of this project. Because one of the main focuses lies on public
reception, visitors impressions are recorded in brief interviews. What Ive noticed as I compare these
statements is that nearly all interviewees either emphasize listening opportunities samplings from different
instruments, media stations, sound installations, and similar offers as an especially memorable part of their
visit or they criticize the lack thereof in exhibitions. This illustrates, on the one hand, the (understandable)
expectation on the part of museum-goers of visiting a musical exhibition and actually hearing something
during their visit. On the other hand, it seems that despite all the technical possibilities we have today,
listening is still not par for the course in this context.
How recipients listen to sounds, make sense of, and assign a relevance to what they hear is primarily
influenced by what they already know about music, the musical context, the aural aesthetics, and similar
aspects. In musical exhibitions, written information about exhibition content can therefore take on an
important role. This information affects how visitors perceive an exhibition by suggesting individual readings,
conclusions, aha experiences, and thought processes. It can also limit or expand possibilities of
201
interpretation. In addition to conveying information and labeling, explaining, or commenting on exhibit

content, written text also provides a source of orientation by guiding visitors through an exhibition and
creating links between content. The type, quantity, and position of text are also important to how exhibitions
are received.
In the following, I will discuss the Listening Space conceptualized for the Humboldt Lab project Music
Listening and the instrument making project Making of ... from an analytical perspective with a specific
focus on accompanying text. How much text is used and where is it placed? Which functions does the text
have and does it serve an informational or an orientational purpose? Does it encourage individual conclusions
or reflection? Can it be read as separate blocks or does it only work in a specific sequence? How does it
account for the varying backgrounds and previous knowledge of visitors?
Listening Space
The Listening Space, a separate room within the exhibition area, serves as a platform for four different
audiovisual programs. There is no text in the Listening Space proper; all key information is provided outside
the room: visitors can see the program title, duration, and authors giving them a quick source of orientation
and a preview of the adjoining room. This format is accommodating to recipients who merely want a brief
overview without reading any additional text. Further information on the programs is available in the form of
brief descriptions which explain the program development, content, and structure in a few sentences and are
worded to eliminate the need for specific expertise to understand the program. This text serves to spark the
visitors interest and make them want to enter the Listening Space. In addition to program descriptions, a
poster with text, photos, and sketches provides information on the technical features and equipment in the
Listening Space. Although some more demanding explanations might not always be easy to understand for all
visitors, the figures and sketches provide a vivid glance at the technical equipment and how the Listening
Space developed in its acoustics. Two additional descriptions discuss the underlying concept of this space as
well as the exhibition Music Listening as a whole. They not only inform, but also reflect on options for
presenting audiovisual sources in exhibitions. Particularly the questions1 that are formulated in these texts
encourage an individual engagement and analysis.
The Listening Space itself contains no text, a choice that enables visitors to concentrate on the program, their
perceptions, and their individual sound experience. Text situated outside the space, in contrast, provides
information about different aspects of this concept and offers a more in-depth engagement with the content.
Making of ...
The Making of ... area contains a text about the project that led up to the exhibition: two instrument
makers, one from Germany and one from India, set out to convert two identical string instruments in order to
reflect their respective acoustic ideals. Audiovisual documentation of this intercultural project is shown on a
monitor in the exhibition area. The actual project description is preceded by a text segment2 that explains the
relationship between making instruments and culture-specific ideas of sound. Beyond being informative, the
text also encourages an individual consideration of sound aesthetics. In the exhibition itself, text segments,
which can be read independently, are placed in the immediate vicinity of instruments to comment3 on these
objects. Because they refer directly to the instruments on display, they convey a variety of information in a
very clear and concise format. This breadth appeals to visitors with different backgrounds and prior
knowledge, despite the use of specific jargon.
Connections between exhibited instruments, video material, and the intercultural instrument-making project
as the actual point of departure for the exhibition could be emphasized more clearly in the descriptions to
allow visitors to grasp the overall concept more easily. For example, while the text about the featured
instrument, a Danelectro Coral sitar, describes how the instruments were modified by the two makers from
Germany and India, the connection to the project is only understandable after having read the description in
the previously mentioned text entitled Making of ... Because of the intriguing nature of the intercultural
experiment, this explanation could be positioned far more prominently and placed, for example, on an
individual panel in a central location. This would also provide a better source of orientation in the exhibition.
References to the videos shown would also clarify the relationships between individual elements and help
bring out the overall concept more clearly.
202
Beyond Listening
The Humboldt Lab project Music Listening is highly responsive to the wish expressed by visitors to actually
hear things in musical exhibitions. The Listening Space creates a place where audiovisual sources can be
presented to an audience in a unique tonal quality and especially by eliminating any text in the space itself
the focus can be kept on listening. Not only sound samples, but also longer programs can be presented in a
separate area, so listening can assume a greater importance compared to exhibitions in other museums. The
Making of ... concept shows how musical instruments can be approached through an intercultural project
and deals with the topic of instrument making, which is frequently neglected in other musical exhibitions.
In terms of its accompanying text, Music Listening is similar to other current musical exhibits, to the extent
that it relies on a minimal quantity of text. These segments provide information at different knowledge levels
and can largely be read as independent modules. This approach to exhibition text enables an individual
interaction with the topic and goes beyond a purely informative function to initiate multiple readings among
recipients.
1
What can visitors see, when they listen? What should they hear and see? How can a sound archive, and its extremely diverse contents, be
exhibited and thus made audible and tangible [...]?
2
Musical instruments and sound objects are constructed according to aesthetic concepts that are based on culturally specific sound expectations
[...].
3
A sarod is fashioned out of a block of wood, has a tapered body, a skin soundboard and a conically tapered neck as well as resonating strings. It
is a fretless stringed instrument and with a metal plate as a fingerboard.
Elisabeth Magesacher (MMag.) studied musicology with a concentration in ethnomusicology at the University of Vienna.
Her thesis Mandoliny: Die Halslaute Sdwestmadagaskars (Mandoliny: the lute of southwest Madagascar) received a
research award from the Dr. Walther Liebehenz Foundation for excellence in cultural musicology/ethnomusicology
(Georg-August-Universitt Gttingen). She is currently a project member in the German Research Foundation (DFG)
project Music exhibitions. Studies on presentation and reception of musical topics in museums directed by Prof. Dr.
Andreas Meyer at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen.
Music Listening / Credits

A project of the Probebhne 5 and Probebhne 6, March 26, 2015 through October 18, 2015
Content coordinators: Lars-Christian Koch, Ricarda Kopal

Technical support: Technische Universitt Berlin, Audio Communication Group (Adrien Bitton, Fabian
Brinkmann, Vera Erbes, Alexander Lindau, Alexander Poletajev, Marc Voigt, Stefan Weinzierl)
Media programs and technical realization:

Activated Sounds: Werner Durand, Lidia Rossner
Kathak Dancing: Nicole Manon Lehmann, Lidia Rossner, Andrea Rostsy
Making of Musical instruments Construction Techniques, Design, Aesthetics of Sound: Georg
Braunschweig, Oliver Brzoska, Somjit DasGupta, Barbara Jungfer, Nick Page, Radhey Shyam Sharma
sufisonics. Sounds of mystical Islam in Hamburg: Marcus Thomas, Ulrich Wegner
Ambisonic City. Sounds from Cairo 2008: Albrecht Wiedmann
Phonographic Commission: Friederike Heinze
Design: Scala Ausstellungsgestaltung, Gnter Krger

Exhibition setup: EMArt Ruben Erber
Restoration supervision: Dana Freyberg
Graphic design: Antonia Neubacher, Renate Sander
203
Music Listening / Imprint Documentation

Translation: Sarah Matthews
As of October 2015
Visitors in the Listening Space, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
204
The Listening Space, photo: Jens Ziehe
205
Video still Kathak Dancing, Lidia Rossner
Installation view Making of ... Musical instruments construction techniques, design, aesthetics of sound,
photo: Jens Ziehe
206
Installation view Making of ... Musical instruments construction techniques, design, aesthetics of sound,
photo: Jens Ziehe
207
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 6 - Object Biographies
Object Biographies
Object Biographies / Teaser

How an ethnographic collection is received depends entirely on the narrative that accompanies the individual
objects. Digging into the origins, making the diversity of cultural perspectives visible this was the goal of
Object Biographies. Taking three objects from the Africa collection as case studies, this collaboration
between African and European scholars found new ways to tell the objects story, travelling back to their
origins to bring them closer to Berlins museum-going public.
Object Biographies / Project Description
Attempted Methods, New Collaborations, and Altered

Perspectives
by Verena Rodatus and Margareta von Oswald
Researching the provenance of objects in the Ethnologisches Museum has been a crucial part of the Humboldt
Labs work since the beginning. Uncovering the collection history of individual objects, some of which arrived
to Berlin museums through violent appropriation, is also an issue of acute importance to the (scholarly)
audience and plays a crucial role in the plans for the Humboldt-Forum. In the Surinam/Benin contribution
to the Knight Moves series and the Layering Meanings project, the Humboldt Lab has already presented
two possible approaches to these questions. The third such project, Object Biographies, arose from the idea
of going beyond provenance research to take two more aspects into consideration: what attributions were the
objects subject to in the local museum context? And what does their absence mean, today, in their societies of
origin? Using examples from the 75,000 items in the Africa collection, we wanted to scrutinize the interpretive
prerogative taken by museums and the categorizations they make and in doing so, to cooperate with African
scholars and proponents of critical museum studies. The concrete objects we chose to work with were figures
208
(so-called bocio) from what is today the Republic of Benin, a pair of figures from the historical Kom
Kingdom (in modern-day Cameroon), and a stool made by the so-called Master of Buli from the historical
Kingdom of Luba (in the modern-day Democratic Republic of Congo).
Searching for Traces and Research
As the narrative element of the exhibition, we employed the approach of object biography, which has drawn
increased attention within the academic field and seen increased use in recent decades that is to say, to
trace the checkered lives of the objects: Where do they come from? How did they arrive in Berlin? How did
they change owners through exchange, purchase, plunder, or as gifts? How were they finally received in the
Berlin museum, how were they described, handled, and exhibited? This method of research enabled two
things: One, to focus on the collection history of the objects, above all within the context of German
colonialism. Two, to excavate the changes of meaning that the things have undergone, as the systems used by
museums for ordering and categorizing ethnographic objects have changed dramatically over time. Depending
on when and where they were exhibited, their status has oscillated between being objects of art and being
objects of culture, thus contributing to how symbolic and material value is attributed to them.
The selected pair of figures from the Kom Kingdom in the grassfields of Cameroon and the stool of the so-
called Master of Buli from the historical Kingdom of Luba are very prominent examples of the collection
that arrived at the Berlin Ethnologisches Museum at the highpoint of German colonialism, in the early
twentieth century. We were interested in their exhibition history as well as their collection history, and for
this reason we didnt only conduct research in collection files, travel reports, and inventory books, but also
through documentation of exhibitions, films, and art catalogues that we found in the museum archives and
libraries in Dahlem. Our research confirmed that the Kom objects stemmed from violent collection contexts;
in addition to this, we learned that the historical facts we researched were not typically mentioned in earlier
exhibitions.
Collaborative Curating
We felt it was important to incorporate the positions of our African colleagues. For this reason we invited art
historian Mathias Alubafi (Cameroon, currently a specialist at the Human Sciences Research Council,
Pretoria, South Africa) and Romuald Tchibozo (Universit dAbomey-Calavi, Benin) to pursue the question of
what the absence of the objects meant in their respective lands of origin. In the text he composed for the
exhibition, Mathias Alubafi wrote: As repatriation debates, especially with regard to African and Cameroon
art currently being held in Western museums, take center stage in discussions between the social actors
involved, opinions are needed to understand whether or not the absence of these objects has an impact on the
source community. As part of a joint research trip with Romuald Tchibozo and the filmmaker Anna Lisa
Ramella, we traced a bundle from the collection composed of eight objects, so-called bocio that had been
stored unnoticed in the warehouse of the Berlin museum since the late 1960s, back to their original site in
Benin. Tchibozo has a scholarly interest in bocio, which are difficult to find today in Benin. On location, we
interviewed a broad spectrum of actors (artists, museologists, collectors, and art dealers) about the possible
reasons for the bocios absence their varying answers can be seen on a four-channel video installation within
the exhibition, and convey something of the diverse historical, religious, and political reasons for the present-
day absence of the objects.
We arranged two internal workshops with curator and scholar Nora Sternfeld and anthropologist Friedrich
von Bose in order to discuss the whole project with colleagues while it was still in the development process.
Together we discussed how to visualize, through contemporary forms of museum presentation, the innovative
academic positions toward the history of collecting and exhibiting ethnographic objects. The discussion
resulted in the desire that Object Biographies facilitates space for critical confrontation, and alters how
visitors perceive the objects in the museum.
Visualization of the Problem
Now the task was to translate these curatorial aspects of the project into an exhibition format and to visualize
the scholarly confrontation with the object histories. In close cooperation with the design team ADDITIV and
Descloux Engelschall, we developed a design to do so: the exhibition architecture takes the form of an
equilateral triangle; an object (group) is presented on each of its exterior sides. The histories of the objects
collection and representation are narrated by presenting the objects together with the collection files, photos,
209
films, and publications. The interior of the triangle symbolically represents the core of the museum, the
storage facility. Cutouts are made into the exhibition walls, creating different sight axes and thereby allowing
not only for connections between the three objects and the associated material, but also literalizing the view
behind the curtains of the museum. We consciously chose the space in front of the entrance to the
Ethnologisches Museums permanent exhibition Art from Africa as the site of the Humboldt Lab exhibition:
in place of an overview of the historical art of Africa, we aimed at making visible the capacious history of
individual objects from Africa.
The Other Museum
Object Biographies rotates the gaze, directing it at the museum itself at its history, practices, and
networks. Alongside the problem of provenance, it scrutinizes the museum categorizations that have
characterized the limited Western view toward Africa and its artistic and cultural productions. The exhibition
aims to encourage an altered way of handling museum objects in the future for example, by engaging
intensively with actors from Africa and seeking out their expertise. In addition to this, from the very
beginning, it was important for us not only to convey the content via objects, images, and texts, but also to
make the exhibition itself a site of discussion. Therefore, we organized tours at regular intervals and
deliberately invited scholars, curators, and students to attend, or they approached us on their own. Depending
on the individual emphases of their research, our conversations ranged from critical museum studies, old
art from Africa, to contemporary debates about the Humboldt-Forum. Many visitors reported coming to view
the museum objects in a different light, beginning to question how the objects arrived inside the museum. Our
goal of sensitizing the public to the museums sometimes problematic collection history seems to have
succeeded.
Dr. Verena Rodatus studied psychology and fine arts at the University of Bremen. Since 2003, she has studied regularly
in West Africa (Togo, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Senegal). The subject of her doctorate was the representation of
contemporary art from the continent of Africa, and was finished in early 2015 under the title Postkoloniale Positionen?
Die Biennale DAKART im Kontext des internationalen Kunstbetriebs. After working as academic staff for the special
exhibition Kaboom! Comic in der Kunst (2012/2013) at the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art (Bremen), she worked at
the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin. From September 2015, Rodatus works as research assistant in the department of
the Arts of Africa at the Freie Universitt Berlin.
Margareta von Oswald has studied social sciences and anthropology in Bordeaux, Stuttgart, and Paris. She is currently
working on her dissertation project Relational Things: Luba Sculptures in European Colonial Collections. As part of
her analysis of a specific group of objects from Congo, her work addresses contemporary processes of transformation in
ethnographic museums in Europe. After a long research stay at the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin, during which she
took an active role in the planning process for the Humboldt-Forum, she will continue her research from July to
November 2015 at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Tervuren, Belgium).
Object Biographies / Positions
Putting the Collection through Its Paces: A Plea for

More Object Studies and Collections History
by Larissa Frster
In 1911, Bernhard Ankermann, the director of the African Department at the Berliner Museum fr
Vlkerkunde, had the collection areas of the museum notated on a map of Africa. The darkest shading was
reserved for those regions where the museum believed it possessed complete or nearly comprehensive
collections. In the Humboldt Lab exhibition Object Biographies, the map in question hangs conspicuously
beside a map marked with the German colonies in Africa. There you see it: the areas with complete or nearly
comprehensive collections are almost perfectly coextensive with the German colonies in Africa. For most
other regions in Africa, Ankermann only designates relatively good, poor/incomplete, or even no or
almost no collections. Seldom has the fanatical colonial utopia of complete reproducibility or collectability
of the material cultures of non-European societies been more concisely summed up in word or image.
210
In Object Biographies, clever juxtapositions like this serve to visualize, in revealing and striking ways, the
history and politics that underlie ethnographic collections. By presenting three very different biographies of
objects stretching from the nineteenth century to the 1960s, the Humboldt Lab production opens up an
important space for historical reflection especially through its placement in front of the oft-criticized older
section of the Dahlem permanent exhibition Art from Africa, which immerses the objects in a dark historical
abyss. But the Humboldt Lab exhibition also expands the conception of what a museum can be: by presenting
the letters, inventory books, and records in which the exhibited objects appear, the exhibition reminds viewers
that a museum is not only a collection of artifacts, but also a collection of classifying, interpreting documents
and texts about these things which themselves have the character of objects. Only the two in conjunction
serve to endow the institution of museum with its power (and interpretive prerogative), to explain this power
(and prerogative). Especially considering that Berlins Ethnologisches Museum has an archive that is
comprehensive and of great historical interest.
Object Biographies thereby continues an effort to put the Dahlem collections into perspective that was first
begun in 2011, when the installation The King and His Throne was shown at the Humboldt-Box in
connection with the Humboldt-Forum. There too, at center was an object biography in this case, the
circumstances surrounding the 1908 acquisition of the Bamum King Ibrahim Njoyas throne and its journey
into the Berlin collection. For your recollection: King Njoyas throne, which in fact boasts a highly interesting
and not entirely undisputed biography, occupies a central position in the Dahlem permanent exhibition Art
from Africa where, however, only a few explanatory sentences are devoted to it. Even at the programmatic
special exhibition A Different Approach to the World: The Humboldt-Forum in the Berlin Palace from 2009,
fairly general references to the Humboldt brothers and Adolf Bastian sufficed to thematize the history of the
Dahlem collections. It is therefore high time that Dahlem makes an effort to investigate its holdings more
closely from the perspective of the collections history even if, as the curators of the Humboldt Lab
exhibition Object Biographies rightly concede, many junctures in the acquisition and shipment history can
no longer be illuminated. To be sure, since the publication of works like Arjun Appadurais The Social Life of
Things (1988) and Igor Kopytoffs The Cultural Biography of Things (1986), approaches that emphasize
object biographies and collections history have become so well-established within academic discourse that
some critics have taken to calling for a return to questions of materiality and the construction of meaning.
However, these approaches can still be brought to bear on recent debates, whether the subject is the agency
of things, actor-network theory, or non-Western ontologies. They can thereby also serve as points of
departure for theoretical issues that are further afield, as is currently an intensive topic of discussion in
anthropology.
Case studies like those in the exhibition Object Biographies, I believe, should be the starting point for a
more broadly conceived study of collections history, which would situate the Dahlem collection (and others
like it) within larger historical contexts. Such an approach could serve to highlight connections to other
ethnological museums. For example, there is also a (little known) armchair of King Njoya at the
Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne; there are other Bamum thrones at the Palace Museum in Foumban
(Cameroon). Such an approach could also forge connections between different museum genres Im
thinking, for instance, of museums of history or natural history, whose holdings gathered around 1900 can
often be traced back to the same collector or collecting campaign. Finally, such an approach could more
systematically shed light on connections to collections of the same origin in different countries, or even in the
land of origin itself (whose national museums themselves often trace back to colonial roots).
One wishes a museum like the Ethnologisches Museum in Dahlem had time to conduct such a fundamental
historicization and contextualization of its collections on a broader basis and at that, to do so before the
objects are shipped off to Museum Island to compete with the most beautiful cultural treasures of Berlin and
the whole world. Such a process might make the complexly intertwined colonial and postcolonial histories
behind the objects more visible objects that have often been perceived as representatives of a culture,
ethnicity, or entire cultural practice but it would also shed light on the figures and motivations behind their
shipment from one place to another, on the appropriation and interpretation, the devaluation and
valorization, and finally too on the auratic charge that is assigned to non-European objects. Research projects
and studies that are conceived collaboratively, like the collaboration in this case with the Beninese art
historian Romuald Tchibozo, can sometimes lead to entirely new appraisals or even rediscoveries of objects
in the collection that have hitherto received little attention.
This also makes clear that studies of collections history involve a great deal more than thoroughly
inventorying and processing the holdings. Likewise, such studies should go beyond simple provenance
research that seeks to determine the prior owner, clarify the legality of the acquisition, and serve as
preliminary work for a possible restitution negotiation. To a greater degree, such studies are of central
211
significance for the process of critically reflecting on the institution ethnological museum, and for
embedding ethnological holdings within the colonial and postcolonial histories of global entanglement. That
such a process of historical embedding also, in the end, yields new connections, networks, and meanings,
follows as a matter of course and can point the way for the collection and exhibition practices of museums
in the future.
Dr. Larissa Frster is an anthropologist and academic coordinator at the Morphomata International Center for
Advanced Studies at the University of Cologne, as well as spokesperson for the AG Museum of the German
Anthropological Association. She is currently studying the history of ethnographic museums and collections as well as
transnational restitution and repatriation procedures. She was co-curator of the exhibitions Namibia Germany: A
Shared/Divided History: Resistance, Violence, Memory (Cologne and Berlin, 2004/2005) and Afropolis: City/Media/Art
(Cologne and Bayreuth, 2010/2011).
Absent Objects and Academic Collaboration: The Case

of the Bocio
by Romuald Tchibozo
The bocio, a type of figure whose production was once widespread in South and Central Benin, presented an
opportunity for the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin and the Universit dAbomey-Calavi to begin a scholarly
collaboration. Cooperation of this sort between Germany and Benin is not new, but it continues to be rare. It
was truly necessary in this case. In what follows, I will depict how it came to be.
Back when I was researching my dissertation, I had contacted the Ethnologisches Museum in order to round
out my data. My project, which dealt with the reception of contemporary African art in Germany, required
from the outset that I understand how traditional art had been received. Id hoped to be able to trace this
process at the museum. My application to research in the storage facility, however, was denied. Now, Ive
returned to Germany 15 years later on another research project, and the same museum asks for my
involvement in an exhibition project on the biography of objects from Africa the museum has opened itself
up. What are the reasons for this opening? What was the collaboration about? What results have we achieved?
How should we evaluate this academic collaboration?
The Problems and Objectives of Collaboration
In 2013 one of my students, David Gnonhouvi, proposed a topic for his doctorate degree. Regrettably,
working on this topic ultimately proved impossible for him. The topic was: Lart sculptural Agonlin: essai
danalyse stylistique: Contribution une meilleure lisibilit de lhistoire partir de ltude du Bocio et du
masque Guld (Sculpture from Agonlin: Approach to a Stylistic Analysis: Contribution to a Better
Understanding of History on the Basis of an Investigation of Bocio and Gelede Masks). For such an
investigation, one would need a body of evidence making it possible to take a long period of time into
account, at least 25 to 30 years of continuous production and such a body of work was not available.
In principle, such a well-founded stylistic investigation would be possible in Agonlin, as the area has a long
tradition of sculpture. Considering the region lies close to Abomey, the Royal Palaces there might well have
sourced or commissioned pieces from Agonlin. For this reason, I recommended that David factored into his
investigation the possibility of the Royal Palaces exerting an influence on the shapes of the figures. But
despite multiple trips to the region of Agonlin, he and I could find no more bocio. Rather, again and again we
discovered that formerly available figures had gone missing for various reasons: In the course of
Christianization, bocio producers and the figures had been demonized and many bocio were destroyed. Many
figures disappeared during colonization, or the new rulers exerted direct or indirect influence upon their
production because there was no longer any demand for traditional bocio within the communities that had
converted to Christianity, manufacturers aligned their work with the wishes of colonialists and African
travellers in order to earn money. Since Benins independence, the production of bocio has dwindled,
especially because of the fact that, under socialism, the official practice of traditional cults was forbidden.
There was nowhere with a sufficient body of work from Agonlin, not even the Porto-Novo Museum of
Ethnography. While the museum possesses a large number of bocio, they originate from across the entire
region where the figures were produced a region that stretches all the way to Togo. As some of the objects
212
lacked precise data, it was impossible to assemble a sufficiently large body of figures that undoubtedly
originated from Agonlin. David gave up his research topic.
Thus, in Benin, the objects for the research are absent. And they are absent from the museums of
ethnography there. What could be done? In fact, a small collection of bocio can be found in Berlin. Thanks to
the organization of the exhibition Object Biographies and Berlin museums desire that researchers from
Germany and Benin collaborate, it has been possible to advance our studies of the bocio. At the same time,
the exhibition served as a chance to reflect upon the cooperation situation itself.
Methodology and Implementation
Carrying out the project demanded that we employ various methods. Of great help were discussions,
workshops, mail exchanges, telephone conversations, and a research trip to Benin. We selected a specific
methodology or a synthesis of methods for every stage. The first conversations were held with Verena
Rodatus, and together we developed the idea of decolonizing the research; somewhat later, Margareta von
Oswald, the co-curator of the project, joined in. After our first joint visit to the storage facility of the
Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin, we decided to work on the so-called bocio. We discovered there that the
museum owns a number of pieces that were produced in the 1960s, likely for tourists and collectors. These
posed the question of their predecessors and served as a catalyst for us to devote ourselves jointly to the
topic of the absent objects on site. In the accompanying workshops, we debated the hypothesis that objects
from a variety of time periods are absent on site today. Thus we arrived at the idea of making our topic the
story of the student David Gnonhouvi, as well as the question of what the absence of objects in Benin
means. We decided to take a research trip together to Benin and make a film about it. This should serve as
testimony to the problem of the absent objects that is, to the circumstance that, in order to study the
objects, one must visit European museums and private collections.
The research trip, from December 5 to 11, 2014, led from Cotonou through Porto-Novo, from Agonlin to
Abomey, and back to Cotonou. Before this, we conducted two workshops with our colleagues Verena,
Margareta, and Anna Lisa Ramella, the filmmaker. The first workshop was devoted to the concept of the
exhibition, clips from the film recordings, and the function of the film in the exhibition. In the second
workshop, we discussed the topic, the problem of researching bocio, and the absence thus far of an academic
debate in Benin. David introduced the places we would be visiting and gave an overview of the contact people
in Agonlin, Abomey, and Porto-Novo. In addition to this, we compiled an interview guideline for the film
research in which we asked after the original nature of the bocio, while resolving at the same time to do as
much justice as possible to the variety of religions in the region where the investigations were to be carried
out. The following questions were also posed: What was the goal of the film? What did we want to express
with the film? To whom in Berlin was the film oriented? Could it be shown in Benin?
The results of the conversations during the first stage of the trip already proved to be revealing, and on the
whole confirmed the perception that the bocio from Agonlin had mostly disappeared. The stopover in Porto-
Novo proved important in multiple respects. First, the interview with the artist Kouas had some surprises in
store: he himself owned a few beautiful bocio figures and had incorporated them into his work. We
additionally learned that there is a broad typology of bocio. The visit to the Museum of Ethnography
confirmed this assessment. Conspicuous was the fact that the museum primarily possesses large bocio figures,
which confirms the hypothesis that the smaller, transportable bocio had been taken away.
In Agonlin, we conducted the same interview process with many different subjects. Once again, in our
subjects narratives we stumbled across the afore-mentioned explanations for the disappearance of the pieces:
looting, the sale of family property, destruction of the objects by priests, and the systematic suppression of
belief in these figures. Here too, we came to the same conclusion: there was not a sufficient body of these
specialized types of objects to prepare a stylistic investigation of bocio from the region.
The final stop in Abomey was equally interesting. One of the interviewees, Gimass Gabin, with his extensive
and moving private collection that lent key insights about production in the region, proved to be a valuable
source for the investigation. But even here, there were too few bocio from Agonlin to assemble a body for
research. Monique, a hotel proprietor in Abomey, also opened up her astonishingly diverse collection to us.
At the end of our trip on December 11, 2014, a symposium took place on the campus of the Universit
dAbomey-Calavi. There, we hoped to discuss our thoughts about the bocio as absent objects with students
of art history. A number of my students reported about their research in various places; this proved to be an
interesting follow-up to our journey.
213
Perspectives on Academic Collaboration
Above all, the collaboration was founded on the question of how to decolonize research. My colleagues are
young scholars posing this question in the context of Berlin museums. Although the museum seems to be
starting to open up, and a generation change may perhaps be taking place there, the call for decolonization
seems somewhat utopian. Such a stance from an African scholar toward the subject might sound like pure
reproach or simple dismissal. But its not that. Much more, the impression Ive attained is that we must take
great care not to talk past one another. One reason for this is the unawareness among many of our colleagues
in the north about the reality in Africa. From my perspective, there is a danger here of persisting in old
clichs, as if Africa has not long had its own distinct scholarly landscape. Another especially serious reason is
the asymmetry of academic structures, whose working methods since colonization, on both sides, have only
slowly been adapted to new realities.
Therefore, collaboration still poses difficulties. But the small experience we made together is a major step.
What makes this collaboration unique is the joint interest in the topic of a trip to Benin. Now, what is
important is to continue the equitable collaboration, so that the results may be profitable for both sides that
is, to precisely evaluate the information that was achieved and to reflect upon it. Only through this can the
clichs about the different cultural communities gradually be worn away. Progress must also be made at a
greater scale. Research topics must be coordinated, and the scholarly interests and responsibilities of all
parties must be taken into account.
For me, its already a significant step that the problems I stumbled upon ten years ago in Berlin have now
become an object of study. Certainly, there are many more such problems to be solved yet that is not the
task of this article.
Dr. Romuald Tchibozo completed his doctorate at Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin on the topic Art and Arbitrary: A
Study of the African Contemporary Art Reception in the West; the German Case from 1950 to the Present Day. Today he
is Professor of Contemporary Art and International Cultural Relations at the Universit dAbomey-Calavi in Benin. He
also teaches introductory courses in art history at the Regional Center for Cultural Action of Lom. His most recent
research has been dedicated to the development of contemporary art in Benin and various issues pertaining to the
practice of art history. In 2013/14, Tchibozo was a fellow at the Berlin research program Art Histories & Aesthetic
Practices.
Object Biographies / Credits

Curators: Margareta von Oswald, Verena Rodatus

Academic and curatorial consultants: Friedrich von Bose, Jonathan Fine, Paola Ivanov, Nora Sternfeld
Exhibition design: ADDITIV und Descloux Engelschall
Video installation: Anna Lisa Ramella
Graphics: Antonia Neubacher
Translations: Jonathan Fine, Galina Green
Subtitles: BABELFISCH TRANSLATIONS Thomas Cooper
Media technology: EIDOTECH, Bernd Hauke
Lighting: Viktor Kgli, Wang Fu
Object Biographies / Imprint Documentation

Editors: Dagmar Deuring, Barbara Schindler
Translations: Rob Madole
As of July 2015
214
Installation view Object Biographies, photo: Jens Ziehe
215
Visitors at the opening, photo: Jan Windszus
216
Visitors looking at the bocio, photo: Jan Windszus
217
218
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 6 - Enchantment / Beauty Parlour
Enchantment /
Beauty Parlour
Enchantment / Beauty Parlour / Teaser

All artifacts presented in the Ethnologisches Museum have a cultural practice as their source. How can we
make these contexts and the aesthetic practices embedded therein more tangible for museum visitors? As a
prototype for a section of the Africa exhibition area in the Humboldt-Forum the project Enchantment /
Beauty Parlour dedicated itself to the communication of the Swahili concept of beauty. According to the
aesthetic of the Muslim coastal societies of East Africa, a reception situation was to be created, that appealed
to the senses synaesthetically, and permitted a direct experience. The stage designer Dominic Huber designed
a walk-in beauty parlor for the purpose; functioning at once as stage set, sculpture and enchanting space.
With the aid of a complex range of music, lighting, film, scent, as well as the audio narration of the beautician
Maimuna Abdalla Said Difini the visitors became a part of a preparatory wedding ritual.
Enchantment / Beauty Parlour / Project Description
Narrative Spaces in Museum Pedagogy

by Paola Ivanov und Andrea Rostsy
The aesthetics of the Muslim coastal societies of East Africa (Swahili) combine all senses sight, hearing,
touch, smell, taste, kinesthetic sense while also addressing the spirit. These aesthetics are particularly
apparent in the female sphere of Swahili culture, in which the internal and external, spiritual and physical
beauty and purity are realized in the production and presentation of the brides aesthetic perfection.
As a prototype for a section of the future Africa exhibition area in the Humboldt-Forum, the project
Enchantment / Beauty Parlour focused on how aesthetic principles and practices in the context of which
the artifacts of the East African Swahili Coast were and are embedded can be made more perceptible for
museum visitors. How, in this process, can one critically reflect on the theoretical fundaments of
219
representation of non-European worlds of experience in European ethnological museums and on the

associated problems with such a translation? And: Is it possible to experience, through the immersion in scent,
music, color, shine, haptics and movement, this enchantment as it is described in Mombasa, Lamu and
Zanzibar as an effect of beauty?
The concept and goal of Enchantment / Beauty Parlour was to create a situation of reception that appealed
synesthetically to all the senses and facilitate an unmediated visitor experience. The director and
scenographer Dominic Huber, who was in charge of the projects conception and realization, transferred a
familiar theatrical concept, so-called narrative spaces, to the museum. He developed an experimental
installation, which would immerse the visitors in a subjective narrative, and his team constructed a hyper-
realistic, fully-equipped beauty parlor, which resembled something between a private ambiance and a beauty
salon on the street. Advised and assisted by Paola Ivanov, curator of the Africa collection at the
Ethnologisches Museum and project organizer, and by Jasmin Mahazi, a specialist in Swahili culture and
literature, fabrics, materials, utensils, colors and scents, songs and poems were selected. Dominic Huber
developed the narrative initially in written interviews together with beautician Maimuna Abdalla Said
Difini, who is from the Swahili coast. These interviews formed the basis for film recordings made directly in
the beauty parlor in the museum during a second production phase. Via a sensor, the film, lights, sound and
scent were set in a sequence of events triggered by the visitors.
Enchantment on Demand
Enchantment / Beauty Parlour was a free-standing installation, which, with its clearly recognizable exterior
wooden construction and transparent covering, rendered it both sculptural and set-like. Singing, street noise,
birdsong and the sound of ocean waves could be heard issuing from within. Walking around the structure,
you could discover a concealed entrance, with the words Beauty Salon written on the door. A lamp signaled
if the room was vacant or occupied. An icon indicated that taking pictures was prohibited. Anyone which is
unusual in a museum who wished to individually engage in a seven-minute exploration of the work,
separated the curtain in the doorway and stepped into a waiting room, which was furnished with a stool,
pictures, a mirror and a wooden sign with the Swahili greeting karibu (welcome). On a small shelf there was
a radio, from which a womans voice greeted the visitor, whom she instructed to select a language via a switch
on the wall and to enter the salon, which looked to be in business, but just happened to be empty. Maimunas
voice then commanded the visitor to sit down in the styling chair. In the meantime, a look around revealed a
paper rosette made of bills, a pack of gold masks and flower adornments. The room suddenly came to life.
The light changed and became colorful, scenes of a Swahili wedding appeared on the TV, a fan began turning,
a woman sang an old song and the smell of perfume filled the air. On the large, semi-transparent mirror
screen above the styling tables a projection of Maimuna appeared. Next to her emerged the silhouette of a
woman, who seemed to be sitting in the same salon chair as the guest, and whose image seemed to melt into
the visitors own mirror image. The beautification process began.
With Maimuna and the stories she told during the treatment, the guest was able to immerse him or herself in
an environment that is unfamiliar to most: the beauty practices and wedding rituals of the Swahili coast of
East Africa. Maimuna told of her childhood, of her decision to become a beautician and of the meaning of a
song that could be heard playing in the room. After just seven minutes, the enchantment Maimunas gift to
the foreign guests was over. With her final words echoing in ones head, May you succeed in everything
and take care of your marriage, the visitor left the room through another door and found him/herself in a
kind of vestibule between the salons wooden exterior wall and the transparent covering. In six display cases
inserted into the wooden structure, objects were presented as in a dresser or a drawer. They needed no
auratization, because they were displayed in their context of use, and thus conveyed their cultural context as
well. Some objects for beautification, such as ankle bracelets and sandals made of silver or combs made of
ebony, came from the collection, while other things, such as kanga wraps or lush rhinestone jewelry, had been
recently acquired in Lamu or Mombasa. At the end of the curved corridor, the visitor re-entered the normal
museum space and looked out onto the terrace in the garden outside.
Non-stop Participation and Interpretation
Enchantment / Beauty Parlour demonstrated that the narrative spaces format has great potential for the
mediation of cultural practices. The salon was a sculpture, set and seduction; it irritated and it addressed all
the senses. Those who dared enter allowed themselves to be engaged for seven minutes. That this time period
could be condensed into an intense experience was thanks not only to the richly detailed salon fittings and the
virtual appearance of Maimuna, but also because the visitor was directly addressed as a guest and as
220
Maimunas customer for beautification. These media-driven interactions, which included scent, light and
sound, enchanted many visitors.
The intensity and reflexivity of the exclusive, individual visits were based on the fact that visitors were offered
a deliberately subjective presentation and experience rather than a museum-typical (pseudo) objectivity.
Whether the intimate dimension of beautification or its spiritual significance was well received by all guests
cannot be answered. It was apparent from the audiences reaction, however, that the presentation did not
clearly enough relay the fact that the herein privileged insight into the culture of Swahili was a valuable gift
of beauty. In museums in contrast to more theatrically oriented narrative spaces actors are not present to
interact with the visitors and direct the staged experience along clear lines. In this context, during the
development of the project it was discussed whether the inside of the beauty parlor should only be accessible
to women, as is usual on the Swahili coast. Ultimately the decision was made to conform to the museum
context and make the installation accessible to all visitors.
With its move into Humboldt-Forum and, thus, its permanent presentation, Beauty Parlour will have to
reconsider these aspects, as well as the demands of accessibility for a greater number of visitors, which
conflicts with the one-person mode of presentation. However, it certainly already represents an enrichment
and expansion of exhibition practice.
Dr. Paola Ivanov has been the curator of the Africa collection in the Ethnologisches Museum since 2012. Andrea Rostsy
is a visual artist and media curator.
Enchantment / Beauty Parlour / Positions
A Museum for the Future

by Hudita Nura Mustafa
Sensory Saturation, Multiple Media and Personal Narrations Asserting the Vitality of Muslim
Cosmopolitanism
The installation Enchantment / Beauty Parlour presents a very ordinary place, a beauty parlor, which you
think you know. But then you dont. At once theatre set and Cabinet of Wonders it provokes your curiosity.
As you circle its unfinished exterior, you hear sea waves, traffic and gentle singing. Something different is in
the air a smell, a sound, a stage set, an exotic culture? The pink door tells you its a Beauty Parlour and a
lilting female voice welcomes you with karibu.
Scaffolded on the sweet scent of perfume and poetry, the narrative space of Enchantment / Beauty Parlour
conveys the key aesthetic principles of Swahili culture, beauty (uzuri) and purity (usafi), through sensory
saturation and personal narrations of Swahili women. It tells stories through multiple media but allows
personal exploration and discovery. Five portraits of Arab movie stars decorate the entry hall. Then your eyes
move over overflowing shelves. These include iconic museum objects of the Muslim world such as perfume
jars, vases and boxes, pages from the Koran. There are also modern fashion accoutrements such as false hair,
lace dresses and veils, henna and nail polish. Distinctly Swahili floral sachets adorn the room. Bright color
accents of pink paint, green dresses and blue chairs enliven the visual display. The exaggerated, hyper-real
quality of the space ironizes museum authority and the real display cases of authentic, catalogued artifacts
are literally holes in the wall outside.
The installation strives for cultural translation of a key dimension of a Swahili life world that forms the
backbone of art, religion and the self. Its content, form and pedagogy largely succeed and significantly
innovate dominant museum representations of African and Islamic societies. The substantive content is both
appealing and strategic as it asserts the vitality of Muslim cosmopolitanism and the central role of women as
social and ritual actors. Swahili culture is forged from centuries of trade, cultural hybridity, and
intermarriage along the Indian Ocean coasts of Africa, South Asia and the Arabian Peninsula. It provides a
rich counterpoint to stereotypes of repressive African and Islamic societies.
The critique of imperialist museum histories and innovative curation are underway. In the Humboldt Lab
Dahlem exhibitions at the Ethnologisches Museum, Object Biographies and Provincializing Europe (part
221
of the project EuropeTest) projects exemplify this work. It is less clear how museums can shape public
culture and intercultural pedagogy given heightened contemporary struggles over representation. In
European media, classrooms and public debates Muslim persons and societies are often stereotyped as violent
others. European Muslim communities need their own cultural memory and founding narratives within
national social fabrics. Signs of attention to this matter include the recent show at the Pergamons Museum of
Islamic Art of an Afghan refugee painters work in relation to calligraphy. The ONE GOD - Abraham's
Legacy on the Nile exhibit at the Bode-Museum celebrated the co-existence of Christian Coptic, Muslim and
Jewish crafts, art and societies in medieval Alexandria. Inspired by Enchantment / Beauty Parlour, I also
offer some strategies.
A Model of Hospitality
Hospitality, as an ideal for collaborative curation, strives towards the dialogic and generous sharing of
cultural knowledge. In terms of content, it highlights the place of the domestic sphere in intercultural
encounter.
Through the words of Swahili women, visitors learn that the brides metamorphosis epitomizes the cultivation
of purity through practices and conduct of beauty. Most importantly in the busy installation, as you sit in the
styling chair, a talking mirror reflects back not your image but a video of Maimuna Difini who recounts her
choice to become a hairdresser, the details of bridal preparations, and Swahili values. A Mombasa beautician
and project collaborator, in the video she is styling a European tourist. A television screen shows a wedding
ceremony in which a bride is presented to her husband, then family. She wears many lace dresses and veils,
rich make-up and perfume, and sculpted hair. Her skin is brightened by sandalwood and her hands intricately
painted with henna. These videos are supplemented by a soundtrack of Taarab wedding music, ocean waves,
traffic and a traditional poem. In this sung poem a mother advises her daughter to pursue the beautiful
conduct of piety, self-sacrifice, respect for others, as well as adornment and marriage. Once invited into this
elaborate female world, unknown to most museum visitors, you choose enchantment, dismissal or insistent
prejudice.
But is this only a beauty shack, a playground of exotic aestheticized difference? Islamicate sensoria are
connected to both social and spiritual strivings. The project as it stands does not sufficiently convey the
interdependence of personal beautification, moral conduct, piety and purity. For instance, Oud perfume is
used for luxury dress, conjugal seduction, cleansing homes as well as for prayer. God is beautiful and loves
beauty, the scriptures say. Background information could explain the strategic use of beauty in social
mobility through womens economic activity in fashion, in marriage alliances, in divorce, women headed
households or by those of slave origin status aspiring to noble worlds. That is, beauty and its contexts cover
the range of connective and disruptive processes of community life, both affirming and challenging social
order.
A Model of Performance
With regard to curatorial practice, the theatrical narrative space of Enchantment / Beauty Parlour disrupts
and ironizes indexical, didactic museum authority with diverse strategies of representation which upstage
the few display cases. This plurality allows exploration of how objects and images are used in context;
perhaps visitors should be allowed to use objects with limits.
The dispersed quality of spatial arrangement is a counterpoint to the static hierarchy of value in museum
displays, which visitors often do not understand anyway. Furthermore, here native informants do not simply
perform their rituals or tell life histories as visual adjuncts to object display. They greet, sing poetry, tell their
lives to, teach and advise the visitor. The plurality of objects and media, some of which speak, smell and
move, displace catalogue cards and encourage a participatory audience.
A future version could include space for visitors to socialize, many more styling seats, use cameras, albums or
magazines, try on dresses or hairstyles. It could also include even more talking mirrors or windows with
videos that display different aspects of beauty in social life from womens marriage engagement parties to Eid
celebrations (major religious celebrations) to street scenes.
A Model of the Archive
Providing a space to make history and so imagine a future is perhaps the most critical contribution of a
222
museum to public life. While it does not exhibit papers, it documents cosmopolitan histories on various scales:
regional, urban, family and personal. For instance, luxury perfumes such as Oud or sandalwood are imported
from Arabia and India. Lace cloth comes from China or Saudi Arabia. Cameras were once colonial machines
of objectification but are now fully localized for the purposes of individual and family histories.
The collaborative process itself between disciplinary experts and Maimuna, a practitioner, opens up questions
about the purpose of commemorating a still evolving popular culture.
For refugees, for instance, personal objects and photographs are precious currency of remembrance. Building
a community narrative through objects and commemorative spaces offer a path to belonging and a future.
These actions require skill and time, not just emotion. Basic facilities such as touch screen information desks
can provide visitors with background information and paths of engagement through the African and Asian
museums. Potential themes include gender and family, work and status, empires and nations, or luxury trade.
Object-based themes could follow, for instance, sandalwood through exhibits on Swahili beauty, Asian art and
oceanic history. There should be the option of recording and emailing ones pathway.
In sum, in addition to its richly elaborate, enjoyable presentation of Swahili culture, the Beauty Parlour
offers numerous strategies to resituate African and Islamic cultures, and their womens worlds, as living
traditions in museum spaces.
Dr. Hudita Nura Mustafa is an anthropologist and independent researcher with interests in globalization, gender and
urbanism. She has taught at Emory University, Sarah Lawrence College and at the Hutchins Center for African and Afro-
American Research (Harvard University). She has worked across the world, conducting local research on refugees in
London, contemporary art and exhibition, Senegalese fashion and urban villages.
The Aesthetic of Atmospheres

by Steffen Khn
The Installation Enchantment / Beauty Parlour as a Designed Space of Perception
In The Predicament of Culture the historian James Clifford sketches a history of ethnographic modes of
representation, using the example of two Paris museums the Palais du Trocadro and the Muse de
lHomme and the very different exhibition practices of each of them. The (older) Trocadro represented
something akin to a richly stocked curiosity cabinet, evoking alien worlds through dioramas and costumed
mannequins, presenting its collection of items as objts dart, free of context, and thereby serving the interests
of the Parisian bohme and their proclivity for exoticism. (Picasso for example completed studies for his art
ngre here, which was to lead, in the end, to Cubism.) In contrast, the Muse de lHomme, which replaced the
Trocadro after 1937, was dedicated to the idea of a universalist ethnographic humanism. Committed to
public education and scientific rigor, the museum offered not only research laboratories but also study
collections in which mankind and its culture could be contemplated holistically, in order to make the foreign
comprehensible.
The Muse de lHomme soon set the benchmark for ethnological museums worldwide, in which the artifact
collections were now largely structured taxonomically according to geographic region and cultural difference
(and within the represented cultures, classified and presented according to clearly delineated central themes
like religion, economics etc.). Nevertheless, in a programmatic essay for its opening, the writer and
ethnologist Michel Leiris could not resist indulging in a nostalgic reminiscence of the recently demolished
Troca. In his essay, Leiris warns of the two great abstractions, science and art, which, in the new museum
concept, are invariably construed as opposites.
Enchantment / Beauty Parlour transgresses this rigorously guarded separation light-footedly, and dares to
create an immersive, scenographic experiential space. While a scholarly exhibition paradigm does not
envisage collection artifacts evoking concrete images or moods, the installation created by Dominic Huber
counters this. His installation dramatizes its theme the aesthetic aspect of Swahili culture as a
multisensory aesthetic experience in which objects from the ethnographic collection, contemporary everyday
objects, the use of video, sound, a dramatic lighting concept and even the introduction of odors, evokes an
almost synaesthetic relationship. Very unlike the dimly lit corridors of the Trocadro with its chaotically
arranged exotica and the musty smell of sweet decay, repeatedly described by Picasso, here the observer
223
moves through an exhibition arrangement, which has internalized the lessons of the Crisis of Representation
and the New Museology.
Huber and curator Paola Ivanov enlist a clearly crafted hyperrealism as a counterpoint to an ethnographic
realism with its dilemmas and blind spots (the constructed scholarly authority, the unchallenged
epistemological status of its analytical categories and its knowledge systems, rooted in colonial history). Not
for a moment does the installation give the impression of trying to simply replicate a genuine East African
beauty parlor. Instead, each carefully chosen element in the interior of the installation (the neon lamps,
plastic chairs and make-up utensils) contributes towards an atmospheric condensation of the evoked lifeworld
while the external shell confidently demonstrates its scenery-like character.
This hyperrealist mode of representation can be perhaps best described by Gernot Bhmes concept of an
aesthetic of atmospheres. For Bhme atmosphere is neither the state of a subject nor the characteristic of an
object, but rather something that results in the relationship between the two: the mutuality of the given reality
of the person perceiving and of what is perceived. Atmosphere cannot thus be traced back to a single object,
but must be understood as an environment, that is characterized by the assembly of individual objects. The
role of the object is therefore not simply one of a mere bearer of semiotic meaning (as is the case in
ethnographic realism) but is constituted by its own aura and material presence. Bhme differentiates here
between two highly influential concepts in German philosophy Realitt (the factual fact, the catalogable
characteristics of an object) which we appropriate through recognition, and Wirklichkeit (the actual fact,
its appearance as such) which is appropriated by us through our perception.
In this sense, Enchantment / Beauty Parlour is not an attempt to replicate a cultural reality, but an
orchestration of atmospheres, a staged, modulated space, which gives the visitor an immersive synaesthetic
experience of an aesthetically foreign world. For the contemporary ethnological museum the creation of such
spaces of perception offer unlimited opportunities in terms of the presentation of their own collection
artifacts, which, according to Bhme, are inexhaustible: there are no boundaries to the potential
Wirklichkeiten, of which they could become part.
Dr. Steffen Khn is a research associate at the research area Visual and Media Anthropology, Institute for Social and
Cultural Anthropology at Freie Universitt Berlin.
Enchantment / Beauty Parlour / Credits

Concept, direction, set design: Dominic Huber, blendwerk gmbh

Content supervision: Paola Ivanov
Specialist consultation and translations from Swahili: Jasmin Mahazi
Project management: Andrea Rostsy
Beautification expert: Maimuna Defini
Voice, stand-in video: Lara Krte
Artistic assistant, set builder: Ute Freitag, Bro fr kleinteilige Lsungen
Set design assistant: Marianne Schwarzbach
Controls, programming: Georg Werner
Sound design: Knut Jensen
Lighting, event technology: Sven Nichterlein
Fragrance design: Skanta Design / Fragrance Design
Intern: Rosemarie Becker
Research and consultant on presentation: Maike Schimanowski
We would like to thank the Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel for the loan of the aroma diffusers.
224
Enchantment / Beauty Parlour / Imprint

Documentation
As of November 2015
Installation view Enchantment / Beauty Parlour, photo: Jens Ziehe
225
226
Installation view Enchantment / Beauty Parlour, photo: Jan Windszus
227
228
www.humboldt-lab.de - Projects - Probebhne 7 - (No) Place in the Sun
(No) Place in the Sun
(No) Place in the Sun / Teaser

The history of ethnological museums is intimately interwoven with the history of colonialism. Not least that is
why the topic of colonialism needs to be dealt with in museums. Communicating the range of themes to
children and teenagers is particularly challenging: they want to be approached on an emotive level as well as
cognitively. Activity orientation, interactive elements, atmospheric aspects and experience play a major role in
the exhibition design. But how can such a violent topic be adequately depicted for young people? Especially
when, in addition to historical facts, the consequences, like everyday racism, need to be revealed? The project
(No) Place in the Sun tried to find polyphonic solutions which, through a combination of facts, videos and
games, seek to explain that colonialism and racism are part of German history which can be told from a
variety of perspectives.
(No) Place in the Sun / Project Description
Speaking the Unspoken

by Ute Marxreiter
With one word: we dont want to put anyone in the shade, but we too demand our place in the sun. In a
variation of the famous quote by the later Reich Chancellor Bernhard von Blow, with which he wanted to
expand the colonial policies of the German Empire in Africa in 1897, the project (No) Place in the Sun deals
with the German colonial history and its interconnection with the Ethnologisches Museum. The central focus
is the question of how this topic can be best communicated to younger visitor groups.
In the future Humboldt-Forum there will be four areas explicitly created for children, teenagers and families,
called junior areas. One of these areas is directly adjacent to the exhibition modules on Africa. Because
229
colonialism will also be a topic in this area, it seemed apposite to use the adjacent junior area for a condensed
presentation on this range of themes. While the other exhibition areas inspire you to look and contemplate, in
the junior areas touching, trying things out and being active is welcomed. This apparent discrepancy leads
many museums to outsource displays into separate designated childrens museums. It is therefore a
courageous step on the part of the Ethnologisches Museum to integrate the junior areas into the exhibition
flow.
Within the Humboldt Lab project, scenographic solutions focusing on the theme of colonialism were to be
explored. The aim was to deal with topics and presentation modes that have a strong relevance in the
everyday reality of young people today. Activity orientation, interactive elements, atmospheric aspects and
experience play a major role in the exhibition design. But what is it that we want to communicate to children
and teenagers on the topic of colonialism in Africa? In addition to a violent colonial history for which
Germany was responsible in a variety of African regions and in which the Ethnologisches Museum, with its
acquisition of tens of thousands of objects, is also implicated, to this day, in almost all walks of life, there
are still a whole raft of clichs, racist undertones and exotifications on the topic of Africa to be found.
Project Development
As the initiator of the project I deliberately chose a small but heterogeneous team of five from different
specialist backgrounds, who came together to develop ideas and strategies in various workshops. Three
statements were important for us in defining our approach and attitude: Firstly, colonial structures affect us
in our daily world to this day; especially in the day-to-day lives of many teenagers, the implications of colonial
power, injustice, exploitation, racism, marginalization and violence still play a role. Secondly, we were acutely
aware that the topic is dealt with only marginally in the German school curriculum. And last, but not least, we
saw a particular responsibility for this issue at the Ethnologisches Museum, because all ethnological museums
were founded within the context of colonialism.
A raised awareness, sensitization and discussing the commemorative aspects of culture are all themes we
wished to target, which were derived from the core topic. In doing so we pursued a postcolonial approach,
based on the assumption that colonialism does not end with the formal declaration of independence and that
for dealing with the topic, a transparency about the spoken and the unspoken is essential. Equally the
interdependencies and connections between different protagonists must be examined.
For our working methods, that meant we wanted to hand over the authority of definition, in part to activist
protagonists who view the Ethnologisches Museum and the planning for the Humboldt-Forum in a highly
critical light. This proved to be difficult in practice however: not everyone wanted to enter a dialog with us or
to cooperate.
The Space
In (No) Place in the Sun we focused on German colonialism between 1884 and 1914 in order to be able to
deal with the extensive topic adequately for teenagers on an area of 100 square meters and in order to
emphasize the concrete connection to Berlin.
The result was an exhibition space with an intro and five different theme islands, which depicted significant
aspects of German colonial history in Africa. The theme islands are an invitation to interact: two stations
visualize important historical facts; stations on the topic of everyday racism and on questions of
decolonization form the bridge to the present. For example the video clips of the young German man of color,
Sidney Frenz, who humorously talks about all the clichs he is confronted with in his daily life: Can I touch
your hair? Do you speak African?
The relevance to the present also played an important role on the theme island about the genocide of the
Herero. In fact current political events basically overtook the discussion dealt with here: in July 2015, just
after the opening of the Probebhne 7, the genocide of the Herero and Nama was, for the first time in history,
named and recognized as such in a Federal German Government press conference. For us it was a rare joy to
be able to update our exhibition module accordingly: after all, part of the exhibition dealt with the history of
the long and delicate struggle for this recognition in the German parliament, and an interview with Israel
Kanautijke, a Herero descendent and activist, was shown, in which he talks about his view of the topic.
In order to depict historical connections we devised a timeline with different perspectives: what was important
from the point of view of the German occupying forces? What did the story look like for the African resistance
230
fighters? Five central events were placed as moveable markers on the timeline, in order to demonstrate the
subjective ways that facts can be interpreted, and history told, as well as the lack of closure that is inherent in
history. Visitors can also trace the growing number of objects in the Africa collection of the Ethnologisches
Museum during these years by means of symbols: from around 3500 objects in 1880 to an increase of over
60,000 objects in 1920.
A video game introduces the visitor to the heyday of German colonial activities in West Africa around 1900.
The player slips into the role of an African king in the Cameroon Grasslands, in the process getting to know
some background information on several objects in the Africa collection. The player also becomes aware of
why King Njoya, who served as the role model for the king in the game, presented the German Kaiser with the
throne that is now one of the highlights of the Africa collection in the Ethnologisches Museum. King Njoya
tried, with this opulent present, to positively influence his relationship with the German Empire. In the game
it becomes clear how precarious his situation was and to what extent he felt threatened by the violent
conflicts with the German occupying forces.
Outlook
Whether this test run succeeds in communicating the topic of German colonialism in the context of the
Ethnologisches Museum successfully to teenagers remains to be seen: from late autumn 2015 school children
and experts are invited to explore the exhibit and to evaluate it.
We look forward to seeing if the connection between day-to-day racism and colonial history is revealed to the
visitors, and whether they are emotionally affected by our exhibition. This aspect especially led to many
discussions in the planning and development stages: how do we succeed in the balancing act between naming
of violent historical facts and our pedagogic responsibility to the children not to traumatize them? What role
does empathy play? How should we handle visual materials?
We look forward to further answers and suggestions to these and other questions that will flow into the
development of the junior area in the Humboldt-Forum. Initial discussions on the project, held with groups of
students and visitors, offer grounds for optimism: everyday racism, decolonization and politically correct
language are obviously topics that everyone thinks about and that lead to emotional and highly charged
discussions.
Ute Marxreiter is a research associate for education at the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum fr
Asiatische Kunst. Her focus is on the development of the junior areas for the Humboldt-Forum.
(No) Place in the Sun / Positions
First till the earth, then sow the seeds

Cassandra Ellerbe-Dck is a diversity trainer and a member of the team of curators for (No) Place in the
Sun. Israel Kaunatjike is a descendent of the Herero and introduced the topic of genocide into the discussion
within the framework of the exhibition. In conversation they talk about the successes and difficulties of
cooperation between institution and activists, missed opportunities and necessary revisions.
Interview: Anne Haeming
Mr. Kaunatjike, when you were asked if you would participate in the exhibition, what was your first reaction?
Israel Kaunatjike: I was very happy, because the history of German colonialism and the genocide of the
Herero need to be more widely known. It is not enough to simply talk to adults; children need to be addressed
too. Colonialism and its results affects us all.
And you, Ms. Ellerbe-Dck?
Cassandra Ellerbe-Dck: I welcomed the idea but I was also somewhat skeptical. Because I know that many
people from the African community have a highly critical view of the Ethnologisches Museum and the
Humboldt-Forum. But you have to deal with the fact that colonial thought patterns are still part of our
231
everyday lives. My role was to make a contribution to the discussion on racist language and racist imagery.
Did you set any preconditions for your participation in the project?
Ellerbe-Dck: I said I can only take part in the project if we succeed in communicating a critical perspective
on racism. I think we have succeeded in doing that.
What were your favorite exhibits?
Kaunatjike: Oh, I liked everything.
Ellerbe-Dck: Above all I think its great that we have succeeded in making a topic like everyday racism
accessible to 14-year-olds. For example in the film project by the young Sidney Frenz from Berlin, which led
the audience to reflect on why some people feel they have the right to touch a black persons hair, why there
is another name for Schokoksse (editor's note: Schokoksse/chocolate kisses are chocolate covered
marshmallows, until recently known as Negerksse/negro kisses), and why someone says, It looks like a
Hottentot hut in here. I also wanted to use lots of texts, examples, films from the African diaspora but the
copyright holders refused permission.
Why?
Ellerbe-Dck: Between the lines I was told: We like you and your work for a different institution, sure. But
there? No way.
Which institution: the Ethnologisches Museum or what will become of it in the Humboldt-Forum?
Ellerbe-Dck: They dont want to have anything to do with the Humboldt-Forum. I can understand that. But
my experience with the Humboldt Lab was very positive. We had lots of discussions within the team of
curators, but we were all on the same wavelength in terms of ideas.
Herr Kaunatjike, how did your fellow campaigners react to your involvement?
Kaunatjike: They all respect that it is my responsibility to talk about the genocide and German colonialism in
West Africa as often as I can. I am aware of the discussion surrounding Humboldt 21 and the groups who
are against it said to me: Israel, do your thing. I havent spoken about their issues not in order to avoid
conflict, but simply because thats not the focus of my work.
How would you describe the underlying problem? From the museum side there is and was a desire to work
together with representatives of the community.
Ellerbe-Dck: I joined the curator group for the exhibition (No) Place in the Sun too late to be able to
comment on what discussions took place and how. But what can be said is: the attempt failed. There has to be
a desire to communicate. Many dont really understand what were concerned about. Those who demand that
we should only speak about M*-Strae without spelling out the whole street name
... you mean Mohrenstrae (editor's note: Blackamoor Street) in Berlin-Mitte ...
Ellerbe-Dck: ... are quickly dismissed as radical by institutions.
Kaunatjike: The so-called radicals demanded something, and in response the other side said: No, we will
protect our booty. From then on neither side listened to the other. The damage caused in the process wont be
so easy to iron out.
Ellerbe-Dck: Despite the fact that the etymological root of radix means origin: that's exactly what we
want, to go back to the roots and then to see how we can rethink the situation.
How could this knotty problem be solved?
Ellerbe-Dck: One thing is clear: people of color must be brought in to participate in developing the concept
of the Humboldt-Forum. The decision-makers should think about how it arrived at the point that the African
diaspora wants nothing to do with it instead of disqualifying us and our interests as too extreme.
Kaunatjike: The German-Namibian associations also consider me to be radical, simply because I claim the
right to demand recognition of the German massacre of the Herero people as genocide from the Federal
Government.
232
By the way: (No) Place in the Sun clearly states that it is genocide. Was that undisputed from the start?
Ellerbe-Dck: We left it up to the children and young adults to decide for themselves in this part of the
exhibition. We listed the facts and showed the images, so that they could think about it: this number of people
were murdered, their land was taken from them, they were herded into concentration camps what category
of injustice is that?
What do you make of this strategy Mr Kaunatjike?
Kaunatjike: I think its good. I have been fighting for many years for the German government to recognize the
genocide. Its a sign of progress that Mr. Lammert, the president of the Bundestag, has now begun to use the
term.
One subject of the discussion is the objects in the ethnological collection itself. I was surprised that not a
single one was displayed in the exhibition.
Ellerbe-Dck: The fact is: young people look at the objects and move right on. Nothing sticks in the memory.
Thats why we were consistent about making the exhibition interactive throughout: in this way they have to
deal with the topic directly. Regardless of whether they read a text or try out the computer game about the
Bamun conflict in the Cameroon Grasslands, in which, unusually, they have to make decisions from the
perspective of a Bamun chieftain about how best to negotiate with the colonial masters.
Kaunatjike: Above all, it needs clarifying which of the 75,000 objects in the Africa collection in Dahlem should
be designated as looted art. How an object ended up in the museum must, in future, be noted down in the
object description and not merely Namibia, 19th century.
Do you think that ethnological museums have a justification for their existence?
Ellerbe-Dck: That is a complex question. But the ethnological attitude and the institution need an update, an
overhaul. One aspect of that must be to involve more voices and not to show just one side of the story.
Hermann Parzinger, the president of the Stiftung Preuischer Kulturbesitz, formulated it in a similar fashion:
the Humboldt-Forum should show a polyphonic narrative of an object from differing perspectives ours
and that of the others and perhaps a common one.
Ellerbe-Dck: But that is only possible if representatives of the communities are involved in the decision-
making structures. Thats the only way to break up the status quo. On top of that, it has been proven long
since that diverse teams work better and more creatively. There are so many highly qualified people of color,
active in cultural and museum fields, regardless of whether in Africa or in the diaspora!
Kaunatjike: It often fails when the people taken on board simply nod through the narrative that the decision-
makers want anyway. While those of a different opinion are branded radical straight away.
Ellerbe-Dck: That is an expression of the tendency to see all Africans as a homogenous mass. The fact is
overlooked that not everyone is up to the task only someone who has a political consciousness and who is
prepared to ask uncomfortable questions.
So the root of the problem is not the fact that the Humboldt-Forum has been designated as a new ethnological
house as such, but rather how it will be planned, organized and realized?
Ellerbe-Dck: The idea of bringing together all the collections in one place, is not a bad one as such. But I
cant simply move the objects from A to B without having checked the provenance at site A. If I am planning a
vegetable garden, I have to till the soil, before sowing the seeds again.
Kaunatjike: I agree. Most of the objects dont even belong here and should be returned to Africa. After that
one could perhaps start a new collection legally. We dont take issue with the museum per se, but only with
the history of the objects. A museum has the responsibility of being historically and politically just.
Put another way: The Ethnologisches Museum has to see itself as a historical museum whose expression is
found in art and other objects?
Ellerbe-Dck: Exactly. It is a socio-political construct and that has to be dealt with in a self-reflective way.
And how?
233
Ellerbe-Dck: I have too little insight into the structure of the institution to be able to express a qualified
opinion.
Is that a part of the problem? Would it help to say: look these are the infrastructural framework parameters,
let us take a look together at what is achievable?
Ellerbe-Dck: The structure of the institution...
... that is, the institutional connection between the Humboldt-Forum, the Humboldt Lab Dahlem and the
Ethnologisches Museum within the Stiftung Preuischer Kulturbesitz as well as their various fields of
responsibility...
Ellerbe-Dck: ... is indeed opaque. An open dialog, on exactly that issue, would be a prerequisite.
Kaunatjike: Both sides would need a moderator or mediator. It doesn't have to be the UN Secretary General
but someone would need to mediate in order to bring the two groups back together.
How would that take place? Publicly, or behind closed doors?
Kaunatjike: It cant be a secret meeting, as the museum is part of the public sphere; we live in a democratic
country.
Ellerbe-Dck: Of course I want to be part of that. My taxes go towards paying for our museums! It cant
always be peace and harmony. Sometimes sparks will fly. But we have to be determined enough to see it
through together with commitment. Ive always been convinced: where there is a will theres a way.
In how far could a more progressive definition of the Humboldt-Forum concept be an opportunity for
debating Germanys colonial past in a public context?
Ellerbe-Dck: For a revision of German history it would be important. The voices of those who were colonized
and their descendants must finally be heard and respected. Our exhibition (No) Place in the Sun was a first
tentative step: like a drop in the ocean, that begins to make waves.
Dr. Cassandra Ellerbe-Dck is a cultural studies specialist and anthropologist, as well as a diversity trainer. She was a
fellow at the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies as well as mentor of the specialist forum Anti-racist
Empowerment & Anti-racist Education in the Post-migrant Society. She is currently a board member of Eine Welt der
Vielfalt e.V. Berlin. For the Humboldt Lab Dahlem she worked in the curatorial team for (No) Place in the Sun.
Israel Kaunatjike is an activist representing the Herero people in the association Vlkermord verjhrt nicht (No statute
of limitations on Genocide). The exhibition (No) Place in the Sun showed a video interview with him on the issue.
Dr. Anne Haeming wrote her doctorate on post-colonial literature and works as a cultural and media journalist in Berlin.
(No) Place in the Sun / Credits

A project by Ute Marxreiter, Charlotte Kaiser, Paul Beaury, Cassandra Ellerbe-Dck, Indra Lopez Velasco
Collaboration and consultation: Melcher Abramowski, students of the Black Diaspora School, Berlin, Amanda
Caneiro de Santos, Sabine Dengel, Jonathan Fine, Christine Gerbich, Anna Huthmann, Paola Ivanov, Ann-
Kristin Jrgensen, Paul Mecheril, Katharina Oguntoye, Margareta von Oswald, Verena Rodatus, Hanna
Wiesener
Production: Charlotte Kaiser, Paul Beaury, Hanna Wiesener
Graphics: Hanna Halstenberg
Illustrations: Salom Beaury
Script and direction: Klangmixtur (Sabine Huthmann, Friederike Wigger)
Narrator: Bettina Kurth and Moses Leo
Programming: Thomas Wiede
Exhibition setup: EMArt, Ruben Erber
234
(No) Place in the Sun / Imprint Documentation

As of October 2015
Installation view (No) Place in the Sun, photo: Uwe Walter
235
236
237
www.humboldt-lab.de - Projects - Probebhne 7 - Exhibiting Korea
Exhibiting Korea
Exhibiting Korea / Teaser

The exhibition concept for the Humboldt-Forum follows a geographic structure. For the presentation of
Korean culture the challenge is the fact that the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst has a relatively small number
of Korean artifacts at its disposal. The project Exhibiting Korea grasped this as an opportunity to take a
different path: international artists with a Korean background were invited to enter a dialog with the objects
present and to explore ways in which Korea can be exhibited at the same time as being highlighted within the
new museum layout. The resulting works opened new perspectives on the collection and the museum and
inspired fundamental reflections: on the objects themselves and their status as artworks, about the concept of
cultural representation, as well as on the options of innovative working methodology in the museum.
Exhibiting Korea / Project Description
The Collection Context as an Opportunity

by Uta Rahman-Steinert
The Museum fr Asiatische Kunst is home to only a small collection of objects from Korea: 130 artifacts in all.
That is not a selection conducive to presenting Korean art in any where near an adequate way. In order to
furnish the Korean voice with an appropriate presence within the polyphony of East Asian art, new solutions
are being sought for the exhibition displays in the Humboldt-Forum. The fact that most of the objects are not
necessarily representative simultaneously opens up an unexpected opportunity and allows for greater
creativity in terms of presentation.
The planning for the Humboldt-Forum placed the works of Korean provenance very fittingly at the juncture
between China and Japan. However, the Korea Gallery has such a close proximity to China that it could
easily be perceived as a mere continuation by the visitor. For this reason, an identification of the Korean
collection section seemed necessary. My experience, stemming from cooperation with artists in numerous
exhibitions for the museum, led to the idea of also utilizing artistic expression here, in order to emphasize
238
Korea not restricted to the collections artifacts, but taking them as a jumping off point through a special
design of the space.
Linked to this idea was also the intention of offering a platform to the members of the source culture, to
contribute their own interpretations to the presentation of Korean artworks and artifacts. In the initial phase
the project was developed in cooperation with the Korean-born curator Shi-ne Oh, who is active on the
contemporary art scene as exhibition designer and art consultant and at present lives in Berlin. With this
cooperation the museum surrendered its interpretive authority and integrated experiences that, on the one
hand, are rooted in the culture of origin, but on the other, also demonstrate an international background and
thus mirror the reality of many contemporary but also historical biographies especially of artists who cannot
be unequivocally attributed to a certain location.
Five Contemporary Voices from Korea and the World
For the project, Shi-ne Oh chose artists whose conceptional approaches can be summarized under the
headings Temporal Projections, Historical Interpretation, and Reconstruction of the Past. The themes
named make a direct reference to the history of museum collections and the objects preserved in them, and
can simultaneously create a connection to the reconstruction of the Berlin Palace and the particular history of
the place.
In preparation, a workshop was held at the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst in September 2014. It served as on-
site research in Dahlem and familiarized the artists with the aim of the project, the Korean collection held by
the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst and the collections of the Ethnologisches Museum, as well as the plans for
the Humboldt-Forum. The artists were asked to come up with a sketch of an idea for an experimental, salient
identification of the Korean area in the Humboldt-Forum and, with their working examples, to show what
art vocabulary they would use. The highly varied works being presented approach the question on very
different planes.
Jaeeun Choi developed an installation that in its referencing of classical image and song traditions exposes
hidden layers of meaning: a darkened room is filled with the fascinating song of a womans voice. Searching
for orientation, the visitors eyes fall on the subtly hung and lit image of a woman in Korean traditional
costume, sitting on a veranda next to a lotus pond, holding a pipe and a mouth organ in her hand. The scene
seems to be a visualization of the music. The reproduction of the painting by Shin Yun-bok (18th century), a
master of realistic depictions of everyday life, references popular traditions and the life of simple folk shaped
by Confucian values. To accompany the display, Jaeeun Choi arranged a melody from the Joseon dynasty
(13921910), which she reinterpreted with a poem she wrote herself on the state of the modern Korean nation.
The work also creates an arc connecting it to the National Museum of Korea in Seoul where the original
painting is kept.
The installation by Inhwan Oh, which until now has only been partially realized, creates a multilayered
interpretation of an object from the museum collection and, at the same time, a reflection about the museum
itself, due to several translation processes: the iconic representation of Mount Geumgang is initially made
accessible via an audio guide, which interprets the painted paths through the landscape as directions for
walkers. Led by this audio guide, different protagonists are planned to perform at different locations. The
specific local circumstances will probably necessitate a creative interpretation of the audio guide, so that
individual performative interpretations of the landscape occur. A multi-channel projection of the thus-created
videos in the Korea gallery of the Humboldt-Forum aims to generate an atmosphere of movement for the
visitors, allowing them to experience the mutability of spaces and the way we experience them. The art
intervention connects the Berlin visitors present to the museum and object history in a sensory, tangible way.
With his singular photographic technique, Jae Yong Rhee mounted different views of an object into a literally,
as well as metaphorically, spatial and temporal multilayered image. Due to the fact that surfaces and contours
become blurred, the photographs allow the association of shifts and movements that each object has gone
through, and at the same time allow a comprehension of the depicted object in its very nature freed of
attributions, that have been imposed on each object throughout its history. What is museum scene setting,
what is cultural connotation, and what does the true nature of things consist of? For the project Jae Yong
Rhee photographed objects in the Korean National Museum in Seoul. The photographs are juxtaposed with
works from the collection of the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst and inspire you to think about the histories and
practices that have distributed such objects throughout the museums of the world.
At first sight, Meekyoung Shins object replicas made of soap, seem astonishingly authentic; only on closer
239
inspection does the surface seem too perfect and the marks of the production process, as well as those of
centuries of use, are noticeably missing. In this way the vessels provoke questions of authorship, originality,
duplication and forgery. Even more fragile than the originals, the vessels also do nothing less than raise
doubts about the museums fundamental function as conservator: specks of dust alone can damage the
surface; cleaning attempts run risk of washing away the entire object. By counterposing her soap sculptures,
copies of artifacts from different eras and regions, with objects from the collection, Meekyoung Shin blurs the
boundaries between contemporary art and the so precious, as well as historically and regionally meticulously
categorized artifact an invitation to begin a dialog.
The sensitive images by MinHwa Sung, reduced to mere lines, are related in character to classic East Asian
painting, but due to their subject matter work tables in her studio maintain an emphatic actuality. Only
on closer inspection do they reveal varied references to tradition: still lifes showing scholars accouterments,
chaekgeori, were a popular image theme. The precious paper used also references a dcor element of Korean
handicrafts with its formal structure, consisting of arranged squares, as well as Sungs modern adaptions of
the formats of scroll painting and standing screen. And finally, in the grain of the wooden tablets the artist
sometimes uses, the bizarre mountain formations of East Asian landscape painting are referenced. For the
space in the Humboldt-Forum MinHwa Sung has two suggestions: firstly the use of curtains or coverings
made by Korean artisans for the windows and walls, and secondly the use of a standing screen as dcor or
room division, for the presentation of images and objects.
An Individual Form of Museum Work
Cooperation with the artists was highly inspiring and opened new vistas onto the collection as well as onto
display and presentation options. The works bring preexisting collection objects and their history to life in a
multilayered way. They integrate current, also international perspectives into the exhibition situation. In
addition, an artists perspective, which is of its very nature individual and selective, allows the public to
develop their own personal access, one that lies beyond the limitations of didactically dictated concepts.
However, the inevitable individual approach of the artists, unburdened by theoretical museum discussions,
also harbors the risk that conservational issues or visitor-oriented interests remain unconsidered. The actual
projects objective to mark out the Korea gallery in the Humboldt-Forum with its own identification will
require an intensive and advanced exchange for which the present project, together with this evaluation and
reflection, serves as an ideal basis. It would be desirable to undertake a re-design of the Korea gallery at
regular longer intervals of perhaps every two years, centered on a different artistic concept each time.
Uta Rahman-Steinert studied sinology and art history at the Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin and subsequently lived in
Beijing for two years, where she studied Chinese art history at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Since 1987 she has been
curator for the East Asia collection at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (East) and, since the merger of Berlins museums
in 1992, has been working at the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst.
Exhibiting Korea / Positions
Images and Imaginings of Contemporary Korea

by Birgit Hopfener
Traditionally, museums have always been assigned a representative function. The Museum fr Asiatische
Kunst in Berlin is no exception: conventionally speaking, its task is to convey a comprehensive and largely
valid picture of Asias artistic and cultural history, or to put it slightly differently, of a culture of otherness.
But the idea of museums as representative institutions is a topic that is increasingly the focus of current
debates and discourses concerning museums and curatorial practice. The primary critique is aimed at the
inherent structural dichotomy in the perception of our culture as opposed to foreign culture; the
assumption of a static and essentialist concept of culture; and the related idea that a specific, pre-defined
cultural entity can be reproduced in its totality through certain representative objects and collections.
The Exhibiting Korea project in the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst takes place in the context of this critical
discourse. Rather than representing and legitimizing the conventional narrative of Korean art history, which
itself is highly influenced by Confucian academic culture, curator Uta Rahman-Steinert aims to develop new
240
perspectives on Korean art, through cooperational projects with contemporary Korean artists, to find
approaches beyond a folkloristic aesthetic. The idea is to find out how artifacts from the historic collection
can be allowed to become polyphonic, and whether it is possible to re-examine and add new facets to the
images that people tend to have of Korea. Key to the project is the idea of contemporaneity.
The five participating artists have taken on a quasi curatorial role in this exhibition, in that they have been
asked to find ways of showing connections between Korean history and the present day. Uta Rahman-Steinert
reports that this unaccustomed role caused some uncertainty amongst the artists, as they were unused to
having this kind of responsibility and do not usually take on an interpretative function.
The completed works reflect the complexity of the task. They deal critically with the question of cultural
representation, which, for these artists of Korean background in the context of the Museum fr Asiatische
Kunst, is a question that cannot be ignored. The installations demonstrate that contemporaneity is not
something universal. Rather, it is polyphonic, influenced by specific biographies, discourses, geopolitical
standpoints, histories and institutional backgrounds. While the expression of a specific individual
contemporaneity is a central aspect of every work of art, this project adds another dimension: The artists
work is per se bound up with other forms of contemporaneity, particularly that of the museum and its visitors,
and this connection means that their role cannot remain simply that of the artist but must inevitably take on
aspects of curatorship. In this way their tasks include thinking about the expectations and prior knowledge of
their audiences when choosing their themes, media and strategies, and providing a critical response to the
Asian Art Museum as an institution and the methods and traditions used to collect and represent.
In his work Memories of the Gaze: Relics, for example, Jae Yong Rhee uses strategies of temporalization to
question specific conventions of seeing in the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst. His photographs are created by
layering different views of the same thing over each other, so that it becomes impossible to rely on stylistic,
technical, material or iconographic criteria to define the photographed objects within space and time. Instead,
the pictures take on an almost sacred aura. Jae Yong Rhee intends to use a similar process for the multimedia
installation he is planning for the Humboldt-Forum, where he will project photographs of Goryeo celadon
vessels onto white reproductions of the vases created by a 3D printer. In the context of the central themes of
the Humboldt-Forum, the installation seems to demonstrate how the artifacts significance for the viewer is
dictated by conventions of perception. The spatial and temporal dichotomies of our own, and other,
traditional, and contemporary, in relation to culture, which are all-pervasive in museums based on the
Western Modern tradition, are also brought into disarray by the blurring effect that results from the
projections. By deliberately questioning even his own perspective, Jae Yong Rhee manages to establish a way
of seeing that is phenomenological rather than based on obviously personal perceptions. In this way, he also
indirectly questions his own potentially representative function.
The complex installation Passages by Inhwan Oh uses a folding screen (Geumgangsan Landscape, late
19th/early 20th century) from the Berlin collection of Korean art to reference a topos of Korean cultural
history that was, and remains, of powerful significance, both religiously and politically. There is a very
personal dimension to this work. During the Silla Empire (57 B.C. 935 A.D.), Buddhism was the national
religion and the mountain region of Korea was designated Buddha Country. As such, it soon became the
place that symbolized national religion, while at the same time its central significance for civilization per se
was emphasized. To this day the mountains are a place of Korean national identity that goes far deeper than
the relatively recent North-South partition. Nowadays, visitors to the Diamond Mountains, a popular tourist
region (South Koreans were granted access in 1993), tend to come across not only holy shrines but also
monuments to the former North Korean ruler Kim Il Sung. The Berlin screen shows topographic features and
places of Buddhist worship in the area. Inhwan Oh, however, deliberately does not go into the subject of the
cultural history and political significance of the Diamond Mountains in his work Passages. Instead, he uses
the topographic aspect of the imagery and its cartographic function as the basis for his examination of the
screen. Informed visitors may view this decision to look at the Diamond Mountains from a secular, worldly
perspective as a critique of nationalism. His translations, both in the written form and as recordings for the
audio guides, reduce the conventional ways of describing this area to an abstract description of the mapped
paths. In this way, they allow the visitor to create his or her own entirely new experiences. The videos shown
on numerous screens in the Humboldt-Forum will show variations on possible ways of moving through
landscapes. Overall, it would seem that Oh uses this method of showing the Diamond Mountains as a way of
negotiating questions of identity on an abstract, theoretical level. At the same time, by involving the viewer of
the planned video installation in multiple spatial and temporal perspectives, he also breaks with the basic
museum structure that forces the viewer into a more or less passive role as a recipient of objects and their
assigned meanings. Ohs performative concept, by contrast, involves the visitor in the active construction of
meaning and identity.
241
The various works and sketches for the Korea Gallery reveal not only interesting and highly differentiated
ways of approaching the task the artists were given, but also the very different contexts (of discourse,
geography, politics and institutions) in which the artists are embedded. A knee-jerk reaction to the
cooperation with contemporary artists in the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst could be to criticize it from a post-
colonial perspective, as the artists in this project are automatically reduced to the functional status of cultural
representatives. Several approaches in Exhibiting Korea highlight this difficulty. Future exhibitions at the
Museum fr Asiatische Kunst could build on the current show to look more closely at potential research
areas, rather than focusing on representational approaches or the way in which specific cultures are
branded. For example, the museum could take on an important role in contemporary transcultural art
research, perhaps in the form of longer term, themed research programs. These could be used not only to
plumb the depths of history, but also to illuminate the connections between different regional histories of art
and anthropologies.
Dr. Birgit Hopfener is a research assistant at the Kunsthistorisches Institut der Freien Universitt Berlin. She is an
affiliated member of the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" at the Universitt Heidelberg. She
is the author of "Installationskunst in China: Transkulturelle Reflexionsrume einer Genealogie des Performativen"
(2013) and co-editor of "Negotiating Difference: Chinese Contemporary Art in the Global Context" (2012).
Exhibiting Korea, Questioning Art A Successful

Experiment
by Stephan von der Schulenburg
The project Exhibiting Korea curated by Uta Rahman-Steinert poses a number of challenges. The collection,
which includes only about 130 exhibits, is extremely small. Under these circumstances, it may have been
worth considering integrating a selection of works on permanent loan from the extensive Korean collection,
which comprises more than one thousand objects, housed in the neighboring Ethnologisches Museum of the
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Although the issues of an art museum (such as the Museum fr Asiatische
Kunst), and those of an ethnological museum are distinct from one another, there are also overlaps,
particularly with regard to these two collections. Additionally, in Korean culture, ceramics enjoy the same
fine art status that calligraphy and painting do. Thus, in Korea more so than in China and Japan an
interpretation of everyday objects is legitimate, even for an institution such as the Museum fr Asiatische
Kunst, which is otherwise considered an art museum. Anyway, the concept of handing the design of
significant elements of the gallery for Korean art over to artists, in addition to the classic museum
presentations, proved to be a meaningful endeavor, that definitely creates a special attention of the museum
visitors.
It should be noted at this point that presentations of this kind enjoy a certain tradition. As early as 1993,
Peter Noever invited leading contemporary artists, including Jenny Holzer and Donald Judd, to present the
collections of MAK Vienna in new formats, a concept that attracted international attention. In recent years,
ethnological museums, such as the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt am Main, have repeatedly invited
artists to work with traditional museum collections and reinterpret these in exhibitions. On the one hand, this
represents a departure from tiring didactic exhibition principles, and, on the other hand, a break with the
latent (neo-)colonial, European perspective. Whether this can really be achieved is a separate question, and
long academic discussions about such exhibitions have at the very least demonstrated that such approaches
do not always find unanimous approval, for when historical exhibits of a museum collection mutate into the
requisites of an artistic presentation, they run the risk of losing their rank as masterpieces a reputation
sometimes acquired over centuries and instead the works are degraded to accessories in todays artistic
experimentations.
However, when the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst invited five Korean artists to develop using the very
limited museum inventory a presentation form that enabled visitors to experience fundamental aspects of
Korean art and aesthetics, this was a welcome attempt to allow the culture, the presentation of which is the
main focus here, to speak with its own voice. The curators were also interested in employing the artistic
vantage point to achieve a presentation form that, in a sense, is more in line with that of the visitors than the
approach of the analytical scholar.
Significant is that, in accordance with many contemporary artists biographies, the invited artists lived in
242
Korea, or had worked abroad for a longer period of time, some on site in Berlin; others had several
residencies, e.g. in neighboring Japan or in Europe. Such a concept seems especially appropriate for (South)
Korea, which, on the one hand, has a proud and ancient culture, and, on the other hand, is now an
internationally closely networked, globally-oriented society that in many ways is more modern, fast-paced
and visionary than the cultures of old Europe.
Given the dominance of contemporary issues in the way Korea is represented, it is worth considering whether
the division of the country should be appropriately presented at least in the temporary exhibitions in the
Korea gallery of the Humboldt-Forum. As a parallel presentation of artistic contributions from North and
South Korea currently seems impossible given the existing political conditions, work like that of German
photographer Dieter Leistner Korea Korea (2013), which consists of comparable images of public and
semi-public places in Pyongyang and Seoul (Frankfurt am Main/Berlin: Museum Angewandte Kunst &
Gestalten Verlag, 2013), could serve as an alternative here.
Below are a few brief comments on some of the artistic statements presented in Exhibiting Korea:
MinHwa Sungs inventory of objects in her studio is a surprising and quite successful reinterpretation of the
traditional Korean chaekgeori painting genre in the visual language of contemporary art. The design
suggestions made by the artist for the Korea gallery in the Humboldt-Forum, however, demonstrate that
although artists participating in these kinds of exhibitions can indeed provide a refreshingly subjective
perspective, they are often unfamiliar with the daily conservation challenges of a museum. For example, the
artists proposal to present historical exhibits from the museum's Korean collection on shelves of a
chaekgeori-like three-dimensional folding screen would have to be significantly developed if it were to be
implemented.
Jae Yong Rhees large photographs seemingly represent the sum of all possible angles of an object, thereby
rendering its inner, spiritual quality tangible. This is perhaps enough for a piece of art to communicate. The
additional, model-like arrangement presented by the artist on a flat screen in which a white object in a display
case is equipped with a sensor that causes the surface to suddenly become decorated with designs when a
visitor approaches it, seems somewhat artificial and mannered, at least in the initial visualization. One may
recognize a Buddhist-like attempt here to make the illusionary nature of earthly existence tangible; yet, with
its real art treasures, a museum is precisely the place that provides an impressive counterpart to our everyday
life, which is increasingly dominated by virtual worlds.
Inhwan Ohs Diamond Mountains arrangement has the appeal of using an unusual object from the Berlin
painting collection as an impressive starting point for an artistic essay about the procedural nature of
Taoism-influenced literati art of East Asia, in which wandering also signifies escapism. Even if its full
implementation is still pending, this arrangement has the potential to be a successful symbiosis of historical
art and new media. At the same time, the Diamond Mountains, which are situated in North Korea and thus
are difficult to reach for most people, subtly touch on the reality of life of Koreans, which has been painfully
characterized by the countrys division.
Regardless of the here formulated, at times critical footnotes, the overall arrangement of Exhibiting Korea is
convincing if for no other reason than for the surprising variety of artistic positions. It was undoubtedly wise
to consult a Korean-born and internationally well-networked curator for the selection of the artists. In this
way, the academic point of view was expanded from the museums inside outward in a meaningful way to
include an outside perspective, thereby achieving a refreshing and, in many ways, contemporary structure. If
the Humboldt-Forum succeeds in presenting non-European cultures in a historically adequate, aesthetically
pleasing form, whilst also doing justice to contemporary life in the long-term, this will be to a large extent
down to the bold experiments of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem, which, in turn, can certainly be deemed a
success.
Dr. Stephan von der Schulenburg studied art history, philosophy, German, Japanology and Sinology in Munich, Berlin,
Tokyo, Kyoto and Heidelberg. He has been head of the Asia department at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt
am Main since 1990. His published work includes pieces on Japanese painting and woodcuts, Chinese ceramics, as well
as on contemporary developments in East Asian art. Von der Schulenburg has co-curated several exhibitions on Korean
art, most recently Korea Power. Design and Identity (Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main 2013).
243
Exhibiting Korea / Credits

A project in the framework of Probebhne 7, June 25 through October 18, 2015
Curator: Uta Rahman-Steinert

Curatorial advice: Shi-ne Oh
Assistant: Katharina I-Bon Suh
Exhibition setup: EMArt, Ruben Erber
Lighting: Victor Kgli, Wang Fu
Media equipment: cine plus
Graphic design: Renate Sander
Copy-editing: Elke Kupschinsky, Galina Green
Coordinator of exhibition loans: Anna Seidel
Restoration supervision: Juliane Wernicke
We would like to thank: Martin Baal
Exhibiting Korea / Imprint Documentation

Editor: Dagmar Deuring
Translations: Galina Green
As of October 2015
Jae Yong RHEE, Memories of the Gaze, photo: Uwe Walter
244
Inhwan OH, Passages, photo: Uwe Walter
Meekyoung SHIN, Translation, photo: Uwe Walter
245
MinHwa SUNG, Carousel, photo: Uwe Walter
Jaeeun CHOI, Women by a lotus pond, the reproduction of the painting by Shin Yun-bok (18th century)
serves as a visual representation of the sound installation, photo: Uwe Walter
246
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 7 - Headhunters' Paradise
Headhunters Paradise
Headhunters Paradise / Teaser

The Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin is host to a large collection of ethnographic artifacts sourced from the
Northern Indian Naga people. The interest in this society stems not least from the fact that the ritual of
headhunting was practiced here, and so the collection also comprises a large number of objects from this
context. What does it mean to deal with this kind of heritage? The exhibition project uses different
perspectives in its presentation, in order to take a closer look at headhunting. The perspectives of the true
heirs, the modern members of the former warrior society, play a central role herein: interviews, in which they
talk about their attitudes to the culture of their forebears, form an exciting constellation with the objects
themselves as well as the historical ethnographic photographs and videos.
Headhunters Paradise / Project Description
Dealing with an Unusual Heritage

by Roland Platz and Andrea Rostsy
Over a century ago the Nagas attained great notoriety as headhunters and were stylized by the West into wild
warriors. A head captured as trophy was proof of having been a successful warrior and was celebrated with a
festive ritual. As late as the 1990s there were still isolated cases of headhunting being documented. Today the
Nagas are a multifaceted and in part modern urban people who live mainly in the Indian state of Nagaland.
But traces of the former warrior society are still visible to this day. Headhunting is not a taboo topic and
among many Nagas there is still a residual pride when they talk about their past as fearsome warriors. Every
year in the capital city of Kohima, they celebrate the Hornbill Festival, the largest cultural festival of the
Nagas, in which memories of old traditions are recalled.
The Ethnologisches Museum is home to around 1500 Naga artifacts of excellent quality, dating back quite far;
247
rarely are comparable artifacts to be found in Northern India. Especially Naga anthropologists value this
legacy of their people, preserved in the museums. In future, looking at methods as to how the collections can
be opened up for interested Nagas, and finding a basis for cooperation, are key. Within the framework of the
module about ethnic minorities from South East Asia the Nagas will also be topic at the Humboldt-Forum.
How can this unusual heritage be presented in the museum? The project Headhunters Paradise1 examines
how the cultural phenomenon of headhunting can be curated and communicated without falling into the
exoticism trap, without trivialization and without a narrowing of perspective. The central approach in the
preliminary planning was to ensure that present day Nagas would have their say and be able to express their
own perceptions within the exhibition. How do they talk about their past as fearsome headhunters? What
significance does that have for them today? And why were the skull trophies so important to their forebears?
The aim was to create an approach that allowed for different voices and witnesses of the Nagas to be
presented along side one another, widening the range of perspectives. Could the visitors access the
phenomenon of headhunting in a more differentiated, less prejudiced or exoticized way through the
communicated knowledge and the views presented by the Nagas themselves?
A Differentiated Approach in Material Production and Arrangement
The curator Roland Platz visited Nagaland as part of the project, and carried out numerous audio and video
interviews. Farmers were represented alongside scientists, teachers and pastors. It was clear from the start
that the material created should be used in the exhibition in combination with the museums existing historic
and contemporary documentary materials. Roland Platz received invaluable professional advice from Vibha
Joshi Parkin, anthropologist and seasoned Naga researcher, from Oxford University, currently a guest
lecturer for social anthropology at the Universitt Tbingen, who also furnished him with numerous contacts
in Nagaland, amongst them to the Kohima Institute. In Nagaland itself Platz was accompanied by
Pangernungba Kechu, associate professor at the Institute for Oriental Theology in Dimapur, Nagaland, who
also interpreted during most of the interviews. The photographer Edward Moon-Little documented many of
the encounters and meetings.
The agency Luxoom Medienprojekte was selected from a number of agencies to create a spatial walk-in
installation based on the material created during the trip as well as on the preexisting material and selected
artifacts. To this end they developed a content structure in which films, photographs, audio recordings, texts
and artifacts represented different contemporary as well as historical perspectives on headhunting.
Complexity in Space
Those who had passed through the designated entrance space found themselves in a room that was not
immediately decipherable. From an intersecting horizontally strung wire and hemp rope system three meters
from the ground, the entirety of photos, text panels, screens and headphones as well as mirrors were hung
from red threads. In this way a kind of collage in space was created with many crisscrossing lines the ropes,
as well as the insights and vistas, created with the layered material. The complex hanging system invited the
visitors to move and create their own perspectives in which the images and quotes interconnected with the
mirroring of oneself and the objects in the display cabinets. Depending on the visitors positioning, the
materials create different constellations, overlaps and insights.
At its center a large projection caught the eye, showing a five-minute interview with an old Naga headhunter
and his wife. They spoke as eyewitnesses and their narrative was audible throughout the whole space. To the
left and right of the screen daos (swords) and panji baskets (warrior baskets) shone in the vitrines objects
used for headhunting. The path led the visitor on a circular tour around the display cabinets, past two audio
stations, where short excerpts of interviews with a teacher at a Christian school and a youth pastor could be
heard. At the front of the room a complex arrangement of numerous layered photographs were hung from the
rope system, showing historical and contemporary images from Nagaland. In the mirrors integrated into the
arrangement, visitors repeatedly caught glimpses of themselves surrounded by the other material. White and
red lights set accents on the taut ropes and photographs in the room, whose otherwise only source of light
was from the films and display lighting. On the farthest layer of the arrangement a second large projection of
historical quotes could be seen, in combination with excerpts of the current interviews as text, thereby
opening a further point of access. Having left the arrangement of photos behind, the visitor came across a
small screen with passages from several video interviews as well as a video of the Hornbill Festival. Due to the
brevity of the material, cut into a loop, the film sequences could almost be viewed in passing. The path along
248
the longer side of the room finally led to a third projection, shots of a celebration, with elements of
headhunting dances, from 1936/37. There the path ended, or rather, the circle returned to the beginning
rounded off by an information panel on the collection history of the Naga objects in the Ethnologisches
Museum in Berlin and discharged the visitors toward the entrance back to the spacious rooms of the
museum.
Experiencing Perspectives in Movement
Thanks to the light and temporary feel of the hanging and the designated movement of the visitors through
the room the installation allowed a perception of a simultaneity of voices that did not judge and permitted
space for thought. In this way an openness of perspectives was facilitated, placing the dramaturgically
intentional central narrative of the old headhunter and his wife into a relationship with the entire material
arrangements and not least to the contemporary voices of the Nagas. This approach, anchored in the concept,
was precisely visualized in advance and served as the basis for the ambitious implementation.
Upon invitation of the Humboldt Lab and Roland Platz, Zubeni Lotha, a photographer, artist and researcher,
Pangernungba Kechu and Vibha Joshi Parkin as well as Edward Moon-Little were invited to visit the
exhibition Headhunters Paradise in September 2015 and also to view the Naga collection in the depot of the
Ethnologisches Museum. To integrate the views and the reflections of present day members of the source
culture is an important step in the further development of the project for the Humboldt-Forum.
Already during the setup of the installation it became clear that it would be worthwhile to take the potential
created here for a permanent exhibition. The hanging principle could for example be further developed so
that the materials would be easy to rearrange in a flexible manner. In this way a communication would be
facilitated allowing for thematic placement and involving the visitors. Also the intentional lack of hierarchy in
terms of image, audio and text material, offering content on several layers of access, could be further
developed under the specifications of design for all (topic of inclusion and accessibility). For the
development of the presentation of the topic Headhunting among the Naga in the Humboldt-Forum, the
project in its current form can certainly serve as inspiration, in terms of content as well as design, perhaps
even serving as a starting point.
1
With the exhibition title a term coined from a Christian perspective is picked up on: A memorial stone in the village of Molung Kimong is a
reminder of Christian missionaries who opened The First Gospel Gate into the Headhunters Paradise. in the 1870s.
Dr. Roland Platz has been working as curator for South and Southeast Asia at the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin
since 2009. He studied ethnology and sociology in Freiburg, and carried out extensive fieldwork in Northern Thailand.
Many years of freelance work as a university lecturer, coach and journalist followed. His special focus is on the
minorities of Southeast Asia and questions of identity.
Andrea Rostsy is a visual artist and media curator. Since 1995 she has been working in concept development and
realization of spatial media installations for commercial projects and exhibitions worldwide. Since 2013 she has been
contributing to projects for the Humboldt Lab Dahlem, for example, in the project management for Travelogue and
Enchantment / Beauty Parlour.
Headhunters Paradise / Positions
Talk
It was a constitutive aspect of the exhibition Headhunters Paradise to involve members of the contemporary
Naga society and their perspectives on their ancestors culture. But did it work? Invited by Humboldt Lab
Dahlem, two guests from Nagaland came to Berlin to see the show and to discuss the exhibition with its
makers a discussion that necessarily also dealt with museum policy in general.
Compilation and editing: Dagmar Deuring
Michael Kraus: What were dealing with is one of the key questions of museum politics: how can a museum
represent complex societies? How do members of these 21st century societies want to be represented when
249
historical objects from these groups are included in museum collections?

Some of you have seen the exhibition now for the first time. What were your first impressions? And for those
who created it: What were the fundamental ideas behind it? Pangernungba Kechu, you accompanied curator
Roland Platz during his research in the region. What are your first impressions of the exhibition?
Pangernungba Kechu: First I want to congratulate the Humboldt Lab for having us here to talk about our
impressions and thoughts. For the installation, Im not surprised about the content, because I knew a lot of it
and about it. But Im very impressed by the way it is made, by how it exposes the issues surrounding the
notion and the narratives of headhunting.
Vibha Joshi: I think its very interesting that you can see such different histories: the history of the Nagas as
well as the history of anthropology and of the museum collections. And I wondered about the title. Its a kind
of play on the word paradise and I guess it will attract attention.
Roland Platz: We came up with the title as a team and I also liked it because its a little provocative. Now Im
not sure whether it was a wise choice or not. I got the idea for this exhibition when I saw that video made by
Peter van Ham with this old man talking about his experience. It touched me and I liked the idea of showing
people, not scientists, talking about their experiences.
Zubeni Lotha: When Roland asked me to come to Berlin I didnt know what to expect. The title puzzled me.
But now my first impression is: The design of the installation, with its timeline of the historical Naga people
and the voices of today, is cohesive.
Edward Moon-Little: One of my hopes for the exhibition was that it would show an alternative image to that
of Nagas in traditional dress with lots of feathers. And it does! One of the pictures that I really wanted to see
in the exhibition is there: a girl helping her grandfather put on the traditional headhunting gear and behind
him is an image of the Last Supper. It was nice to see that genuine domestic intimacy, the Christianity in the
back, the headhunting and the passing on between the generations.
Tobias Sievers: It was a fascinating task for Luxoom and a challenge. Normally we create a story for the
visitors with a very specific meaning. But in this case it was quite the opposite as we show different snapshots
of possible perspectives to allow the visitors to come up with their own point of view and to feel that there are
always other ways of looking at things.
Kraus: Zubeni and Panger, you come from Nagaland. Speaking of the 21st century what is the general
significance of headhunting to the Naga people now? And what is your personal attitude towards this
phenomenon?
Kechu: Today, headhunting no longer exists. But the self-will, the spirit of sovereignty that it expressed, the
sovereignty to defend ones dignity and identity, is still prevalent. And it is still something that everybody
struggles with.
Lotha: For me as a person, as a Naga in the 21st century, headhunting is as alien as it is to you. I have been
away from Nagaland for a very long time now. But still this aspect of our culture is always on my mind. It is a
very relevant question for me because I photograph my society. Today headhunting has no place in our
Christian society. Its quite easy to dismiss it as barbaric. But it had a different significance in the past. So to
make easy judgments today would do more harm because it prevents us from understanding this culture. And
I think that this tradition taught us good values too: values of communal spirit, of a certain dignity, values
that are necessary in our political situation.
Kraus: As the exhibition reveals, there is a great outside interest in Naga headhunting. What do you think
about this interest? How do you feel about it?
Lotha: Normally when you say the word headhunting people joke about it: Do you eat your enemies heads?
Yes, of course, and I will take your head now! (laughter) Many, many anthropologists have studied the
Naga people and I think headhunting was the main reason for that. Personally, I dont see, why they shouldnt
be interested in that. But because of that, there has also been a lot of stereotyping. And this is a frame of
reference that I would really like to deconstruct.
Joshi: I think we have to become aware of the many layers constituting our perception of headhunting. On the
one hand this has to do with how it was documented. One question is: Why were the British officers so
interested in writing about headhunting? Was it to show how dangerous their jobs were, in order to ensure
more governmental financing, and in order to control trade routes? This would have influenced their way of
250
describing it. If youre dealing with photographs you have to keep in mind that it is not evidence by itself. For
example it has been proven that those women shown naked on some of the Frer-Haimendorf photographs
had been persuaded to take their clothes off because normally they wouldnt have done this to show
themselves.
On the other hand there is the question of morality. Many Nagas gained first-hand experience of the First
World War when they were forced to work in the British Labour Corps in France. During the Second World
War, they observed how villages were bombed and how the Japanese and the Allies troops were killing each
other they may have wondered why they were told to stop their headhunting, which was very little in
comparison?
Kechu: The very use of the word headhunting is already idolatrous and intimidating. But I think we live in a
world where were trying to cross borders, expand knowledge like in this installation. There is also a general
question of representation. Of course, the museum cant serve as an advocate of certain groups in political
conflicts. But there are some important aspects coming up regarding the representation of indigenous peoples
and I hope they will be discussed at the conference Always in Crisis on Saturday. One of the questions is:
Why do European museums collect objects that were accumulated at a time when indigenous peoples did not
have any power?
Platz: For me personally, it is difficult to describe why I chose the subject of headhunting. There is a
fascination. I want to understand this phenomenon, learn more about it. But what is important: I dont want to
judge it in a moral way. And I want to show the Nagas very rich and fascinating culture. Thats also why I
look forward to broadening the topic for the Humboldt-Forum in a more diverse presentation on the Nagas.
There are so many interesting aspects to that great culture and we should never reduce it to headhunting.
Moon-Little: I suppose in some ways talking about headhunting is very much like the way the British looked
at the Northeast in general; they looked for and saw the exotic. In Assam when the British arrived they were
very interested in tantric practices and human sacrifice, in Mizoram they looked for slave raiders and in
Nagaland they looked for headhunters. And somehow the Nagaland headhunting thing has endured. And it is
overshadowing not only many of the Naga tribes but that whole section of tribal groups in the Northeast.
Even though it was quite unusual, not just among the Nagas but in the Northeast in general.
Joshi: Those British officers you mention were very important because they were also anthropologists and
wrote the first monographs. And they tried to gain control over the communities through understanding them
anthropologically. Also because they saw that religion affected many aspects of the societies of the villages.
They were trying to control the people in order to access their natural resources.
Lotha: As a photographer I look at the representation and self-representation of the people. So I am very
impressed by Haimendorfs photographs, which he took in the 1930s. These pictures are the frame of
reference that every anthropologist and photographer of the Nagas thereafter has followed. And that is
problematic. Im sure that the encounter between Haimendorf and the Nagas was very complex one. But the
complexity does not come through. And this is important for me because I also live in a country that is very,
very diverse in its culture. But we are stuck in that primitive image because Haimendorfs photographs have
worked so deeply in the perception of the people. And its so difficult to break out of that.
Kraus: What does this mean for the role of a museum? Do you think that an exposition about headhunting is
helpful in sparking interest about Naga culture?
Lotha: Headhunting has been taboo for a long time and I think that its important to speak about it. And if it
leads to a deeper interest to the Naga culture what could be a better reason to talk about headhunting! But
as far as the museums go I hope that they will help me to change my attitude. At the moment, when I visit
an exhibition on a special culture, I always feel like I am looking at specimens kept in cases like animals in a
zoo. That is my feeling although I come from a very ethnic culture. Youre looking at them for their exotic
value. And I hope that museums can get beyond that.
Joshi: Yet museums do have a special task. Some years ago I was researching Naga textiles in the Pitt Rivers
Museum in Oxford. When I showed the research photographs to Lotha women in Nagaland, they were really
impressed by the variety and the beauty of the textiles their ancestors had made and which were not being
woven anymore. So these collections revealed a very rich cultural history. Collectors like Bastian, the founder
of the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin, tried to give a holistic image of how a community lived in a certain
time, and this is reflected in the collection of both ceremonial and everyday objects. And when we now take
these objects back to the societies there, they sometimes use them to revive something of their previous
animistic culture, but now in a very secular way. They take the objects as their cultural heritage.
251
Kraus: Thats an important point. We talk so much about cultural heritage or even shared cultural heritage.
Do you think that it is legitimate to speak about a museums collection of Naga objects as a shared cultural
heritage?
Kechu: Yes, I think so. Though of course it is a result of our specific history that the Nagas do not have such a
collection like you have.
Platz: Youre right. Until today, there has always been an imbalance. We have to be honest and see that; have
it in mind. That is what the Humboldt-Forum aims to do. But I have learned that in Nagaland young people
often arent interested in those old objects. So I think we should take it as a heritage of mankind. And we
should establish ways of exchanging, like this encounter, or like the database they have with Venezuela for
instance, where people from the region of origin can work with the objects.
Lotha: I dont believe in this idea of shared heritage. Because of the imbalance between the indigenous people
and the collectors and their societies at that time and today: Naga people dont know anything about the
people in Germany. Its a one-way street.
Kraus: How could we improve this situation?
Kechu: From a radical point of view we would first have to demolish the museums in Europe and give up the
concept of fieldwork in distant places! But I think the real question is one of museum politics and funding.
Whether museums have the money to realize encounters like this one. And whether they can tell something
about the fears and the longings of the people. In the context of the Naga people this wouldnt be possible
without footnoting India whose government denies the existence of indigenous peoples. But I dont know how
this could be done in an exhibition.
Platz: I sometimes heard the question: Why are you concerned with skulls, why dont you work on living
beings? And I really would like to make an exposition about contemporary Nagaland.
Moon-Little: There's maybe an interesting point of contrast. In Kohima, they are building a new museum
dedicated to a non-Christian who led a religious movement in the 20th century, Rani Gaidinliu. And there's a
big controversy within Nagaland about what constitutes Naga identity. So although headhunting is a
controversial topic, the real controversy for Nagaland museums is far more local, far more related to local
politics, stories of nationalism and religious difference.
Joshi: What is our role as anthropologists and exhibition designers? Learning and teaching anthropology, I
also try to understand why they collected all those things in the 19th century; what was the purpose behind it?
It was also to understand what humanity is. How different people solve everyday problems. How diverse we
are and at the same time similar. So there is also a very liberal idea of mankind in this anthropology, which
could be important in our difficult times, too.
Lotha: Id like to ask Tobias as the editor of the show: Working on a thing that is completely unknown to
you, how was the process of putting all these perspectives together?
Sievers: We always try to find a way of opening the door for the visitors. For example, we wanted to place
something in the middle that attracts their attention and decided on this video that Roland mentioned
before. One of the important decisions was: it needed to be contemporary but it should feel temporary, like a
working place, an anthropologists working place. It shouldnt look like something finished or self-contained.
Developing on from this idea we came up with the space with its many perspectives. Like in Nagaland, where
headhunting has vanished, yet is somehow still present, in the values, in the jokes you mentioned for example,
by using the files and the flexible elements in the room we tried to make these different layers felt. And with
these mirrors, we wanted to give the visitors the feeling that its not too far away from themselves.
Kraus: Thank you everybody for coming here and taking part in this insightful conversation. Our hope for the
future is that dialogue will continue between the Humboldt-Forum and the Naga people, and this is an
auspicious start.
Dr. Vibha Joshi Parkin is guest professor and research fellow at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology,
Tbingen University, and Research Associate of the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford,
from where she also obtained her doctorate. Her research interests focus on traditional religion, healing, conversion to
Christianity as well as ethnographic museum collections and their history, and cultural history of the Naga peoples and
their self-presentation.
252
Vibha Joshi consulted the exhibition team during the conceptual development of the installation and facilitated field
contacts in Nagaland.
Dr. Pangernungba Kechu is an associate professor of society, ethics and contextual theology at the Oriental Theological
Seminary in Nagaland. Kechu obtained his doctorate in religion and society from Princeton Theological Seminary, USA.
He employs art, community organizing and research for promoting education and action for change in the areas of
indigenous identity and politics.
Pangernungba Kechu, an Ao Naga, organized Roland Platzs field trip to Nagaland. He selected the villages they visited,
where his work as interpreter allowed the interviews to become intense discussions.
Zubeni Lotha is a photographer based in Dimapur in Nagaland. She has published work in Outlook Traveller and The
Caravan and has contributed to the New York Times blog and the Random House blog. She has also been a consulting
photographer for UNDP. Her main focus of work is an exploration of ideas of representation, stereotype, difference and
conflict in the context of Dimapur in particular, and Nagaland in general.
Edward Moon-Little is an Oxford-trained anthropologist with an interest in museums and visual culture. Previously,
Edward conducted research in central India on Adivasi identity and mission history, before moving on to the study of
museums and indigeneity in Northeast India. Alongside these interests, Edward also works on social media and identity,
open data, and technology in the heritage sector.
Edward Moon-Little travelled with Roland Platz in Nagaland and took many of the photographs shown in the exhibition.
Dr. Roland Platz has been working as curator for South and Southeast Asia at the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin
since 2009. He studied ethnology and sociology in Freiburg, and carried out extensive fieldwork in Northern Thailand.
Many years of freelance work as a university lecturer, coach and journalist followed. His special focus is on the
minorities of Southeast Asia and questions of identity.
Tobias Sievers is creative director of Luxoom Design Berlin/Shanghai. He studied social and business communications
at the Universitt der Knste Berlin, has worked in Asia for many years and besides his design and creative work
currently teaches at the Shanghai Institute of Design of the China Academy of Arts in his capacity as associate professor
for digital design.
Dr. Michael Kraus, who moderated the discussion, is an ethnologist and exhibition curator and Akademischer Rat at the
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitt Bonn.
Dr. Dagmar Deuring is a copyeditor and writer. Together with Christiane Khl and Barbara Schindler she supervised the
The discussion took place in September 2015 in Berlin.
The Trophy Culture of the Naga

by Heike Gler
Headhunting is a globally widespread ritual that has taken place throughout human history. In several
cultures it was practiced until well into the 20th century, for example in several regions of South and
Southeast Asia, like Kalimantan (Indonesia), the Philippines and in Myanmar, but also in New Guinea,
Taiwan and in South America. The Naga too are known for their headhunting. With a population of around
three million people, they live in the northwestern region of Myanmar and in Northeast India, above all in
Nagaland. This is home to around thirty linguistically and culturally very distinct ethnic groups, who consider
themselves part of the Naga people and who were all characterized by headhunting as a cultural phenomenon.
In southern Nagaland amongst the Ao and Angami Naga headhunting was phased out more than a century
ago. To the north, amongst the Konyak and Phom, the ritual continued until the 1970s, and its sporadic
occurrence was documented into the 1990s.
The installation Headhunters Paradise investigates the phenomenon of headhunting in order to gain an
understanding of the personal and social significance of the ritual. It illuminates several periods, from the
time when the first artifacts were collected in 1875, to film documentations made around 1936, in which an
ethnological (Eurocentric) outsider perspective is still clearly apparent, up to recent times with original
audio recordings, videos and photos taken in the region in 2014. Particularly informative is the centrally
placed interview with an old headhunter (Film: Peter van Ham, 2004) in which he talks about his own
headhunting experiences as a young warrior, the social significance of headhunting at that time, as well as
giving his current appraisal of it. But the opinions of Christian converts of the succeeding generation, who
253
view the culture of their forebears from the perspective of their new religious beliefs, while at the same time
recognizing the traditional values represented by their forefathers, are also heard.
The representatives chosen also speak about possible conflicts and loss of identity that could occur as a result
of externally imposed cultural change. In the case of the Naga, in addition to the banning of headhunting by
the British colonial administration, the spread of Christianity, propagated mainly by an influx of American
missionaries, was the key external pressure for change within their culture at the same time calling into
question their traditional values, like those of the headhunting rituals. Thus succeeding generations have
found themselves in a dilemma, between an acknowledgement of their own culture and at the same time its
very negation.
In headhunting periods, a group of young warriors from a particular clan would head to an enemy village;
occasionally there were also larger expeditions, revenge acts and blood feuds that went on over generations,
perpetrated back and forth by family members of the victims. The men would be prepared for their expedition
with religious ceremonies, festive dancing and special meals made by the women of the clan. A successful
headhunter would be celebrated as a hero, as a protector of the community. Among the Naga, severed heads
were considered proof of the warriors success. Trophies could be heads of men claimed in battle, but also
those of women and children. For young men it was, at the same time, an initiation ritual towards manhood.
The skulls were usually exhibited in the morung, the mens house of the Naga, or on a special head-tree
belonging to the clan. Head motifs as emblems on necklaces, baskets or weapon holsters as well as tattoos
bear testament to heroic acts and were openly worn and displayed.
The installation, which was developed as an integral part of the planning for the Humboldt-Forum, uses
layering, in its spatial as well as conceptual design. In the foreground are actual implements, like machetes,
known as Daos, that also served as beheading hatchets, as well as headhunting baskets and warriors dcor
made of human and goat hair. Comprehensive text and image materials complement the installation. The
juxtaposition of several historical periods with the different ways they have been interpreted, together with
each periods own specific perspective of the phenomenon of headhunting is reflected in the aesthetic
implementation: in an interweaving and dialectical interaction between the exhibition elements. Suspended
from ropes, like fragments of different cultural worlds with their various atmospheric images, thought
fragments, levels of consciousness and emotional access points, there arises from the combination of singular
positions and set elements, an associative overall picture, a comprehensive image in motion, visible from all
sides depending on the observers perspective.
Transparency becomes the essential principle of representation. The lightness of single fragments that float in
space and are visible from the front and rear aspects, and the inclusion of parallel observations of, for
instance, various film sequences from different historical periods, underline the installations focus on
content, in which the inner conflict of todays Naga regarding their own position on headhunting becomes
clear. Mirrors were integrated in the installation as design elements to make the public conscious of its own
perspective too. They challenge the observer to consider their own, externally-determined perspective, and
how these influence our ways of dealing with the topic of headhunting in the past, present and in the future.
The title of the installation is taken from a memorial stone from 25th December 2007, in Molung Kimong, the
first Christianized village in Nagaland:
The First Gospel Gate into the Headhunters Paradise Foundation Stone Laid by REV. O ALEM, Executive
Secretary ABAM IMPUR.
The American Baptist couple, Clark, set up a Christian missionary station here in 1878. As part of the
spreading Christianization program, which largely originated in the United States, a gradual societal change
was set in motion as a result of residual colonial attitudes, according to which the savage culture would be
overcome, along with the banning of headhunting by the British colonial administration.
In the interview, the elder of the Yongjong clan of the Phom Naga reports that he is happier now than in the
days when he was a headhunter. Beforehand he speaks together with his wife, with great clarity, composure
and candor about his clans headhunting past.
From the succeeding generation, the Baptist teacher Assang talks about the transformation of traditional
Naga consciousness into that of the present day. She describes how she no longer hunts heads, but souls
instead.
And, in his interview with Roland Platz, Imnakum Zuk Jamir formulates how important it is to know your own
roots: If you lose your roots, you lose your identity.
254
From text fragments, images and objects from various different contexts, Roland Platz, together with Luxoom,
has created an installation full of contradictions contradictions as they also exist in the Naga society. The
younger generations ask themselves how they should deal with the cultural heritage of their forebears. On the
one hand there is a pride in the warrior tradition the positive force with which it was seen within the culture
and which is still palpable on the other hand, the Naga are now living within a value system imposed on
them by colonialization and Christianity. Added to that are the newly evolving perspectives brought about by
globalization. The carefully chosen, and at the same time differentiated, view of the subject offered by this
installation allows the public to access complex layers of information and to approach headhunting in a non-
sensationalist manner.
The fact that this installations chosen topic is also a potentially volatile one is demonstrated by the example
of research scientist, Tezenlo Thong, himself a Naga. He describes headhunting as a fantasy construct of the
Western world, with the argument that there is no real proof that headhunting really took place at all; that no
one was actually there when it happened. The Nagas possible concerns about devaluation and
marginalization are, in this context, no doubt fed by their experiences as a colonized culture.
The Naga installation, which is currently on display in a small separate room at the Ethnologisches Museum
in Berlin, is rather modest: one could wish for a more generous space to present the small-format images and
text material. The individual elements that make up the spatially-dense, suspended installation are very much
in your face. Even the audio excerpts overlap on a number of occasions. Certainly, minority cultures, which
are under great external pressure already, are given attention here but to date only in the smallest of
spaces.
Dr. Heike Gler is a drama specialist. As an expert on Asia her focus has been European-Asian cultural exchange since
1996. Her teaching posts have taken her to the Universitt Vienna, Universitt der Knste Berlin, HZT
Hochschulbergreifendes Zentrum Tanz and to the EuroAkademie, Berlin, among others. She works internationally as a
cultural journalist, festival manager, director and author.
Headhunters Paradise / Credits

Content supervision: Roland Platz

Specialist advice and contacts in Nagaland: Vibha Joshi Parkin
Expert advice for fieldwork phase: Pangernungba Kechu
Project direction: Andrea Rostsy
Exhibition concept and design: Luxoom Medienprojekte

Tobias Sievers Concept, design, creative direction
Britta Krefeld Research, editorial work, administration
Onur Aydin Exhibition design, visualization
Robinson Steinke Technical planning, production
Restoration supervision: Diana Gabler, Mira Dallige-Smith

Art Handling: EMArt, Ruben Erber
Technical support audio editing: Albrecht Wiedmann
Copy-editor: Elke Kupschinsky
Translation: Christine Schroeter, Language in Motion
We would like to thank: Edward Moon-Little for photographs and video recordings during fieldwork in
Nagaland; Arkotong Longkumer for support in Nagaland and providing contact to Pangernungba Kechu;
Alban von Stockhausen for general cooperation and for providing digital copies of historical photographs;
Peter van Ham for providing the video Conversation with Headhunters I; Richard Kunz for invaluable
information on Nagaland.
255
Headhunters Paradise / Imprint Documentation

Translations: Galina Green
As of October 2015
Installation view Headhunters Paradise, photo: Uwe Walter
256
257
Installation view Headhunters Paradise, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
258
www.humboldt-lab.de - Projects - Probebhne 7 - Concentrating (on) Collections
Concentrating
(on) Collections
Concentrating (on) Collections / Teaser

Public display and study collections play a prominent role in the exhibition plans for the Humboldt-Forum.
Next to the major exhibitions, the Humboldt-Forum will feature large display-case areas where extensive
portions of the collections will be exhibited. The compelling little Humboldt Lab installation Concentrating
(on) Collections has gathered together different ideas and recommendations for implementing this, touching
on some fundamental questions in the process. How can the huge scale of museum collections be presented in
all their diversity right across from thematic exhibitions with comparatively few objects without seeming
boring and monotonous to viewers? How can the objects recognition value be brought to the fore?
Concentrating (on) Collections assembles different casebook examples for handling both abundance and
detail, supplying provocative conceptual suggestions for how to stage display-case zones in the Humboldt-
Forum.
Concentrating (on) Collections / Project Description
Abundance as an Asset and a Challenge

by Nicola Lepp and Nina Wiedemeyer
The Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst possess vast collections, assembled over
the course of centuries. To make as much of these collections publically accessible as possible, the plans for
the Humboldt-Forum site call for tall, densely packed display cabinets. Three locations within the
Ethnologisches Museum will feature display-case zones: the America collection, the Africa collection, and the
South Seas collection. These display cabinets are each up to 30 meters long, and are arranged uniquely in
each of the three areas. The cabinets will have a high recognition value and, for visitors, will clearly be
perceived as a comprehensive whole.
Inevitably, the significance of the individual objects in such cabinets takes a backseat to the respective
259
collection as a whole. Much more, what is being presented to visitors and what hopefully excites them is
the abundance of the collections, in all their variety. Yet monotony is pre-programmed, to a certain extent, the
more such a display-case zone is enlarged and extended. The abundance must be arranged with precision.
Ideas for Organizing the Display-Case Zones
What can the density and abundance of objects in the display-case units potentially offer to the public? What
can be shown and conveyed in this specific space as distinct from a thematic exhibition? What unique
opportunities for presentation and storytelling do the display cabinets offer? And finally: what can showcases
accomplish, and what are their limitations?
Based on a comprehensive study of the internationally widespread form of presentation through display cases,
Concentrating (on) Collections recommends that the display-case areas in the Humboldt-Forum share an
overarching dramatic composition. Probebhne 7 at the Humboldt Lab Dahlem was used to generate different
recommendations for possible implementation, in the form of a slideshow. For this we concentrated on the
various challenges, from a museum and media perspective, posed by condensed presentations and used these
as the point of departure for generating ideas.
To arrange the display-case zones in a manner that is factually precise, aesthetically pleasing, and
comprehensible for visitors, one of the central prerequisites is to clearly distinguish these zones from the
presentation forms used by the actual exhibition. Therefore, a thematic approach seems to contradict the
logic of a display case. While both permanent and temporary exhibitions, which organize objects according to
cultural/geographic criteria or specific thematic connections, are obligated to approach the objects in a
narrative manner, display-case zones depend upon the abundance of collections and objects. When planning
such exhibition units, this means that rather than beginning with themes, one should think systematically
about the objects and make both the collection itself and the act of collecting a primary theme.
The abundance of objects and their condensed presentation, therefore, unlike thematic units, should initially
start by following the fundamental logic of the collections, whether organized by object species and material,
by collector, or chronologically. Yet this alone doesnt suffice to lend enough variety to the 30-meter-long
cabinet area.
Concentrating (on) Collections therefore introduces a conceptual approach that is based on the idea of
continuously suspending the presentation of the collections abundance interrupting the presentation with
questions derived systematically from the objects themselves. Inserted into the large exhibition spaces of the
cabinets are small, medium and large frames or boxes in different forms and formats; these frames or boxes
can pick up on small details, arguments, and connections between the objects. In the context of the large
display cabinets, they function like special-exhibition sites in miniature, where individual questions and
observations can be addressed paradigmatically as individual episodes on a larger stage. The units can
comprise a range of media, but should always be derived directly from the descriptive context of the display
case. These interruptions, commentaries, and buttresses permeate the presentation of the collection, and
serve to interrogate, contravene, or scrutinize the exhibited objects. Here would also be an ideal place to
incorporate findings from the Humboldt Labs Probebhnen or from contemporary research projects. A
number of scenarios have been worked out as examples in the slideshow for Probebhne 7. The project is a
work in progress that will be furthered through the composition of a manual on the subject as well as through
future workshops.
Reinforcing the Logic of the Collections
Using the abundance of objects as the representative principle for the display-case units in conjunction with
the commentating interruptions serves to take the objects polysemy into account and present them in all their
multi-perspectivity. The process of abbreviating and smoothing content toward a specific meaning a process
necessary in the context of a thematic exhibition is relativized in the display-case units and expressed
concretely as only one possible perspective among others. At the same time, the display cabinets maintain a
perspective toward the collections history that isnt typically found in thematic permanent exhibitions. Thus,
a strategic interplay emerges between argumentation and visual experience, between the presence and the
meaning of the objects. From a practical perspective, the minimalist form of the interruptions allows curators
to integrate new viewpoints and research findings into the exhibition with little expenditure or forethought.
Altogether, its even conceivable that the three planned display-case modules (Africa, America, South Seas)
260
each maintain a different focus, so that an internal dramaturgy emerges between the modules. The display-
case modules would then be received like an exhibition tour.
For staging the individual frames, it is of fundamental importance that the precisely developed content of the
units is also designed in aesthetically compelling fashion. The units should invite viewers to look closer, to
transfer the suggested viewpoints to other objects, and to ask questions. The attractiveness and popularity of
a display case arranged according to the logic of the abundance of objects will be determined, to no small
degree, by how carefully it is set up.
Prof. Nicola Lepp is an expert in cultural theory and exhibition curator and since 2015 she has held a professorship in
cultural education at the FH Potsdam; she has been curating thematic exhibitions in various constellations since 2001.
Among the most significant are: "GRIMMWELT Kassel," 2015; "Museum der Gefe," Humboldt Lab Dahlem, Berlin
2013; "Arbeit. Sinn und Sorge," Dresden 2009; "PSYCHOanalyse. Sigmund Freud zum 150. Geburtstag," 2006; "Der Neue
Mensch. Obsessionen des 20. Jahrhunderts," 1999; Her research focuses on the theory and practice of things as well as
critical pedagogic and educational museum theory.
Dr. Nina Wiedemeyer is an art and media scholar. Since 1998, she has worked as an author and curator for museums
and exhibition firms, including prauth (the exhibition project Arbeit. Sinn und Sorge, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum
Dresden, 2009/2010) and exponenten. Since 2012, she has been conducting a post-doctorate at UdK Berlin in the
graduate college Das Wissen der Knste with a project on the precarious theory of knowledge of the applied arts. Her
last published work was Buchfalten: Material, Technik, Gefge der Knstlerbcher, Zrich/Berlin 2013.
Concentrating (on) Collections / Positions
Concentrating (on) Collections: Rather than an

Exhibition, a Collection of Concepts for Exhibiting
by Philipp Teufel
Concentrating (on) Collections almost isnt an exhibition. Its simply a small slideshow for the interested
public, a collection of concepts, a laboratory report in the best sense of the term. A concept orients itself
toward professional third parties. Here, the concept is to rewrite the grammar of exhibiting for the display
and study collections planned for the Humboldt-Forum. At the same time, its a manifesto from the Humboldt
Lab on the Laboratory Concept. The concrete recommendations it contains are of equal importance and
significance as its ideas for design. Concentrating (on) Collections formulates questions about contemporary
exhibition design for display cases and their integration into a museum exhibition; it gathers concepts and
presents innovative ideas for a hybrid of storage facility and exhibition. What are the contemporary
approaches, and what are the most suitable concepts for the material?
Concentrating (on) Collections Professionally
These questions remind me of the first instances when we, as future designers of the Humboldt-Forum, toured
the storage facilities of the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst in Dahlem. It was a
very special situation what happens when different professions concentrate on the collections? What
insights emerge among them? For the architects and designers at Ralph Appelbaum and malsyteufel, this was
the first step in the process: going through the storage facilities, the stacks, and the display collections
alongside the directors, curators, and conservators. By this point, it had already become clear that a curator,
designer, architect, or conservator pays attention to different issues. What ultimately will interest later
visitors: the arrangement, or the sheer number of exhibits in a particular collection spread before them like a
tapestry of objects? Or will they instead discover the individual objects inside?
We are fascinated simultaneously by the detailed glimpse and by the whole, by stories and by images.
261
Collections and Objects Have a History and Tell Stories
On these visits to the collection, the storage facility becomes a place of observation, selection, and
conversation between different disciplines, objectives, and ideas. Often, as designers, weve found that the
quality of stories told by the curators isnt conveyed in the exhibitions. Sometimes, information about objects
in the storage facility is only housed in the archival records. Or it resides solely in the heads of scholars (for
more about this, see the Humboldt Lab project Talking Knowledge).
The Storage Facility or Archive as Spatial Image
Beyond the actual collections, we were impressed as designers by the overall picture: the storage facility is a
self-contained, well-composed spatial image. Indeed, many artists and photographers have been fascinated by
museum storage facilities, and have captured this in their chosen medium. Archival filing cabinets, shelves,
pallets such images are characterized by entirely unique forms of storage furniture. Even the clothes worn
by conservators can be quite specialized. Im thinking of Candida Hfers world-renowned photograph from
the rooms of the storage facility at the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin. The two conservators, in their
protective suits, look something like extraterrestrials, or forensic specialists in a detective film.
To Store or to Show?
Looking back over the history of the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, you find
people debating how much space to reserve for exhibitions versus storage from the very beginning. At one of
the former locations, on Stresemannstrae, these areas werent separated. In Dahlem, the storage facility was
separated from the exhibition areas a solution that seems unattractive from todays perspective, as it
withholds the majority of the collection from the public.
For us as designers, the objective was to present the collections at a level of quality defined neither by
quantity of square meterage, nor by the exhaustive presentation of the collection holdings. To meet this
objective, we have developed independent, clearly defined elements and spatial strategies to help the Berlin
institutions establish a distinct individual presence. These elements and strategies create tangible space for
new ideas and presentations of the collection in the future. They enable curators to discover their own
approach within a coherent whole, while facilitating flexibility that can be sustained into the future. Among
these components are the showcases and the study collections.
The Showcases
The Humboldt-Forums exhibitions and display-case zones will enable scholars, specialists, and members of
the original cultures to conduct studies and research. They will also enable regular visitors to explore the
collections themselves. Simply due to the extent of the collections they are always growing this presents a
particular challenge for the storage sites, which at other buildings are reserved for specialists. Today, the
Ethnologisches Museums collection alone comprises some 500,000 ethnological and archaeological objects.
Only some 20,000 of these will be exhibited at the Humboldt-Forum.
For this reason, new concepts and strategies are needed. And the Concentrating (on) Collections project
from the Humboldt Lab has supplied important foundations for their development. I read the project as a
recommendation that we bring together the viewpoints of different experts, bring together the view toward
object histories and the view toward the total spatial image.
Concentrating (on) Collections in the Lab
Concentrating (on) Collections, curated by Nicola Lepp and Nina Wiedemeyer, brings these important
topics together as if under a microscope in the laboratory. The project poses a number of decisive questions
for the further implementation of the project: Is everything of equal importance in a display case? Do exhibits
in a display case lose their uniqueness? What happens when you walk along and compare the exhibits? To
make a comparison, you need at least two objects but how do visitors handle many hundreds of objects? Are
there appropriate and inappropriate comparisons when an entire collection is exhibited?
Of central importance is that a collaboration takes place between those who understand the objects and their
individual history, and those who see the whole picture and are capable of designing it. The curators come to
notice that the things dont divulge as much to everyone as they themselves perceive. The designers realize
that the exhibits must be staged in a certain way for their appeal to unfold. How then should this mass of
262
exhibits be made to speak in a showcase? How can new perspectives toward the collection be perceived
spatially by visitors, through a communicative dialogue?
Together, curators and designers layout the exhibits for visitors in the dual sense of presenting and
interpreting. Concentrating (on) Collections shows how, together, curators and designers can lay out clues
for visitors to generate new forms of experiencing, seeing, and understanding, new forms of encounter
between the subject and the object, new forms of promoting dialogue with visitors.
Communicating and Conveying through Fields of Play'
The concepts recommended by Concentrating (on) Collections present different forms of emphasis, ways to
demarcate boundaries within the density of the presentation elements within the giant display cabinets
signalizing that something unusual can be seen here, that a unique perspective is being offered. One concrete
example is the recommendation that a field of play be included in the presentation of the numerous buffalo
robes from the North American Prairie and Plains collection. A specially placed box in front of the lower part
of the display cabinet serves to mark out the field of play. In this case, the game found inside is intended for
children, and consists of characters from the stories portrayed on the buffalo robes. This invites viewers to
approach the objects through the stories depicted on them. The static abundance of the collection is made
dynamic analogue gamification. The game also draws attention to a unique, concrete feature of the
collection: this buffalo robe, too, is all about stories. New ways of viewing the objects emerge. The game
allows the exhibits to speak viewers can make their own sense of what the collection says.
Concentrating (on) Collections isnt an exhibition yet. But by 2019, there will be an exhibition that invites us
to concentrate (on) collections, and this project will have helped inspire how.
Professor Philipp Teufel is the Deputy General Project Manager of Exhibition Design for the Humboldt-Forum, in
cooperation with Ralph Appelbaum Associates. Teufel possesses over 25 years of experience in the field of museum and
exhibition design. From 1985 to 1995, he worked in Frankfurt as one of the primary designers for various museums on
Frankfurts Museumsufer (Museums Embankment). In 1994 he was appointed to the Fachhochschule Dsseldorf (known
as the Hochschule Dsseldorf since 2015) where, together with Professor Uwe Reinhardt, he heads the Exhibition Design
Institute and MA program of the same name. His most important museum projects include: the Deutsches Filmmuseum
in Frankfurt am Main, the Museum fr Vor- und Frhgeschichte (known as Archologisches Museum since 2002) in
Frankfurt am Main, Historisches Museum Frankfurt, Museum Judengasse in Frankfurt am Main, the Neues Museum in
Berlin (invited to compete in call for bids), Museumsinsel Berlin (Corporate Design and Signage System competition),
Geldmuseum der Deutschen Bundesbank in Frankfurt am Main, Polizeimuseum Hamburg (master plan), and the Haus
des Waldes in Stuttgart. He is the author and editor of numerous publications dedicated to exhibition and museum
design.
Concentrating (on) Collections / Credits

Concept and project management: Nicola Lepp, Nina Wiedemeyer

Research: Andrea Nicklisch, Carolin Nser
Visualization drafts: Ursula Gillmann, Katharina Klber, atelier gillmann + co, Basel
Design slideshow: Bro Otto Sauhaus, Berlin
Set-up: Nadine Ney
Technical equipment: EIDOTECH, Berlin
Many thanks to the curators of the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, who made
themselves available for discussions and workshops right from the start: Jonathan Fine, Manuela Fischer,
Maria Gaida, Richard Haas, Paola Ivanov, Peter Junge, Lars-Christian Koch, Viola Knig, Indra Lopez
Velasco, Klaas Ruitenbeek, Lilla Russel-Smith, Ching-Ling Wang, Monika Zessnik as well as Ulla Holmquist
Pachas (Museo Larco, Lima).
Thanks also to Ilja Labischinski for his support.
263
Concentrating (on) Collections / Imprint

Documentation
Translations: Rob Madole
As of October 2015
Installation view Concentrating (on) Collections, in the study collection of the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst,
photo: Uwe Walter
264
Installation view Concentrating (on) Collections, in the study collection of the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst,
photo: Uwe Walter
Scenographic sketch Concentrating (on) Collections, Atelier Gillmann, Basel
265
266
www.humboldt-lab.de - Projects - Probebhne 7 - Knight Moves - Again
Knight Moves Again
Knight Moves Again / Teaser

The Knight Moves Again project aimed at supplementing the scientific discourse of museum presentation
by means of art. The interventions of the artists Nevin Alada, Kader Attia, Sunah Choi, and Mathilde ter
Heijne showed in an exemplary way how subjective engagement with objects in the Ethnologisches Museum
collection can be negotiated. The concrete relations into which their works entered with museum exhibits also
extended how visitors view the collection and the institution as a whole calling into question principles of
ordering, invoking relations to the global present, and inspiring creative reflection on ones own position in
time and space.
Knight Moves Again / Project Description
Art as Link to the Global Present

by Angela Rosenberg
The objective of the Knight Moves Again project was to use contemporary artistic perspectives to extend
the permanent exhibitions at select locations in the Ethnologisches Museum. It sought to facilitate alternative
views of objects and their presentation by means of direct interventions in the existing collection, yet without
turning the permanent exhibitions upside down. The interventions produced for the project by Nevin Alada,
Kader Attia, Sunah Choi, and Mathilde ter Heijne illustrated in an exemplary way how to subjectively engage
with objects in the collection and how these interventions can thematically and formally supplement the
theoretical discourse of museum presentation. Like its predecessor, the project Knight Moves at
Probebhne 1, Knight Moves Again created leaps of thought to bridge wide differences of theme, region,
culture, and time. Unlike the knight in the game of chess, however, which inspired the title, winning was not
important for Knight Moves Again; it was more a question of the cooperation of exhibition pieces as well
as of the artists, curators, and the various collections restorers.
267
The Interventions
Sunah Choi engaged with objects in the Oceania collection in two projects. Her series of cyanotypes titled
Belichtet (Exposed, 2015), was produced using objects from the Oceania section storerooms. This
photographic process dates to the nineteenth century and is based on the principle of the photogram, where
objects leave unexposed areas on photosensitive paper blue tones in the case of cyanotypes. The photogram
technique was popular with the Surrealists as a simple means of producing highly evocative images. Sunah
Choi situates her works between this associative approach and exact registration of outlines. She presented
images of ten tools and objects unknown, or unusual, in this form in Europe, but which are everyday items in
Oceania, thus setting up a precarious balance between scientific image and speculative transfiguration.
For Projektion (Projection, 2015), she arranged three vitrines displaying exhibits from the collection on
geometrical patterns found on Oceanian tapa (barkcloth), thus challenging current thinking on order and
presentation in the museum context. Lit from above, the objects lay on sheets of polypropylene from which
tapa patterns had been cut out. Together with the shadows on the base of the vitrines, the ensembles created
two-dimensional images, projections that brought out essential features in the issue of reduction.
Nevin Alada, by way of contrast, worked with the transcultural and poetic qualities of musical instruments.
Her Musikzimmer (Music Room, 2015) in the Ethnomusicology section dealt with the production of sound
and the effects of music on the human mind. The objects are hybrid musical instruments made from items of
furniture: a guitar armchair, a side table with chimes (percussion instrument), and an umbrella stand drum.
These musical items of furniture develop their own acoustic properties as resonating bodies to challenge
prevalent notions of functionality, ergonomics, and tonal purity. The Musikzimmer, then, called into
question the intrinsic functionality of the items of furniture and extended it in unexpected ways. The artist
was reacting to exhibits in the ethnomusicology section where, for conservational reasons, objects are
displayed in vitrines. Her musical furniture drew attention to the unplayed instruments and their absent
music, pinpointing a silence precisely where music is at stake.
For her video installation Pulling Matter from Unknown Sources, (2015) Mathilde ter Heijne translated the
contemporary cultural practice of West African vodou religion into an artistic form, bringing objects of this
culture to Dahlem. In 2014, as a novice priestess, together with the Togolese vodou priest Togb Hounon
Hounougbo Bahousou, at present living in Berlin-Weissensee, the artist made video recordings of vodou
ceremonies in Benin and Togo. Central to these ceremonies was an altar dedicated to the thunder god
Toulabo. The same figure in the exhibition was surrounded by five monitors up-to-date, modern showcases
opposite the vitrines of the permanent exhibition and the masks they contained. The video sequences
presented vodou as a living, everyday practice and activity, and displayed things, processes, and intermediary
zones from surprising angles, sometimes entire, sometimes abstract. Alongside views from the standpoint of a
sacrificial goat, nocturnal/infrared takes, and so-called aura images, there were scenes in a German abattoir
and the artists Berlin studio. The artist positioned herself confidently among documentaries from other
contexts and regions in the museums permanent exhibition. The installation was ritually looked after during
the exhibition and so illustrated the everyday handling of a functional object that, though removed from its
original context, remained spiritually active, seeking dialogue on a level that seemed to combine the artistic
and the spiritual with the historical masks and documentaries in the exhibition Art from Africa.
Kader Attias works address post-colonialism, operating with fracture and repair as a comprehensive cultural
and societal task. The suggestive juxtapositioning of his own mirror sculptures in Mirror Mask (2014, 2015)
and the objects on display in the exhibition Art from Africa created an estranging effect. Dogon wooden
masks, acquired by the artist in Mali, which he covered with pieces of mirror, returned the viewers gaze and
cast its fragmented reflection across the room. Attias sculptures brought together the art-historical reference
to Braques and Picassos cubist fragmentation, deriving from their artistic exploration of African masks, and
a contemporary image of fracture and estrangement. Ancestor figures, portraits, and twin figures became a
counterpoint to the artists own contemporary interpretation of the mask. Viewers were faced not only with
their own fragmented mirror images but with reflections of the sculptures and exhibition around them.
Fragment in order to repair is Attias motto; it established relations between the viewer and the exhibits that
did not stop at regional and cultural classifications.
Shifts of Perspective, Extended Field of Action
The Knight Moves projects in Dahlem entered into direct relation with exhibits. They invigorated the ways
in which the permanent exhibitions are viewed and they extended the museums field of action by underlining
268
additional thematic, formal, or aesthetic areas that challenged existing arrangements and shifted both viewer
and institutional perspectives. It is a strategy that also facilitates intervention in the future Humboldt-Forum
exhibitions by drawing attention to, problematizing, and, if necessary, challenging interpretative priorities.
The interventions can be inconspicuous, or sometimes obvious; but they invariably invite the viewer to engage
with the objects in new ways. In precisely this manner, artistic interaction with objects in the collection can
enrich scientific and theoretical discourse within the museum context. This kind of expanded
contextualization also establishes a link to the present without being overtly didactic. Ultimately, the Knight
Moves projects bring into focus the importance and relevance of the Ethnologisches Museum collections by
using contemporary art to appeal playfully to museum visitors and their varying horizons of experience.
Angela Rosenberg is an art historian, curator, and writer living in Berlin. For the Humboldt Lab Dahlem she curated
Game of Thrones (2013) with Konstantin Grcic, Kirstine Roepstorff, Simon Starling, and Zhao Zhao at the Asian Art
Museum, as well as Knight Moves Again.
Knight Moves Again / Positions
Displacement as Creative Space

by Jennifer Allen
Richard Sennetts book The Foreigner (2011) has a telling subtitle: I look in the mirror and see someone who
is not myself. That sentence can describe our experience of Kader Attias Mirror Mask (2014, 2015). The
artist added small mirrors to two traditional masks in the Africa Collection of the Ethnologisches Museum.
Visitors peering into the vitrines may be startled to catch a glimpse of their own faces, like the way one could
once be surprised by ones image in the window of a video camera store or, today, how one discovers oneself
shimmering in surveillance systems.
While closed-circuit monitors echo us in our immediate surroundings, Attias work juxtaposes the familiar
and the dissimilar. Whatever our origins, our faces become visually attached to an African mask: our likeness
overlays a disguise designed for someone elses face, for another ritual, beyond looking at treasures in a
museum. Since Attias mirrors are numerous and fragmented, we see our faces not only superimposed on the
masks but also multiplied and divided into fragments. The vitrine spotlight produces more reflections, as a
spotlight on a disco ball does. While the mask remains perfectly intact, our reflections suggest multiple
personalities with mismatched parts, which cannot be put together to make one image, one surface, one face.
The mirror holds another idea, which addresses the unstable position of the foreigner. Kader Attia, Nevin
Alada, Sunah Choi, and Mathilde ter Heijne all have this equivocal status; they were born in other countries
and came to live long-term in Berlin, somewhat like the holdings of the Ethnologisches Museum. To create a
link between the mirror and the foreigner, Sennett offers an unusual analysis of douard Manets A Bar at
the Folies-Bergre (1882): the iconic painting of a melancholic waitress manning a bar in the infamous
theater in Paris. Like many art historians, the sociologist duly notes that her reflection in the mirror, which is
featured in the background, is optically impossible: her reflection shows not only the back of her body but
also the face of a man talking to her, who does not otherwise appear in the painting. Yet Sennett sees, not a
curious painterly perspective, but an attempt to imagine what could be positive about displacement. Neither
Manet, nor the barmaid, nor the man, represent the foreigner. Instead, the perspective itself a gap between
the mirror and its reflection, the coexistence of the familiar and the strange manifests the foreigners
displacement as a creative, formal space. Displacement creates value, Sennett writes, reflexive value, that is
a value given to the viewer as part of the thing seen; and value given to the physical world itself, whose
character and form we are forced to assess by looking at its transmutation in a distorting mirror.
Attia, Alada, Choi, and ter Heijne create this perspective in different ways. Attia uses literal mirrors while
Alada, Choi, and ter Heijne turn to other media, which produce a similar type of doubling along with the
possibility of distortion. Aladas Musikzimmer (Music Room, 2015) can be found in the museums
ethnomusicology section. Yet her sculptural installation serves as both furniture and instruments, which look
and dont look like the guitars and the drums displayed in the surrounding vitrines. Her chair sports metal
strings, like a guitar or a harp, under the arm rests; her table includes a bar chime, hanging like a decorative
fringe; her circular footrest can double as a drum. In the Africa collection, ter Heijne created the multi-media
269
installation Pulling Matter from Unknown Sources (2015) which includes a portable altar used by the
Togolese vodou priest Togb Hounon Hounougbo Bahousou, who actually lives in Berlin-Weissensee and who
is training ter Heijne to become a priestess. Traveling to Togo and Benin in 2014, the artist-apprentice filmed
vodou rituals which are projected on five monitors. While some visitors might recognize certain elements of
the rituals, the largest monitor shows fantastically-distorted abstract images which seem closer to a science
fiction film than to an ethnographic one: more futuristic than religious, traditional, or archaic. Like Aladas
instrument-furniture, ter Heijnes vodou videos both fit and do not fit with the African fetish sculptures
displayed in the surrounding vitrines.
In the Oceania collection, Choi created two installations which use a more explicit form of doubling and
distortion. For Projektion (Projection, 2015), she selected various small objects from the collection, from a
Samoan shell bracelet to a New Zealand fishing hook; she placed them on a glass plate in a traditional vitrine
but on top of geometric patterns which were inspired by Polynesian and Melanesian tapa barkcloth designs
but which were cut out of black and white polypropylene. The objects and the plastic tapa illuminated from
above by the vitrine light cast strange shadows on the bottom of the vitrine, like ghosts fading into a grid.
For Belichtet (Exposed, 2015), Choi used a similar method selecting objects from the collection but
arranged them on a glass plate to create nine cyan-blue photograms. While Projektion leaves the objects on
display, Belichtet forces us to imagine what they were by guessing from their deep blue shadowy outlines: a
hook, a fishing net, perhaps a mat.
Again, the artists and the objects in the museum are foreign to Berlin. Instead of identifying with the objects
or trying to return them to their origins, the artists create works that make the objects at once more familiar
and more exotic. Like Manet, they use mirroring to transform displacement into a positive, creative, formal
space. While opening a gap between their works and the rest of the collection, they close up the geographical
distance and exoticism implied by an ethnological museum. Catching our reflection in Attias Mirror Mask,
we become part of an African mask instead of viewing it as an icon that has traveled from another continent.
Aladas furniture-instruments look like local flea market fare, if not a friends living room. As ter Heijnes
altar suggests, vodou rituals are taking place not only in distant Togo and Benin but also right around the
corner in a Berlin neighborhood. The doubling in Chois works give us the more immediate experience of
recognizing the objects in their distorted shadows. We look into the vitrines at the museum, expecting to find
a reflection of distant peoples from faraway places; instead, we find a reflection of ourselves, our
surroundings, and our presence.
Dr. Jennifer Allen is a writer living in Berlin.
Knight Moves Again / Credits

Curator: Angela Rosenberg

Exhibition setup: Nadine Ney, scala Ausstellungsgestaltung Gnter Krger
Graphics: Antonia Neubacher
Nevin Alada: Musikzimmer, 2015

mixed media installation
furniture in diverse materials, strings, skins
variable dimensions
Courtesy Nevin Alada; Galerie Wentrup, Berlin; Rampa Gallery, Istanbul
With the kind support of: Lars-Christian Koch, Ricarda Kopal
Kader Attia: Mirror Mask, 2014

wooden mask, mirror, steel stand
52 x 17,5 x 13,5 cm
private collection, London
270
Kader Attia: Mirror Mask, 2015

wooden mask, mirror, steel stand
51,5 x 15,5 x 13,5 cm
Courtesy Kader Attia; Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin / Cologne
Conservation: Diana Gabler, Eva Ritz

For theme-related and organizational support we sincerely thank: Jonathan Fine, Paola Ivanov, Verena
Rodatus and Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin / Cologne
Sunah Choi: Belichtet, 2015

9 cyanotypes on watercolor paper
77 x 56 cm (I VIII) / 140 x 100 cm (IX)
Courtesy Sunah Choi
Sunah Choi: Projektion, 2015

stencils, objects from the collection of the Ethnologisches Museum in three illuminated vitrines
Courtesy Sunah Choi; Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin
Conservation: Leonie Grtner, Diana Gabler

For theme-related and organizational support we sincerely thank: Maria Gaida, Claudia Obrocki, Indra Lopez
Velasco
Mathilde ter Heijne: Pulling Matter from Unknown Sources, 2015

2 portable altars and Hbisso ceremonies
wooden sculpture Toulabo Mathildediverse utensils, HD video projection with sound, 4 monitors, 2 flight
cases, aluminum pipes
variable dimensions
Camera: Felix Bttcher, Ingo Brunner, Birgit Mller, Daniela Mac Rossiter
Production and processing: Silke Borsch, Felix Bttcher, Vanessa Gravenor, Martin Knig
Courtesy Mathilde ter Heijne
Media support: EIDOTECH, Berlin

Conservation: Diana Gabler, Eva Ritz
For theme-related and organizational support we sincerely thank: Togb Hounon Hounougbo Bahousou,
Kokou Ahlidja Akout, Dotse Komi, Euloge Gregor, Tossou Thomas, Kai Dieterich sowie Jonathan Fine,
Paola Ivanov, Verena Rodatus
Knight Moves Again / Imprint Documentation

271
Sunah Choi, Belichtet, 2015, photo: Uwe Walter
Sunah Choi, Projektion, 2015, photo: Uwe Walter
272
Nevin Alada, Musikzimmer, 2015, photo: Uwe Walter
Mathilde ter Heijne, Pulling Matter from Unknown Sources, 2015, photo: Uwe Walter
273
Kader Attia, Mirror Mask, 2015, at the exhibition Art from Africa, Ethnologisches Museum, photo:
Sebastian Bolesch, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
274
www.humboldt-lab.de - Documentation - Probebhne 7 - Sharing Knowledge
Sharing Knowledge
Sharing Knowledge / Teaser

For centuries, Western museums have collected, documented, and presented objects from other cultures. Yet
paradoxically and even today, representatives of these cultures are seldom called on to participate in this
process from exhibition design to collection research. The Humboldt-Forum views multiperspectivity and
the decentering of interpretive power as highly justified postcolonial demands that it will strive to honor. The
project Sharing Knowledge initiated a unique cooperation with precisely these goals in mind. In 2014,
students at the Universidad Nacional Experimental Indgena del Tauca in the Venezuelan Amazon region and
staff of the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin began working together to establish a joint interactive web
platform. It will provide the basis for the consolidation, exchange, and accumulation of knowledge about
ethnographic objects from the region. On the platform, all object-related attributes are negotiable; edits are
stored on a continual basis. Knowledge is therefore always in the making.
Sharing Knowledge / Project Description
Collaborative research en route to the Humboldt-

Forum
by Andrea Scholz
For museums with non-European collections, collaboration with representatives of source communities is a
key concern. In a post-colonial museum context, where an interpretive monopoly is a thing of the past, the
current approach is to integrate different perspectives, in both exhibition work and collection research. The
Humboldt-Forum also advocates multiperspectivity and sees itself less as a site of unilateral knowledge
production and more as a contact zone, as described by James Clifford. Yet even a presumed contact zone is
not void of power asymmetries or contradictions. And sustainability is paramount: for source communities
275
and museum audiences alike, there is no long-term benefit in international cooperation projects that merely
involve isolated museum visits by indigenous representatives.
The project Sharing Knowledge was initiated with the aim of creating a vibrant and sustainable cooperation
with an indigenous university in Venezuela. It originated in the Guyana collection stemming from
Northeastern Amazonia and housed by the Ethnologisches Museum. The goal was to develop an interactive
online platform which could be used by students from the Universidad Nacional Experimental Indgena del
Tauca (UNEIT) and staff of the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin to consolidate, exchange, and build on
knowledge about ethnographic objects. The platform serves both as a tool for collaborative collection
research and as part of the Amazonia exhibition in the Humboldt-Forum.
First Approaches
In March 2014, I traveled with documentary filmmaker Natalia Pava Camargo to the university in Tauca,
Venezuela. The goal was to convince the university to participate in an exchange involving the Guayana
collection. At UNEIT, an institution unique in its form, young students belonging to over ten different
indigenous ethnicities (including Yekwana, Pemn, Eepa, and Yukpa) study a special curriculum geared
toward the specific challenges facing indigenous groups in the modern world. Graduates undergo training to
become multipliers in their communities, which select their preferred student candidates in collaboration with
UNEIT. Between semesters students return to their communities for fieldwork phases. Courses at UNEIT
include topics such as food security alternatives as well as reflections of indigenous identity in conjunction
with (non-indigenous) mainstream society, the exercise of indigenous rights, and the preservation of cultural
practices. The latter include techniques such as basket weaving, wood carving, and the production of body
adornment, represented in the Ethnologisches Museum.
UNEIT was therefore the ideal partner for the idea behind Sharing Knowledge. My first visit focused on
establishing trust and collaborating to expand on the project concept. After the universitys council of elders
approved the project, starting with representatives of the Pemn and Yekwana, seven university members
visited the Ethnologisches Museum in August and September of 2014. Many of the historical objects were
familiar and mundane; others were new or had been forgotten and prompted subsequent research in the
visitors communities. Observations about the objects (for example, designations in the respective indigenous
languages, information on their function or iconography) were recorded on copies of the historic index cards.
For certain objects such as manioc graters that were formerly produced in the entire Guayana region by the
Yekwana and passed along to the Pemn and other tribes through trade, the links to ethnic groups were
revised.
Digital Cooperation
During the visitors stay in Berlin, the idea for the online platform emerged while working with the collection.
Members of the Pemn and Yekwana expressed a preference for symbols on the platform homepage that
would represent their specific object worlds. Below these worlds, participants all agreed on a classification
model for the objects that, apart from a few deviations, reflects the exhibition layout planned for the
Humboldt-Forum: a structure based on different contexts of engagement with the world or, in other words,
the areas in which objects are used. Participants agreed that visual communication elements would be
preferred over text to avoid prioritizing the Spanish or German language over their indigenous counterparts.
All relevant languages would be available in the user interface and the object descriptions.
Based on these parameters, a call for bids was elaborated describing the platform development. The Berlin
Studio NAND was selected for the job and it implemented a pilot version with 246 objects in the months that
followed.
During my stay in Tauca in May 2015, the web-based knowledge sharing project started with the first objects
from the Pemn and Yekwana. Students also added objects from Tauca to the platform that had recently
been created or were currently in production. Alongside the virtual platform, this would enable the gradual
development of a concrete physical counterpart to the collection in Berlin. In Tauca the objects are used or
preserved in the students respective residential buildings.
On the platform, all object-related attributes are negotiable; changes are stored on a continual basis.
Erroneous or incorrect museum documentation, as discovered in certain aspects during the Tauca
delegations visit, can therefore still be tracked and recorded. Knowledge is thus fundamentally instable and
276
never written in stone.
Results and Outlook
The result of the cooperation and the exchange initiated through the platform were presented to the public
together with the video documentation of the project and certain ethnographic objects of the Pemn and
Yekwana as part of Probebhne 7. Objects that were presented included baskets for carrying and storing
objects, a fish trap, a cassava grater, and a shamans stool. Platform comments about the objects could be
viewed on iPads in the museum space.
Establishing partnerships for joint projects is a central task for the Humboldt-Forum. Sharing Knowledge
has made an important contribution in this respect. Experiences stemming from this cooperation are also
valuable for future projects, since they reveal the instability of knowledge systems in museums as well as the
necessity to define an alternative concept of knowledge for the exhibition and the sharing of ethnographic
collections.
A first step has already been taken in this direction. The cooperation with UNEIT was exceedingly positive
and fruitful and the platform prototype developed as part of the project proved to be suitable for the virtual
exchange of knowledge. UNEIT has already started to use the platform as a virtual extension of current
teaching material and as an impulse for research in the students source communities. Nevertheless, the
platform in Tauca faced greater technical difficulties than those initially anticipated. Potential solutions (for
example an offline platform version for interruptions in online service) could no longer be identified as part of
the Humboldt Lab project due to time constraints. These technical issues aside, as the Humboldt Lab draws
to a close, virtual knowledge sharing is still in its early phases and will require intensive ongoing support in
order to be operational in the long term. Whether the collaboration will continue until the inauguration of the
Humboldt-Forum and even beyond, and perhaps even extend to other exhibition areas, will largely depend on
additional funding.
The exhibition that emerged at the end of Sharing Knowledge is still not a model for involving audiences in
collaborative projects. While the video documentation did prove to be a valuable means of communication,
the Humboldt-Forum needs to develop other formats to convey information about the knowledge sharing
process itself. This undertaking will require the allocation of corresponding funds.
While financial leeway is important, it is not the sole prerequisite in this case. Sharing Knowledge required
complex processes of building trust and personal commitment that went far beyond the standard scope of
curatorial work. This clearly indicated that cooperation projects with indigenous communities necessitate a
structural framework that has not yet been accounted for in this form in the Humboldt-Forum.
Dr. Andrea Scholz, initiator of Sharing Knowledge, is an ethnologist who specializes in the Amazon basin. She
currently works as a research assistant for the Humboldt Lab Dahlem. Her past curatorial projects include Knight
Moves: Surinam/Benin as well as Man Object Jaguar.
Sharing Knowledge / Positions
You need to show that our culture is still alive and

thanks to it, we are still alive today.
Kachipiu Daz belongs to the Pemn people and is a student and coordinator. Kuyujani Lopez belongs to the
Yekwana people and has earned a degree from the Universidad Nacional Experimental Indgena del Tauca.
Both have played an active role in shaping the Sharing Knowledge Internet platform. They discussed their
experiences and impressions of the cooperation, and expressed their strong belief in the need to continue
cooperation between western institutions and the indigenous communities.
Interview: Michael Kraus
What do you think about the idea of the Sharing Knowledge project? Why did you become involved in the
project?
277
Kachipiu: I believe that this project holds great significance to all indigenous peoples, as well as to the rest of
mankind. The approach of the project is very good and it should continue and become a lasting cooperation.
It shows real progress. I think the Internet platform is a means for us as indigenous peoples to gradually
become visible.
Kuyujani: The project is really interesting because it gave us reason to hold discussions within our
communities. As a result, this knowledge can then be shared with all of us. The objects that you have here,
these handmade objects they are very important to us as a people. We need to share this importance with
others. From us as indigenous peoples. There is much that we can contribute. We also want to incorporate the
indigenous communities more into this project. Until now, its only been the Universidad Nacional
Experimental Indgena del Tauca, but we absolutely need the connection to the indigenous communities
because thats where culture is, not just at the university.
Have both of you been actively working on the platform already?
Kuyujani: I have been working on the project through the university from the beginning. We work on
identifying each and every object that is here at the Ethnologisches Museum. If we dont know what an object
is, we consult with the community, with the wise people of our community. What is this object called and what
is it used for? Then we upload the data to the platform. It is very important to us that the project continues
and we keep working on it. And that we, together with the indigenous communities, help the Ethnologisches
Museum. We need to incorporate other peoples who are represented at the Universidad Nacional
Experimental Indgena del Tauca and whose objects are located here at the Ethnologisches Museum. New
ideas will emerge as the project moves forward.
Kachipiu: I worked on editing the translations from the Pemn language. That includes both the words that
the researchers collected and the entries that the Pemn entered on the Internet platform.
What are your impressions about the documentation of the objects that you have seen here at the museum?
Are there mistakes?
Kachipiu: Primarily, in the way it is written. The various groups of Pemn need to agree on how to translate
our language. Im referring to the fact that the Taurepan, Arekuna, and Kamarakoto need to agree on a single
term for different words in all three groups of peoples. Theres also a lot on the Internet platform that needs
to be changed. Likewise, we need to continue gathering as much information as possible. When an institution
like the Ethnologisches Museum publishes something, they should also inform us online or some other way, so
we as a new Amazonian museum stay up-to-date, as well. We plan to set up a museum at the university in
Tauca on the basis of the cooperation with the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin. It needs to become
mandatory that we receive such information.
Have you found objects from your cultural groups in the museums collection in Dahlem that arent used
anymore, or that people dont know anymore, or that are well-known and still in use today?
Kuyujani: Weve found objects here that we dont have anymore. Weapons that were used by the warriors
when they fought against the Spaniards, according to our elder. Nowadays we dont see these items anymore
in the community. There are also some objects still used: the waja [basketlike dishes], the baskets, the
decorative feathers. These are all everyday items.
Kachipiu: The items we were able to identify are in use. The Pemn typically still use handmade items when
preparing their foods and meals. These tools obviously have a limited lifespan. It depends on how they are
used in preparing food. At some point they are set aside; you can hang them up, and theyll eventually
deteriorate. They are biodegradable and environmentally friendly. The way I see it, its a good way for people
to support biodiversity directly where they live. It doesnt harm the environment. I believe its important.
Do you approve of the fact that these collections of items from your cultural groups are housed in Germany?
Kuyujani: These items are here. You need to respect the fact that they are part of the cultural heritage of the
museum. If you start to demand that they return items, you need to study the situation well. How did the
object arrive here? If the object was sold or presented as a gift, it belongs to you. If you were to have sold
something, you cannot just ask to have it back later. What I find interesting is the fact that the museum was
the one to initiate this exchange and informed the communities that their objects are here. For me, its good
and fair. And now there will be an exhibition in the Humboldt-Forum starting in 2019, where the people in
charge decided to consult with the communities beforehand. It is an indication of good intentions. It shows
respect when you let us know before the objects are placed on exhibit. Up until now they had all been in
278
storage.
Kachipiu: Its important to preserve as many items as possible here in the museum, but you cannot expose
some objects to the public, as they are sacred. Only our wise people, our shamans, know how to use, those
who have gained experience over time.
So there are objects that you wouldnt want placed on exhibit?
Kuyujani: For example, the shamans bench. No one should be allowed to view this object because it is special
in the world of the indigenous peoples. The shaman is the person in charge of the communitys well-being and
who takes care of it. Last year, together with one of our elders, we viewed everything in the museums
collection and said that this object could not be exhibited. Therefore, for the Yekwana, there is this specific
case where we found an object that cannot be exhibited. On the other hand, you can exhibit handicrafts. The
wise people are in charge of handling this sacred knowledge. There are some things that are not passed along
to younger people. You need to limit access to the information. For example, if I show things to a young man,
and if he uses them the wrong way, he can cause harm to others when he uses this knowledge. For this reason,
you cannot place objects on exhibit that are related to this knowledge. They hold great significance and they
have a strong spiritual connection that is handled only by the elders. Im sure there are younger people who
would be interested in this sacred knowledge, but you need to choose who will be trained in using it. Its not
for everyone.
If you were curators of an exhibition in Berlin, what objects would you like to place on exhibit and on which
topics would you like to focus to enable the public to better understand the situation of the Yekwana and
Pemn peoples?
Kuyujani: We would like to show the indigenous art, the artesian objects, the decorative feathers, the baskets,
how to weave a waja. Its artistic knowledge, its something you can exhibit. They are in common use around
the communities.
We strongly believe in our culture, in our spirituality, and this remains the case to this day. It would be good
to show that it is not something dead. Rather that it is still alive and thanks to it, we are still alive today. We
wouldnt exist without our culture. It would be great if the labels used in the museum would indicate whether
the objects are historical pieces or are still in use today. By stating that the objects are still in use, it would be
a way of communicating to the world that indigenous people still exist. There are many people who dont
know that we indigenous people exist. They think that we are nothing but a legend, that we are extinct. Its
good for people to see that our peoples are still active and our culture is different and deserving of respect.
Kachipiu: Its a living culture and capable of adapting to changes. It would be important for our peoples to
learn about this living culture. It can act as a bridge that connects indigenous knowledge with the western
culture. In my opinion, it can be enriching for both cultures.
There is much talk in the realm of museums about cultural heritage, as well as the concept of a shared
cultural heritage. Do you think that a European museums collection can be considered a shared cultural
heritage?
Kachipiu: Yes, it is a shared heritage because I as a young person and as part of this conversation can state
that it enriches both cultures. If we dont share the knowledge of both cultures, we wont get anywhere. For
this reason, it is important for us as indigenous peoples to cooperate with other countries. This can be seen as
a cultural heritage of both cultures. We Pemn say that a shaman, a wise man, is our living cultural
heritage. He holds all this knowledge and knows how to explain the direction in which we humans are going,
in particular the Pemn. The wise person is living cultural heritage. That is something we have heard our wise
people say, as they store our memories. We are indigenous people who learn through oral tradition and we
work with the organic world around us, with nature. We also need to write things down what can be written
down. And the things that cannot be written down, spiritual ideas, is the knowledge that only a Pemn can
use. There are stories about researchers who learned something from the Pemn, but they applied it
improperly. Thats why you should add the comments of the wise people in various places. Thats how I see it.
Kuyujani: Thats how I see it, too.
The conversation took place in Berlin in September 2015. Transcription by Sebastin Messina, translation from Spanish
by David Fenske.
279
Dr. Michael Kraus is an ethnologist and exhibition curator and an academic officer at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wil-
helms-Universitt Bonn. His research work centers on the history of academics, indigenous cultures of the Amazon,
museum ethnology/practical museum work, visual anthropology, and material culture. He curated the Touching
Photography project for the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
Expanding the Contact Zone

by Wolfgang Kapfhammer
Collaboration and mindfulness as urgent actions
Judging from recent debates, the task of providing cultures of the global South with a decontaminated
forum, i.e. one that has been wiped clean of its colonial baggage, all in the heart of a European metropolis,
appears to be developing into a Sisyphean trial. Attempts by the Humboldt Lab Dahlem to negotiate the
related issues of representation, indisputably of critical import for museums, span the gamut from discourse
to experimental design. The subproject Sharing Knowledge shows that expectations directed at the post-
colonial museum include new forms of cooperation and action that extend to the source communities where
collections originated. The post-colonial debate that surrounds ethnological museums must, however, avoid
the trap of holding onto the same mental infrastructures (Harald Welzer) as those organizational forms
which they rightly criticize. Because the debate ascribes such a totalizing role to colonialism that even
subsequent attempts at reparation must necessarily be called into doubt, it ultimately denies subaltern
groups any and all possibility of participating in the interpretive monopoly claimed by European museums,
both then and now.
One idea for responding to the criticism aimed at ethnological museums was to establish them as contact
zones (James Clifford) in which metropolitan institutions and peripheral source communities could meet as
equals. Due to the institutional inertia of ethnological museums, this idea of meeting was rapidly exposed to
critique, i.e. the preserves of colonialism (Christian Kravagna). The project Sharing Knowledge offers a
possible solution to this Catch-22 conundrum. With the online platform, a virtual middle ground between
Berlin depots and indigenous partners in the Venezuelan savanna emerges, one that resembles the meeting
spaces that Mary L. Pratt was referring to as she introduced the term contact zone into the ethnological
debate on imperial eyes. There is a distinction to be made between the contact zone in the metropolitan
museum repository where encounters take place today with the producers of the objects (James Cliffords
contact zone) and the contact zone at the periphery where the real activity of collecting occurred (Mary J.
Pratts contact zone). The latter middle ground was a place where colonial and imperial scholars did the
actual work of investigation and collection, guided and shaped in large part by the authoritative knowledge of
local indigenous experts. Colonialism and colonial self-image, however, denied this extreme dependence on
indigenous expertise in the field and attempted to cleanse any traces of indigenous influence from the hybrid
epistemologies emerging in the contact zone.
One might speculate that especially the older collections provide the clearest matrix of indigenous knowledge,
since their contents still remained largely uninfluenced by Western pursuits of order. From this perspective,
indigenous knowledge harbored in colonial collections offers the possibility of reviving the transcultural
dialog through collaboration between museums and source communities. In Sharing Knowledge this dialog
started, tellingly enough, with the development of classification categories and rules based on indigenous life
worlds.
This kind of collaboration contains no traces of crypto-colonial hypocrisy. As Sharing Knowledge plainly
shows, an epistemic decolonialization (Larissa Frster) of museums can be found precisely in the
recognition of the efforts of local experts for traditional ecological knowledge (Fikret Berkes), who now
meet their descendants in the new contact zone.
This collaboration generates the desired polyphony in the metropolis, while the collections are able to extend
back to their remote indigenous origins, where they can break the silence surrounding indigenous culture
imposed by local discrimination. According to Pratt, the autoethnographic discourse initiated in this process
is one of the characteristic genres of the contact zone, where critique and resistance make their way into the
intellectual domains of the hegemonic culture. The online platform of the project is open to objections and the
possibility of voicing concerns.
Even more important than being heard in the metropolis, however, is the fact that Sharing Knowledge
280
creates opportunities in Tauca for communities to engage in various ways with the products of their own
culture. The act of breaking with a culture of silence (Paulo Freire) can then become a culture of
mindfulness toward the aesthetic of collection objects embedded in local environments. Finally, mindfulness
forms the prerequisite for the resilience of these different ways of life. The current situation in many
indigenous territories of the South American lowlands is extremely precarious. In light of these
circumstances, a project like Sharing Knowledge becomes an urgent intervention, since sooner or later the
window of opportunity for reconnecting with this local (material and other) culture will have closed. With this
in mind, the representation debates in the metropolitan institutions, often plagued by narcissism and self-
referential tendencies, may find reason to take a step back and reflect.
Dr. Wolfgang Kapfhammer is an anthropologist and lecturer at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt Mnchen (LMU
Munich), with a focus on Amazonia. He has researched the Sater-Maw of the Lower Amazon in Brazil since 1998, as
well as topics in the anthropology of religion and the environment, and collaborated with Sater-Maw representatives as
part of the exhibition Beyond Brazil at Viennas Weltmuseum.
Sharing Knowledge / Credits

Cooperational partners: Universidad Nacional Experimental Indgena del Tauca, Venezuela/ Ethnologisches
Museum Berlin. Arturo Asiza, Hernn Gonzalez, Richard Haas, Wendy Homsani, Katharina Kepplinger,
Kuyujani Lopez, Adam Loyola, Kaware Martinez, Esteban Emilio Mosonyi , Edhawinedu Rodrguez, Andrea
Scholz (Projektleitung / Project management), Marakada Sucre, Kamashiedu Yarumare et al
Video documentation: Natalia Pava Camargo
Website, exhibition design and exhibition visuals: Studio NAND & Markus Kerschkewicz, Jula Lakritz, Abe
Pazos
Restoration supervision: Diana Gabler, Helene Tello

Exhibition set-up: Bernd-Michael Weisheit
Technical coordination: Nadine Ney

Translations: Galina Green, Sebastin Messina
In memoriam: Jos Mara Korta, Ricardo Grenat
Sharing Knowledge / Imprint Documentation

Translation: David Fenske, Sarah Matthews
As of November 2015
281
Representatives from the Universidad Nacional Experimental Indgena del Tauca at work in the museum
depot, August 2014, photo: Natalia Pava Camargo
Copy of a historical file card from the collection American ethnology with comments by students of the
indigenous university, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum
282
Homepage of the exchange platform "Sharing Knowledge," Humboldt Lab Dahlem/UNEIT/Studio NAND
Students at the Universidad Nacional Experimental Indgena del Tauca working on the interactive website,
May 2015, photo: Natalia Pava Camargo
283
Installation view Sharing Knowledge, photo: Uwe Walter
Installation view Sharing Knowledge, photo: Uwe Walter
284
www.humboldt-lab.de - Projects - Workshop series Asking Questions
Asking Questions
Asking Questions
The purpose of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem was to accompany, enrich and challenge the planning process of
the Humboldt-Forum by implementing experimental formats. A special role was reserved for the theory-
orientated series Asking Questions. In symposia and lectures, overarching themes concerning museum
planning were discussed; in workshops the content of existing Lab exhibition modules was critically
challenged. Questions of presentation and representation of the collection inventory and their history of
origin, as well as the involvement of diverse communities and visitor groups, were reflected by the Dahlem
curators in dialog with external experts and the public.
You can read about these events on the following pages:
October 13-15, 2015: Thin Ice: Facing the Environment and Climate Change in Ethnological Museums,
workshop
Review by Hans Jessen
September 18/19, 2015: Always in Crisis? Questions of Representation in Museums for Non-European Arts
and Cultures, symposium
Review by Mario Schulze
July 21/22, 2015: Chinese Medicine in flux. Presenting and explaining Chinese medicine in the Humboldt-
Forum, workshop
Review by Nike Riedel
July 2/3, 2015: Historical Collections and Contemporary Art: a Discussion on Curatorial Strategies,
symposium
Review by Birgit Hopfener
January 29/30, 2015: Breaking Mesoamerican Codes, workshop

Review by Elke Ruhnau
November 21, 2014: Workshop Discussing [Open] Secrets, workshop

Review by Gesa Steeger
November 8, 2014: EuropeTest and now?, symposium

Review by Susanne Messmer
285
February 15, 2014: Man - Object - Jaguar" / Touching Photography, workshop

Review by Friedrich von Bose
October 19, 2013: Remembering as a Constructive Act - Artistic Concepts for Museum Collections,
symposium
Review by Kito Nedo
Thin Ice: Facing the Environment and Climate Change

in Ethnological Museums
by Hans Jessen
The title clearly has two meanings: it refers to our melting ice caps for one, but also to the thin ice
undergirding our fumbling efforts to answer complex questions ice thats not yet quite ready to bear weight.
The latest workshop in the Asking Questions series was dedicated to the second sense of the phrase, posing
questions like: how do we adapt to environmental phenomena, what is the sustainability of the
environmental concept as such, and what role do discourses about climate change and resource extraction
play within anthropology? Finally, the workshop laid a special emphasis on exploring how ethnological
museums might represent environmental and climate-related phenomena through media in future exhibitions.
The structure was as follows: lectures, panel discussions, artist presentations, and group discussions (in the
form of both assemblies and working groups), organized by geographic region as well as considerations of
content. The events, which featured anthropologists and cultural-studies scholars from various museums and
universities as well as independent artists, were open to the public on October 13 and 14, 2015, while the
working groups that met on October 15 were not.
Prologue: What Do Indigenous Actors Expect of the Ethnologisches Museum?
Viola Knig, director of the Ethnologisches Museum, summed up the situation briefly in her welcoming
speech: ethnological institutions are seeking to reflect critically about their own history and role in dealing
with indigenous people and their cultures; more than ever, they must confront the debate over colonialism
head on. Yet at the very same time, circumstances like the emergence of new regional powers (like China, for
example) are seriously compromising the interests of indigenous groups through the extraction of raw
materials, alteration of the landscape, and the ramifications of climate change.
The opening talk by Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
elaborated on these findings, tying them to sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the global climate
agreement. She has been seeing a new quality to collaboration: indigenous peoples arent simply demanding
that ethnological museums return their artifacts even though these were often collected in colonial,
imperialist fashion instead, they have come to respect the museums as institutions that preserve cultural
testimony and insight about the lands of origin, where often such testimony is no longer available. However,
this respect is tied to the expectation that the knowledge will be harnessed in close exchange with indigenous
knowledge to trigger radical changes in how we face global challenges. The only approach suitable for the
future is a participatory approach, which is expressed wonderfully in the form of the Humboldt Lab.
Ethnological knowledge can support indigenous peoples as they grapple with processes of cultural and
natural transformation. As a concrete example of this, Tauli-Corpuz mentioned cultural mapping as a means
to successfully exert pressure on regional decision makers to respect indigenous rights. In short: ethnological
museums are a human memory.
The opening evening concluded with a presentation of film clips exploring the relationship between man and
nature in different forms, drawn predominantly from the Ethnologisches Museums Archive of Visual
Anthropology. The primarily black-and-white film clips depicted the dichotomous perceptions of this
relationship, laying a vivid foundation for discussions the following day.
Perceiving and Conveying Environmental and Climate Changes
In her keynote speech, Fiona Cameron of Western Sydney University (linked by video broadcast from
Australia) criticized the traditional Western distinction between human and non-human, which
286
automatically slots the non-human (animals, plants, environment) into purely passive roles. Conceptually
separating humanity and nature, she argued, serves to cement a claim to superiority that disadvantages
cultures where humanity, nature, and the environment are conceived as a holistic whole. Using an exhibition
on climate change at the Science Museum in London as an example, Cameron criticized a scientific approach
that claimed equal authority for the non-human realm. In such an exhibition, Cameron explained, nature is
portrayed as a passive object, and the problems of climate change are seen as purely technical (and thus
solvable through technology). Cameron, in contrast, advocates for a way of perceiving and depicting humanity
and nature that no longer treats them as separate, dichotomous, but that instead accepts human and non-
human actors as an enormous multitude of independent yet mutually beholden actors.
Camerons talk was followed by intensive workshop discussions across four panels split up geographically,
each with a different focus. These focuses corresponded to the Humboldt-Forums concrete exhibition
modules: Perceptions of Climage Change in Oceania, Resource Extraction in the Amazon, El Nio in
Archaeological Research, and Sharing Knowledge: The Arctic Habitat. The thread tying all these diverse
themes together was the effort to integrate as many specific cultural perspectives, practices, and interests into
the discourse as possible.
Here are some key topics from the discussions (unfortunately, attempting to recap the panels minute-b-
-minute goes way beyond the bounds of this report): Indigenous peoples shouldnt be stylized as victims;
instead we should explore their possible agency and interests. The possible impact of climate change and
environmental intervention shouldnt be depicted in a single shade of utter catastrophe. Migration shouldnt
exclusively be seen as flight, but should instead be understood as a rational sovereign decision. We must
question our own terminology (What we understand as climate change is perceived differently, and triggers
different reactions in Oceania). We must incorporate indigenous knowledge. We must identify and name the
losers of transformation processes but also the winners (El Nio as a driver of cultural transformation in
Peru). We must pay attention to different priorities within cultural communication (For our people in
Alaska, the relationship issue between the people discussing is much more important than the work issue).
Central questions: How can such interdependencies be depicted in museum exhibitions that are
predominantly based on objects pried out of their historical, cultural, and social contexts? What voices should
and must be heard and how can they be depicted for the public? How much additional information beyond
the object can visitors to an exhibition be expected to process? Should/must an ethnological museums work
aim toward a call for action? What role can artistic projects play for developing themes in tactile and
emotional form? One panelist observed that fictive images often hue closer to reality than documentary
images, and another one gave the following advice: Contextualize as much as you want but, please, be
poetic in doing so.
Layers of Struggle
On the third day, the concepts of the Humboldt-Forums four exhibition modules Oceania: The Meanings of
the Ocean, Resource Stripping in the Amazon, Along the Humboldt Current, Sharing Knowledge: Arctic
Lifestyles were applied to the workshop topics. Four workgroups met and brainstormed: How can the
approaches addressed in the lectures approaches promoting contextuality, diversity of knowledge and
experience, participatory inclusion of indigenous stakeholders, transparency of information sources, poetry,
and more be brought to bear when implementing the modules in the Humboldt-Forum, where the spatial
architecture and the selection of objects has already largely been defined? Can the use of digital media still be
expanded? How can light and sound be used to emotionally convey connections between things? What
interactive features make sense? How can water and atmosphere, for example, be used in the Oceania
exhibition area to portray an element that is global and border-spanning? How can the history and impact of
resource-stripping and landscape-intervention in the Amazon be made tangible and how do indigenous
peoples work around it? And what does all this have to do with us? Who are we talking about when we say
we? Is there a global and a local we?
Feedback from the Curators Responsible for the Humboldt-Forums Planned Exhibition
Areas:
Dorothea Deterts: I enjoyed the workshop and the fruitful discussions in our group because they emphasized
some topics and links, and gave some unexpected ideas for the realization.
Andrea Scholz: For our planning process, the most important takeaway is probably that the workshop themes
287
of climate change and environmental destruction cant be discussed separately from the historical collection
in the future exhibition. It should rather be part of a continuing narrative, told in close conjunction with the
exhibits. Were developing the preliminary ideas for such an exhibition inside the exhibition.
Ute Marxreiter: The workshop was a gift for me. The workgroups in particular matched my idea of how Id
like to develop content and concepts for such a complex group of tasks among heterogeneous teams. The
work was exciting, extremely productive, and an enormous amount of fun. It would be a dream come true to
continue working with the teams at regular intervals, and give concrete form to our ideas now, on the
museum side, weve got a big challenge to go at it with our normal resources.
Viola Knig: The workshop made clear that were dealing with a topic that affects every region, and finds
itself expressed in different ways in each. Since the beginning of the planning process, weve been discussing
major human themes in the Humboldt-Forum. Climate change and the environment is one of them. The
challenge is to implement the overall thematic construct and make it discernible in the exhibitions. In doing
so well continue to be in urgent need of advice
Observers conclusion: In the end, everyone was quite exhausted, but it was a good exhaustion. Asking
Questions as a discursive mode of working, spanning disciplines and cultures, has once again proven to
enrich an individuals world of thinking and knowledge and be useful for all the participants involved.
Translated from German by Rob Madole
Hans Jessen is a journalist who covers culture and the environment. He lives in Berlin.
Link Program Symposium "Thin Ice" (PDF)
The workshop Thin Ice: Facing the Environment and Climate Change in Ethnological Museums took place
from October 13 to 15, 2015 at the Dahlem Museums.
Speakers:
Volker von Bremen (Brot fr die Welt, Misereor)
Fiona Cameron (Western Sydney University)
Dorothea Deterts (Ethnologischen Museum, Berlin)
Iris Edenheiser (Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim)
Manuela Fischer (Ethnologischen Museum, Berlin)
Ulrike Folie (Ethnologist)
Susanne Hammacher (bersee-Museum Bremen)
Gabriele Herzog-Schrder (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt Mnchen)
Wolfgang Kempf (Georg-August-Universitt Gttingen)
Silja Klepp (Sustainability Research Center artec, Universitt Bremen)
Viola Knig (Ethnologischen Museum, Berlin)
Tong Lam (Historian and Artist)
Indra Lopez Velasco (Ethnologischen Museum, Berlin)
Elizabeth Marino (Oregon State University, Cascades)
Myriel Milicevic (Artist and Interaction Designer)
Paul Ongtooguk (University of Alaska Anchorage)
Daniel Sandweiss (University of Maine, Orono)
Andrea Scholz (Ethnologischen Museum, Berlin)
Anna-Sophie Springer (Curator and Author)
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)
Agnes Wegner (Humboldt Lab Dahlem, Berlin)
Andreas Womelsdorf (Student)
Claudia Wosnitza-Mendo (former Instituto del Mar del Per IMARPE, Lima)
Elizabeth Wurst (Artist)
Monika Zessnik (Ethnologischen Museum, Berlin)
Moderation:
Gabriele Herzog-Schrder (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt Mnchen)
288
Concept of the workshop:

Indra Lopez Velasco, Andrea Scholz, Alan Prohm, Nathalie Keurmeur, Ute Marxreiter, Gabriele Herzog-
Schrder, Ilja Labischinski
Always in Crisis? Questions of Representation in

Museums for Non-European Arts and Cultures
by Mario Schulze
A Symposium Report
The two-day symposium Always in Crisis? Questions of Representation in Museums for Non-European Arts and
Cultures was held on September 18 and 19, 2015, at the Dahlem Museums. Following an internal expert panel on the
first day of the event, the second day featured an opening keynote by museum scholar and Berlin newcomer Sharon
MacDonald, as well as three public podium discussions on the crisis of representation in ethnological museums.
On the second day of the symposium, the first podium discussion was drawing to a close when Margareta von
Oswald, curator of the intervention Object Biographies, posed a general question to the audience: Why is
so much money consistently being spent on museum buildings when it is far more needed for experimental
exhibitions, collaborative efforts, and a more open and creative approach to collections? she asked. Cheers
erupted in the packed room. Along the panel, heads nodded. Later on during the third panel, Amsterdam-
based historian Robin Boast revisited the topic with a somewhat dramatic twist to reinvigorate the dwindling
audience: Why are hundreds of millions of euros being spent on a palace and the same old exhibition
strategies, time and again, when instead what we need is to completely revamp the institution we call
ethnological museum? Boast asked, while at once praising the Humboldt Lab Dahlem participants will for
change. On one point, symposium participants did seem to be largely in agreement: current plans for the
Humboldt-Forum are moving in the wrong direction if the goal is to create a world museum with a primary
focus on prestige without addressing the origin of collections created during colonial rule and the
(im)possibilities of presenting culture, as well as thoroughly reflecting on and assessing forms of collaboration
with those who view the collection pieces as part of their culture. Panel guests did, on the other hand,
repeatedly state that the Humboldt Lab offers a viable model to approach these types of reflection and
experimentation.
The relationship between the Humboldt Lab and the Humboldt-Forum was a topic that constituted a steady
focus throughout the two symposium days above all thanks to the persistence of the two moderators,
Friedrich von Bose and Irene Albers. The main emphasis, however, was the conceptual issue of the crisis of
representation, a topic which has been discussed in ethnological circles for the past 30 years. More pointedly,
participants grappled over the question of how to conceive of an ethnological museum that abandons the idea
of representing the foreign or the other and at the same time works to come to terms with its own colonial
legacy. Responses were generally permeated by both resignation and militancy that could be summed up as
follows: though it might seem impossible to walk away from the idea that a museum needs to represent
different peoples, ethnicities, or cultures, we should not desist in our efforts to invent another kind of
museum. Or, as Sharon MacDonald phrased it in her keynote: the crisis should not be regarded as something
that needs to be solved, but should instead keep spurring us on to make new decisions. The most
controversial issues were the (im)possibility of representation and the corresponding lines that need to be
drawn when facing off against the institution of the ethnological museum. Lively discussions of four
installations at the current Probebhnen 5, 6, and 7 at the Humboldt Labs attested to this. Visitors included a
group of 25 curators and invited speakers. On the second day, as well, spirited debates continued during
public podium discussions on the topics of object histories, alternative forms of representation, and
involving visitor groups and communities.
The (im)possibility of the ethnological museum was discussed based on the installation Enchantment /
Beauty Parlour, a multisensorial scenography that stages the production of female beauty as well as
weddings on the Swahili coast of East Africa in an elaborate environment. Beauty Parlour attempts to create
an alternative representation and to impose a different aesthetic a Swahili aesthetic to counter other
ideals that are more familiar to the so-called Western countries. In this context, curator Paola Ivanov shared
her first-hand observation that most normal visitors mistakenly believed the exhibition to be an authentic
representation. Many had thus misinterpreted the installation as just another construction of the foreign
289
and other that serves to confirm ideas of the self. This interpretation by Ivanov provoked various
objections: Andrea Scholz wondered who would even fall into the category of normal visitors. Ute
Marxreiter questioned whether and how it might be possible to generate the desired effect of estrangement
from implicit assumptions. And, finally, Ciraj Rassool confronted attendees with the tacit and highly
problematic distinction being expressed by referring to us and normal visitors, i.e. those capable of
grasping alternative aesthetics and the others who are incapable of understanding these concepts and
bound to presumably Western ideals.
Less controversial was the strategy of coaxing largely unfamiliar stories from the collection objects, discussed
based on the project Object Biographies (curated by Margareta von Oswald and Verena Rodatus in
collaboration with Mathias Alubafi, Romuald Tchibozo, and filmmaker Anna Lisa Ramella). Participants
agreed that researching object histories needed to be a standard component of working with collections and
that this research should also be present in the exhibitions. This would ultimately enable a negotiation of the
relationship between the collection and the museum that would not be tied up in the categories of tribe or
ethnicity. Opinions varied as to what should constitute the central focus. For Friedrich von Bose, the
installation was a call for a fundamental shift in how collections in ethnological museums are dealt with, and
even an occasion to question the museum as an institution. Ciraj Rassool had already justified why object
biographies can help question the identity of ethnological museums: they start by looking at history a
category that long played a subordinate role in the context of ethnological museums, since the cultures on
display were categorically defined as pre-modern and thereby void of developments or events. Paola Ivanov
criticized that the object biographies recounted in the project all have their origin in Europe and she
expressed doubts regarding the concept of biography, which was prominently discussed by Igor Kopytoff and
Arjun Appadurai in 1986. Terms such as stories or travels might be used more fruitfully when speaking of
objects, Ivanov proposed.
Further widespread agreement could be found as to the need for the history of German colonialism to take on
a prominent role in the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin. The specific means to make this happen were to be
discussed within the scope of the experimental setup of a museum for children and young adults, curated by
Ute Marxreiter and entitled (No) Place in the Sun. Due to the focus on children and young people, a more
general question came to the fore: to what extent does this history of colonial violence appear in the other
Humboldt-Forum exhibitions? At the end of the day, it must be noted, colonialism is hardly just childs fare.
This issue was expressed more explicitly by a glaring gap identified by Ciraj Rassool, Larissa Frster, and
Frdric Keck in the youth museum: racial science. They determined that it is essential for museums that
present themselves as art museums to disclose the fact that the collections on exhibit originally only came to
be through the scientific categorization of humans into different races. This perspective underlines the
urgency of this question for the Humboldt-Forum: the history of the Berlin-based collection ultimately started
with Felix von Luschan, who held the first chair for physical anthropology at the Charit.
In reflecting on possibilities for what might be called the 21st century ethnological museum, in addition to
institutional critique, a consideration of institutional constraints was generally considered essential. Sharon
Macdonald emphasized this view in her introductory remarks in which she criticized the concept of non-
European in no uncertain terms. She postulated that the greatest obstacle to a permanent state of revolution
at the museum a goal expressed by Verena Rodatus, one of the symposium organizers, at the beginning of
the event might possibly be the expectations directed at museums and their staff. These expectations run
incredibly high and include post-representational exhibitions which require a significant rethinking of past
work and concepts while remaining attractive for visitors and involving communities all in the face of
dwindling resources.
The specific challenges that come with major institutional change became apparent during discussions about
the installation Sharing Knowledge, an interactive web platform developed by research assistant Andrea
Scholz together with members of the Universidad Nacional Experimental Indgena del Tauca (Venezuela).
This installation was based on a mutual collaboration between individuals, emphasized Larissa Frster on the
first day of the event. Due to the nature of the project, the experiences of participants from Berlin and Tauca
as they grappled with the objects while curating the platform could be made accessible to third parties such
as museum visitors only in a limited form. Ultimately, remarked curator Andrea Scholz, the students from
Tauca were not interested in the museum as an institution. What mattered most was that the objects stored in
Berlin form an important part of their material culture of memory. Consequently, the project did not end at
the museum doors. Yet, what prospects do these basic premises have in terms of a future implementation in
the Humboldt-Forum? The responses were less than optimistic: Andrea Scholz clearly stated that her contract
only runs until the end of the Humboldt Lab. And Viola Knig, director of the Ethnologisches Museum,
confirmed the general difficulty of the long-term integration of this type of project in an institutional context
290
like the Ethnologisches Museum and of establishing it in a functional context with its collections.
The conceptual discussions about the possibility of a post-representational museum therefore all tied into the
basic question of all events and interventions, namely how to implement the results and experiences from the
Humboldt Lab in the Humboldt-Forum in the Berlin Palace. Though the Humboldt Lab format was viewed
with general positivity, when it came to the specific relationship between the Lab and Forum, opinions varied.
They ranged from the position held by Ciraj Rassool, who repeatedly emphasized that the Lab needed to be
the museum, to Viola Knig, who consistently stated that the Forum clearly needed a Lab, but that the two
could not be interchangeable. Approval and praise for the lab did not eclipse the critical issue of how much of
an impact the Labs experimental impulses could still have in the current phase. As the Humboldt Lab draws
to a close, exhibition plans for the Humboldt-Forum are well advanced. Its a state which begs the question:
how much friction can the current plans for the Humboldt-Forum still handle?
Translated from German by Sarah Matthews
Mario Schulze is a cultural scholar currently engaged as a research assistant in the Cluster of Excellence Image
Knowledge Gestaltung. An Interdisciplinary Laboratory at the Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin.
Link Program Symposium "Always in Crisis" (PDF)
The symposium Always in Crisis? Questions of Representation in Museums for Non-European Arts and
Cultures hosted by Humboldt Lab Dahlem was held on September 18 and 19, 2015 at the Dahlem Museums.
Participants:
Robin Boast (University of Amsterdam)
Larissa Frster (Internationales Kolleg Morphomata, Universitt zu Kln)
Paola Ivanov (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
Frdric Keck (Muse du Quai Branly, Paris)
Viola Knig (Director of the Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
Sharon Macdonald (Humboldt-Universitt, Berlin)
Ute Marxreiter (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
Margareta von Oswald (cole des Hautes tudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris)
Ciraj Rassool (University of the Western Cape, Kapstadt)
Verena Rodatus (Freie Universitt, Berlin)
Andrea Scholz (Humboldt Lab Dahlem, Berlin)
Romuald Tchibozo (Universit d'Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou)
Moderation:
Irene Albers (Freie Universitt, Berlin)
Friedrich von Bose (Stadtmuseum Stuttgart)
Concept of the symposium: Jonathan Fine, Paola Ivanov, Ute Marxreiter, Margareta von Oswald, Verena
Rodatus, Andrea Scholz
Chinese Medicine in Flux. Presenting and Explaining

Chinese Medicine at the Humboldt-Forum.
by Nike Riedel
Berlins Ethnologisches Museum holds a unique collection of objects associated with Chinese medicine. The
new Humboldt-Forum will include a portal dedicated to this collection, giving visitors the opportunity to learn
more about the history, development and significance of the Chinese medical tradition. But the question of
how to present these topics is a difficult one. What exactly do we mean by Chinese medicine, anyway? A two-
day workshop brought together experts in the field to discuss these very questions. The group came to the
conclusion that in order to understand Chinese medicine and accurately convey the thinking and theoretical
principles on which it is based, we need to widen our cultural horizons. Chinese medicine can only be
properly understood in the context of other discourses, especially those relating to religion and philosophy.
291
Participants agreed that from their point of view, Chinese medicine is a generic term that encompasses a
broad range of different ideas and methodologies. A tour of the Ethnologisches Museum collection, led by
curator Siegmar Nahser, gave participants the chance to substantiate their talks with real-life examples of
Chinese medicine in practice.
The origins of Chinese medicine go back some thousands of years. The opening talk by workshop organizer
Silvia Gaetti conveyed an impressive overview of its history, and also showed how the challenges of presenting
this history have been met by museums in the past. The classic handbook of internal medicine Huang Di Nei
Jin, was written around 300 B.C. and belonged to the Yellow Emperor. Even today, it is seen both in the
West and East as an important foundation for a proper understanding of Chinese medicine. But as far back as
the Shang period (c. 1600-1050 B.C.), people were beginning to develop theories and traditions that would
eventually become essential aspects of the actual concept of Chinese medicine. These included oracle bones,
treatments for dealing with demons and ghosts, and the I Ching (Book of Changes). Since its beginnings,
Chinese medicine has undergone many changes. Some of its theoreticians have, for their part, had an
important influence on religious thought, for example on Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Explanatory
models and treatments were developed and handed down within practitioner families and their circles, while
both practice and theory were subject to approval or regulation by whichever ruler was currently on the
throne (for example, in 1822 the Emperor's court prohibited the use of acupuncture).
This immense treasury of knowledge could only be built up and passed on thanks to Chinas sophisticated
culture and its extensive network of writers and book manufacturers. One impressive example of this culture
can be found in the Ethnologisches Museum collection. It contains one of the volumes from what is popularly
known as the Yongle Encyclopaedia, a vast work compiled at the beginning of the fifteenth century that
aimed to bring the whole of human knowledge together in a single work in the form of excerpts from longer
texts. Curator Ching-Ling Wang presented the Berlin manuscript, which is one of just 400 volumes that have
survived from the original 11,000. This particular book, which focuses on children and childhood, is richly
illustrated, and forms an important source for our knowledge of medicine. It discusses typical childhood
illnesses in detail and lists known treatments together with references to their sources. These references are
especially valuable because many of the source texts themselves are no longer extant.
Todays perceptions of Chinese medicine are strongly influenced by the Wests interest in traditional Chinese
treatments and the related transmission of knowledge, ideas and methodologies from China to the West from
the 1950s to the 1970s. The World Health Organisation (WHO) eventually named the phenomenon
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In the West, however, the ideas coming out of China were often taken
up and transformed in a creative way that had little to do with tradition. But this reawakening of interest also
made it possible to resurrect ancient knowledge. Long-neglected texts were translated and published for a
new readership. All of this led to a bundling of Chinese medical schools of thought in China and to the
teaching of TCM at Chinese universities, despite the fact that under Chairman Mao, Chinese medicine was
denigrated and Western medicine promoted as the only progressive form of treatment for illness. In the West,
various initiatives pressed for proper clinical testing of TCM, so as to legitimize its inclusion in public health
provision.
Henry Johannes Greten, a doctor and professor of Chinese medicine in Heidelberg, used the language of
science and economics in his paper to show how basic principles of Chinese medicine can be understood in
terms of Western thought. He explained that in Chinese medicine, life is a process of flow. It can be
represented as a sinus curve, where in any biological system, optimal target values for that system can only be
regulated, never consistently attained. The greatest strength of Chinese medicine, according to Greten, is that
it uses both sophisticated diagnostic methods and empirical observation to create a snapshot of the
momentary condition of any given biological system a human being, for example. Greten explained that
from this, it is possible to see not only actual irregularities (pathologies) but also to identify what stage these
are at and patterns in their development. By plotting the patients condition on a sinus curve (or on the Circle
of the Five Elements), according to Greten, it is possible to say whether the illness is likely to move the system
further away from its optimal state or whether the system is likely to move back towards this.
It seems, however, that we should be careful not to assume that Chinese medicine can be explained on the
basis of a few general principles. Acupuncture, for example, which is currently recognized as a valid
treatment for certain symptoms and as such is funded by German health insurance schemes, tends to be
described as one of the Five Pillars. These Five Pillars are known as acupuncture (with moxibustion and
cupping); tu ina and anmo (therapeutic massage techniques using acupuncture pressure points and
meridians); Chinese phytotherapy; nutritional teachings; and qigong and tai chi. But as Ute Engelhardt, a
sinologist and teacher of Chinese medicine in Munich, explained in her paper, the idea of the Five Pillars is in
292
fact a twentieth-century development and never formed part of traditional teachings.
Sinologist and anthropologist Michael Stanley-Baker (Max-Planck-Institut fr Wissenschaftsgeschichte,

Berlin) discussed the influence of various religions on Chinese medicine, especially the importance of Taoist
teachings relating to the Celestial Masters for the establishment of phytotherapy. One of the most famous
practitioners of herbal treatments was Sun Simiao (581-682). The collection at the Ethnologisches Museum
contains several statues of this doctor, and it is planned to include one of them, which depicts him with a
tiger, in the Humboldt-Forum display. There is a story attached to this, which tells us something about how
the various forms of treatment are connected. According to legend, Sun Simiao freed a tiger from a splinter of
wood, which had lodged in its throat. Thereafter, the tiger never left his side. When a dragon became ill, Sun
Simiao rode on the tigers back to the dragon and healed it with acupuncture. Both tigers and dragons are
very important in the imagery of Chinese traditions.
The portal in the Humboldt-Forum plans to show an authentic pharmacy from the nineteenth century,
including the original vessels, tools and equipment, to give visitors an idea of Chinese herbal medicine. The
pharmacy shall be placed right at the center of the space, and workshop participants came up with the idea of
using it as a link to physically represent the relationship between the professional aspect of Chinese medicine,
with the various diagnostic methods used by doctors, and the everyday aspect practiced by people in their
own homes. To the left of the pharmacy there could be an area devoted to practices that people use in
everyday life to look after their health, such as qigong, seasonal nutrition and the use of herbs. To the right,
there could be an area with treatment tables where visitors could lie down while acupuncture pressure points
and meridians are projected on to their bodies. The group also considered setting up diagnosis points (e.g. for
diagnosing symptoms of the tongue, pulse or face), which would include displays of various prescriptions and
possibly even books such as a medical textbook from the collection, which have been added to and handed
down from generation to generation. Modern replicas of these books and translations of the texts could be
made available so that visitors can handle them and read the contents.
One apparently small issue led to some heated discussions, showing again the challenges involved in finding
an appropriate format for the exhibition. The group was asked to think about the way in which the exhibition
could convey the language of Chinese medicine to visitors. How should curators deal with the fact that a
simplified generic system of terminology does not truly reflect the complexity of the Chinese medical
tradition? It was felt that terms and concepts such as yin/yang, wu xing (the five phases of transformation), qi
(energy, strength) or ba gang (the eight diagnostic parameters) should be represented using Chinese
letters as well as the official phonetic transcriptions (pinyin). In this context, sinologist Lena Springer
(University of Westminster) gave a paper which showed how important it is to recognize the impact of
translations, as serious misunderstandings can arise when this is not taken into account.
It looks as though the exhibition, with all its many varieties of linguistic and cultural translation, is likely to
be challenging and exciting for both curators and its visitors. The workshop, thoughtfully planned and
delivered by Silvia Gaetti and Jan Valentini, was an important step towards achieving this goal.
Translated from German by Galina Green
Nike Riedel works as a doctor of Western and Chinese medicine in Germany and Switzerland. Besides a medical degree,
she has studied Sinology and has visited China many times in the course of her studies.
Link Program Workshop Chinese Medicine in flux (PDF)
The workshop (Chinese Medicine in flux. Presenting and explaining Chinese medicine in the Humboldt-
Forum) took place from 21st-22nd July 2015 at the Dahlem Museums.
Speakers:
Ute Engelhardt (Sinologist, lecturer in TCM at the Technische Universitt, Munich)
Silvia Gaetti (Research assistant, north and east Asia collection, Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
Henry Johannes Greten (Professor of Chinese Medicine, University of Porto; Director of the Heidelberg School
of Chinese Medicine)
Siegmar Nahser (Curator, north and east Asia collection, Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
Lena Springer (Research fellow, University of Westminster)
293
Michael Stanley-Baker (Postdoctoral researcher, Max-Planck-Institut fr Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin)

Ching-Ling Wang (Curator, department of ancient Chinese art, Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, Berlin, and of
the China collection at the Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
Moderator:
Jan Valentini (Medical doctor and lecturer in Western and Chinese medicine, Universitt Heidelberg)
Concept of the workshop: Silvia Gaetti, Jan Valentini
Historical Collections and Contemporary Art: a

Discussion on Curatorial Strategies
by Birgit Hopfener
In two of Berlins National Museums, the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst (Asian Art Museum) and the
Ethnologisches Museum (Ethnological Museum), contemporary art has never featured as prominently as it
does today. The Humboldt Lab Dahlem has been one of the main drivers behind this current state of affairs.
In its trial runs involving innovative exhibition strategies for the future Humboldt-Forum, the Humboldt Lab
has assigned a significant role to contemporary art.
The symposium Historical Collections and Contemporary Art: a Discussion on Curatorial Strategies, held on
July 2 and 3, 2015, in the Dahlem Museums, brought together an interdisciplinary group of ethnologists and
art historians working in museums and universities. Their common objective: to partake in a critical debate
about how and why contemporary art can be integrated in historical collections. The event served to highlight
the broad spectrum of contemporary art perspectives held by the actors who participate in this discourse,
views which can be attributed to different disciplinary, discursive, historical and institutional backgrounds.
One important result of the conference was the insight that as a category, contemporary requires a more
nuanced reading. This conceptual fine-tuning could help identify curatorial possibilities for a worthwhile
integration of historical collections and contemporary art in exhibition spaces.
Reflections from the philosopher Peter Osborne may prove enlightening in this context. Osborne has noted
that contemporary cannot lay claim to being a universal category, since it lacks a uniform chronological
structure and it is constructed by various historical, geopolitical, discursive and institutional conditions. One
central aspect that emerged during the symposium was the importance of questioning why different
institutions show contemporary art in exhibitions organized by specific notions of (historical) time and space.
Participants also argued that these notions must be dislodged to enable a critical approach to conventional
institutional structures.
In her work, Paola Ivanov, who curated the symposium together with Verena Rodatus, makes a point of
critically engaging with why ethnological museums have resisted and rejected contemporaneity since their
establishment during the colonial era. Constituted by evolutionary discourses typical for the modern Western
world, the ethnological museum was the institution that housed art and everyday artefacts from Africa and
stood for an ahistorical, static tradition and based on the prevailing paradigm of progress the earlier
stages of evolutionary development. By relating objects from different regional contexts but similar
contemporary periods, Ivanov not only wants to question the assumed temporal disparity between Europe
and Africa, but also generate awareness for simultaneous contemporaneities.
Until recently, ethnological museums saw themselves as institutions of cultural representation, entities that
conveyed purportedly authentic knowledge about other cultures in line with Western epistemological
categories. Contemporary art and curatorial strategies can be wielded to interrogate this institutional self-
image and its accompanying classification systems and power structures. Ivanov emphasizes the need for a
critical encounter with the aesthetics of other societies in this context. Kerstin Pinther felt that a focus on
culturally specific aesthetics may veer off course towards essentialism or, in other words, a homogenizing and
closed perspective of culture. She argued instead for an anthropological view of art and its societal
consequences. Jaqueline Berndt, too, seemed to advocate a stronger emphasis on how artefacts function in
society by suggesting that they be understood as media. Alexander Hofmann shared Pinthers misgivings
while also remarking that an engagement with aesthetic issues must be situated within a larger framework
that examines different concepts and understandings of art.
Viola Knig, director of the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin, urged fellow attendees to recall the
longstanding tradition of showing contemporary art and collaborating with contemporary artists in Dahlem.
294
Long before receiving international acclaim, contemporary Indonesian artist Henri Dono researched in the
museums archives. Knig welcomed the more systematic approach to contemporary art and curatorial
strategies as part of the collaboration with the Humboldt Lab. Martin Heller, part of the director team at the
Humboldt Lab, and curator Angela Rosenberg were also convinced that interventions stemming from
contemporary art have often challenged previous classifications and added a vibrant note to permanent
exhibitions.
Klaas Ruitenbeek, director of the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst in Berlin, underscored that he gives priority
to historical collections. Yet in his minds eye, the museum under his purview is a place that exhibits Asian art
through the ages. Ruitenbeek views isolated appearances, or interventions, of contemporary art in historical
collections with skepticism. This can be interpreted as a critique of the universalistic claim laid by art
interventions, a concept primarily defined by the European avant-garde. In exhibiting contemporary art in
the museum, Ruitenbeek mainly wants to tell stories. Contemporary art, he believes, should be used to show
how contemporary artists engage with artistic traditions and in doing so, continue to write art history. The
director emphasizes that the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, unlike all other art museums in Berlin, has no
chronological restrictions; it shows art from all eras. With this message, he implicitly refers to the temporal
and spatial dualism that so firmly defines the art museum landscape in Berlin. Rooted in Western modernity,
it is a system that obeys the logic of traditional versus modern and domestic versus foreign. Whereas the
Nationalgalerie (National Gallery) is charged with representing and propagating the European and American
art history narrative, the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst distinguishes itself from this institution of domestic
art by showing the art of others. Ruitenbeek has expressed interest in increasing collaborative efforts with
the Nationalgalerie and the Hamburger Bahnhof in the future. This proposal may well signify a constructive
examination of these institutional definitions and perhaps even create new temporal and spatial horizons for
both contemporary and historical art.
Kerstin Pinther emphasized the importance of considering different local and interwoven stories of
contemporaneity in order to extricate the temporal and spatial structures that are written into art and
ethnological museums. Upending dominant systems, narratives and canons is something that is often easier
said than done, noted Britta Schmitz, even after major narratives have run their course. Regardless of their
success, from her European perspective Schmitz attributed these types of upheaval to the year 1989. Schmitz
advocated a conceptual shift through a new focus on interwoven narratives. Kerstin Pinther and Tobias
Wendl emphasized the need for collections to actually reflect this new focus, since collecting the other
Moderns is also an important instrument for reconceptualizing the temporal and spatial structures embodied
in museums. The time-honored chronology handed down by the institution of European-American art history,
for example, clearly situates contemporary art after modern art. Nonetheless, this is not always the case: the
Tate Modern, Lena Fritsch reported, has consciously broken with this timeline and instead relates narratives
based on transhistorical topics und multiple histories. Artistic networks and their role have received praise as
an overarching exhibition topic, for example. Other exhibitions that reveal formal and aesthetic links have
been criticized for catering to global art as an art market genre that seldom comes under critical scrutiny.
Precisely those structures that generate meaning and value must be critically reflected, emphasized Ursula
Helg. Instead of formal aesthetic ties, critical engagement with different concepts and their development
would present a promising approach. An examination of the history of exhibitions and research according to
formal aesthetic criteria could prove interesting, as suggested during the symposium by art historian Julia
Orell for East Asian art and art history and by Pinther for same topics in an African context.
Though critical interventions targeting institutions were greeted as an important curatorial tool to disrupt
European narratives, as Elena Zanichelli put it, they did not escape scrutiny. Anke Bangma noted that due to
their dualistic structure, these interventions would not be able to discard the trappings of institutional logic.
Instead of finding new pathways, they often serve to validate existing structures. Artist Lisl Pongers
statement that she rejects interventions in museums because they do not give her the necessary equipment to
approach dominant institutional discourses and therefore run the risk of undercutting her individual artistic
autonomy should be understood in this context.
The symposium made it clear that the museums must radically reinvent themselves in order to live up to the
complexity of interwoven histories, multiple moderns and disjunctive contemporaneities. According to
Jonathan Fine, beyond self-reflexive criticism of institutions and their modes of operation, the challenge is not
only to talk about us but to let objects speak from multiple perspectives. Hofmann, too, emphasized the
need to examine the different careers of objects in terms of their production and their reception and voiced
the hope that art and ethnological museums will use this opportunity as a starting point for fruitful
collaboration. Bangma confirmed that she will apply these concepts to tie together objects and multiple
295
subjectivities and stories. In this sense, ethnological museums and art museums and the related disciplines
of ethnology and art history are called on as institutions to rethink and update their horizons in terms of
space and time.
Translated from German by Sarah Matthews
Dr. Birgit Hopfener works as a research assistant at the Art History Department, Freie Universitt Berlin.
Link Program Symposium "Historical Collections and Contemporary Art" (PDF)
The symposium Historical Collections and Contemporary art: a Discussion of Curatorial Strategies was held
on July 2 and 3, 2015 at the Dahlem Museums.
Participants:
Anke Bangma (Curator for Contemporary Art, National Museum of World Cultures, Amsterdam)
Jaqueline Berndt (Graduate School of Manga, Kyoto Seika University, Kyoto)
Lena Fritsch (Assistant Curator, Collections International Art, Tate Modern, London)
Ursula Helg (Art historian and ethnologist, Freie Universitt, Berlin)
Viola Knig (Director of the Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi (Artist and Curator, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire)
Julia Orell (Postdoc-Fellow, Academia Sinica, Taipei)
Kerstin Pinther (Art historian and ethnologist, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt, Munich)
Lisl Ponger (Artist, Vienna)
Angela Rosenberg (Curator, Berlin)
Klaas Ruitenbeek (Director of the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, Berlin)
Britta Schmitz (Chief Curator, Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin)
Agnes Wegner (Managing director of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem, Berlin)
Elena Zanichelli (Art historian and Curator, Leuphana University, Lneburg)
Moderation:
Jonathan Fine (Curator of the Africa Collection, Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
Alexander Hofmann (Curator for Japanese Art, Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, Berlin)
Paola Ivanov (Curator of the Africa Collection, Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
Verena Rodatus (Research assistant, Humboldt Lab Dahlem, Berlin)
Moderation of the final discussion:
Tobias Wendl (Institut fr Kunstgeschichte, Freie Universitt, Berlin)
Concept of the symposium: Jonathan Fine, Silvia Gaetti, Alexander Hofmann, Paola Ivanov, Margareta von
Oswald, Verena Rodatus
Breaking Mesoamerican Codes

by Elke Ruhnau
On January 29, and 30, 2015 the internal experts workshop Breaking Mesoamerican Codes took place in the
Dahlem museums. It included lectures, talks and guided tours as a preparation for the exhibition module
Graphic communications systems in Mesoamerica in the Humboldt-Forum.
Day one: Presentation of Research Results
The director of the Ethnologisches Museum, Viola Knig, and the curator of the Mesoamerica collection,
Maria Gaida, opened the workshop with a report on the current status of the plans for the Humboldt-Forum
and, in particular, the concept for the Mesoamerica exhibition, which will focus on systems of communication
and ritual ball-play. The written evidence from the pre-Columbian era, as seen on the artifacts to be
displayed, reveal iconographic and script systems that have still not been comprehensively deciphered and for
which the Ethnologisches Museum has no designated specialist. For this reason three expert colleagues were
invited to present their latest research results on Mesoamerican writing systems within the framework of the
296
workshop, and contribute their expertise to the exhibition concept.
To begin with, Marc Zender from Tulane University in New Orleans gave a basic introduction to the problems
involved in research and the deciphering of script systems worldwide, and, in particular, in Mesoamerica.
Afterwards, he looked at the interrelatedness of different Mesoamerican script systems. He discussed
correlations and similarities in graphic elements as well as thematic emphases in the texts. He also talked
about the possible kinship between script systems.
Javier Urcid from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts started off by presenting the chronology
and regional distribution, as well as the characteristic features of Mesoamerican script systems. He elaborated
on the dimensions of the concept of deciphering, and about the function of script, for example in divination, in
the creation of identity and in the upholding of territorial control and hegemony. Afterwards, he went into
closer detail about the Zapotec script, outlining its development and transformation over the centuries. Texts
in Zapotec script are often found in burial chambers where the paraphernalia of rituals for the
commemoration of the dead and ancestor worship took place.
Albert Davletshin from the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow reported on the latest,
hotly debated, research results concerning the state, society and script of the Teotihuacan. First he gave a
broad outline of the debates that were held about the structure of the state and the system of power in
Teotihuacan society as well as addressing the question of whether murals or vase paintings should be
considered in the first instance as works of art or script documents. He followed that up by showing which
elements in the mural and vase paintings were iconographic representations of rulers and other top
dignitaries, and identified other elements as glyphs of a script system, for instance, an element of the
characteristic headdress of a ruler, which represented his title.
In the evening, two films by the documentary filmmaker David Lebrun were shown at the Ethnologisches
Museum. Dance of the Maize God (2014) was about the widespread illegal excavations taking place in the
Guatemalan Maya region, but also highlighted the polychromatic painted ceramics, the booty of choice for
the looters. It also provided insights into vase paintings, which are stores of information in terms of the
mythology and the courtly life of the Maya. Afterwards, the award-winning film Breaking the Maya Code
(2010) about the deciphering of the Maya script was shown.
The podium discussion on the first film, which the audience was also invited to join, was chaired by Viola
Knig, and the participants were: director David Lebrun, the Maya epigraphy specialist Marc Zender,
Margarete van Ess, director of the Oriental department of the German Archeological Institute as well as being
an archeologist in a region particularly affected by illegal excavations, and the documentary filmmaker Carola
Wedel (director of the film Raubgut und Beutekunst). Central themes of the discussion were the enormous
damage that illegal excavations cause, and the handling of objects with such inauspicious provenance by
museums and researchers. While there was a consensus view that museums should not acquire such artifacts,
opinion was divided as to whether or not the research field should utilize information provided by these
looted objects, or simply disregard them.
Day two: Dating and the Interpretation of Objects
On the second day of the workshop with the three speakers from the previous day, together with Viola Knig
and Maria Gaida, talks among experts took place around selected objects, planned for display at the
Humboldt-Forum. As a result of this, it was possible to accurately date certain artifacts for the first time, and
correct previous dates; in the case of some artifacts, it was also possible to clarify their function.
Some images and iconographic representations could be interpreted for the first time or were given a new
interpretation. For other script documents, especially the Zapotec script, readings, even if only tentative ones,
were put forward during the discussion. Particular emphasis should be given here to a stone monument from
the highlands of Guatemala, which was until now thought to be a fragment of a Maya stele from the 9th
century AD. But the fragment actually dates back to 550 AD. It could have come from an illegal excavation, as
it is part of the pedestal of an incense burner whose decorative side was severed to be sold as a stele. This
theory is supported by the hollowing on the upper side of the monument where the brazier was originally
placed, as well as the column of Maya glyphs on both edges.
In addition, a series of steles and stone slabs from the Zapotec culture in Oaxaca, that bear images and
iconographic depictions as well as texts in the Zapotec script, should be mentioned. They all belonged to the
ritual complex of burial and ancestor worship. The dating revealed that they were created over a period of
297
500 years. The oldest piece was made between 400 and 500 AD, the most recent, between 800 and 900 AD.
The monuments were originally positioned at the entrance and walls of burial chambers and, together with
the murals and effigy vessels, completed their special pictorial agenda. The images and texts on the steles and
stone slabs reveal that burial chambers were not only the last resting places of the dead but also sites for the
carrying out of various rituals of ancestor worship. For example, on one of the steles a man is shown, whose
name is provided by a glyph in his headdress. The accompanying glyph text indicates that he was responsible
for the annual celebrations to commemorate the ancestors.
In the discussion about the two blocks of stone decorated with writing systems, the experts agreed on the late
dating (14th/15th century, neo-Xochicalco) and on their function as sacrificial altars.
In conclusion it can be said that the experts workshop Breaking Mesoamerican Codes was very productive.
The talks detailing the latest research gave rise to a lively discussion and the specialist talks on selected
artifacts provided numerous new insights and interpretations.
Elke Ruhnau is a specialist on ancient American civilizations and a lecturer in Classical Aztec at the Institute for Latin
American Studies at the Freien Universitt Berlin.
Link Program Workshop Breaking Mesoamerican Codes (PDF)
The experts' workshop Breaking Mesoamerican Codes was held on January 29 and 30, 2015 at the Dahlem
Museums.
Participants:
Albert Davletshin (Russian State University for the Humanities, Moskau)
Maria Gaida (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
Viola Knig (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
David Lebrun (Nightfirefilms, Los Angeles)
Javier Urcid (Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts)
Margarete van Ess (Deutsches Archologisches Institut)
Carola Wedel (Dokumentarfilmerin, Berlin)
Marc Zender (Tulane University, New Orleans)
Concept of the workshop: Maria Gaida, Viola Knig
Discussing [Open] Secrets

by Gesa Steeger
Six international research scientists and curators were invited to Berlin-Dahlem in November 2014 to discuss
with their Berlin colleagues the appropriate handling of sacred objects, in the context of the project [Open]
Secrets.
Moderated by Anja Schwarz, junior professor for cultural studies at the Universitt Potsdam, the following
core themes emerged during the one-day workshop: forms of storage of sacred objects, sacred objects in a
legal context, access rights and museum ethics, object context and dialog, as well as the role of a museum as a
secular place or temple.
Philip Batty, senior curator of the Museum Victoria in Melbourne, opened the discussion via conference call,
with a lecture on the significance of Tjurunga, sacred objects from Central Australia, as legal entities.
Following the increase in court cases in which sacred objects are cited as proof of connection to a place and,
as a consequence, as justification for a claim to land rights, many museums are facing an increased interest in
restitution. The Museum Victoria is striving to process the restitution demands, but there are often highly
complex problems involved. In several cases the sacred objects were sold or damaged after restitution.
Museums cant simply hand these artifacts back and then leave it at that, Batty concludes: museums have an
ethical responsibility towards the previous owners of the objects and to the objects themselves.
298
In order to live up to this responsibility, it would be necessary to remain in constant dialog with these people
and their heirs, says Batty. That's why the Victoria Museum fosters a close relationship with the relevant
Aborigine communities. These have been involved in the decision-making about who would be allowed to see
which sacred objects in the museum. This would also apply to the actual collection, as well as the online
databank. Because the traditional central Australian culture excluded women from many spheres of arcane
knowledge, women were denied access from the outset. In the discussion that followed, Brigitta Hauser-
Schublin, professor for ethnology at the Georg-August-Universitt Gttingen, argued for gender-neutral
access. She pointed out that museums are academic institutions that, akin to a library, have the brief to be
inclusive.
In her talk Tjurunga in museum contexts, with special emphasis on the Grassi Museum Leipzig, the curator
for Australia and Oceania at the Grassi Museum fr Vlkerkunde zu Leipzig, Birgit Scheps-Bretschneider,
asked for consideration of the fact that in some Aborigine communities their own concept of gender roles
predominates, and one should therefore not be too hasty in judgment. The Museum Leipzig was also in
regular contact with the Aborigine communities, said Scheps-Bretschneider. Together they had discussed the
issues of storing sacred objects and had developed a conservation concept together. In response to the wishes
of these communities, protective panels were placed in front of the display cabinets to shield the objects from
unauthorized viewing. The request that museum employees in general should not be able to view the objects,
was, however, not complied with.
In her talk on the role of the collector, Corinna Erckenbrecht, research associate on a project undertaken by
the Staatliche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsen and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden,
emphasized that as far as researching the topic was concerned, the context of the way in which a collection
had been put together was highly relevant. But the problems associated with restitution also came up: Who
are the rightful owners and how do we find them? Erckenbrecht criticized the restrictive way of dealing with
sacred objects as a stumbling block for research and categorization of these objects.
Indra Lopez Velasco, research assistant in the South Seas and Australia department at the Ethnologisches
Museum Berlin, added that in Dahlem similar questions have been raised to those in Leipzig where the
storage of sacred objects was concerned. Who is permitted to see them? Who is authorized to work with
them? Who is allowed to know the exact relevance of the piece? Naturally it is important to respect the wishes
of the previous owners, but the question is, to what extent one should engage, and who, finally, should take
the decisions on issues of access, storage and presentation: the museum, or the previous owners?
In this context, Anita Herle, senior curator at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge,
reported on the close contact between the English museum and several Torres Strait islanders. The
cooperation with previous owners of sacred objects was an opportunity for gaining insight: They tell their
very own object history. She also pointed out that the decision to display sacred objects should be made in
consultation with the original owners wherever possible. Every region is different. Decisions on what is
sacred and what is not, what can be exhibited and what can not, are always dependent on context and can
only be made in mutual dialog.
Emmanuel Kasarhrou, head of the Overseas Department from the Muse du Quai Branly in Paris drew
similar conclusions in his talk Indigenous perspectives on sacred objects at museums in Vanuatu and New
Caledonia. He talked about his experiences with the exhibiting of sacred objects during his time as director
of the Muse de Nouvelle-Caldonie. For many people there, the belief in sacred objects is very deeply
rooted. Many people still feared the power of sacred objects. On questions of access, as well as on issues of
presentation, therefore, they worked very closely with the indigenous population. Sacred objects had, for
example, been desacralized before they were made accessible to the public. Another option was to install
taboo rooms where warnings were affixed to the entrance and visitors could decide for themselves if they
wished to look at the displayed objects or not.
In her talk Ceremonial houses and open secrets in the Sepik area, Papua New Guinea, Brigitta Hauser-
Schublin also pointed out that the sacred was revealed only in specific situations and in a specific handling
of an object, for example as part of a ritual. It was not the object per se that was sacred, but the knowledge
of its relevance and use. This knowledge was also used as a powerful tool to exclude or include certain
members of society, said the ethnologist. She pointed out that in many traditional indigenous cultures for
example, only men were initiated into the knowledge of the sacred nature of an object, while women and
children were excluded.
Markus Schindlbeck, director of the Australia and Oceania collection at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin
until December 2014, underlined this in his talk Personal experiences with sacred objects and human remains
299
in the Sepik area, New Guinea. From his own experience with traditional indigenous communities he
described situations in which sacred objects were used as a means of exclusion or inclusion. Not only was he,
as an outsider, excluded from sacred rituals and the knowledge of the sacred nature of objects, but also
women and children. The intention was not purely the safeguarding of secrets, said Schindlbeck, but above
all, the perpetuation of social hierarchy.
In the concluding discussion, to which Prof. Dr. Klaas Ruitenbeek, director of the Museum fr Asiatische
Kunst Berlin, as well as his colleague Alexander Hofmann, head of the East Asia collection, and Martina
Stoye, curator of South and Southeast Asian art, were invited, the focus was explicitly on the role that
museums fulfill in the contemporary era. Are they places of science, concerned with the imparting of
knowledge and exchange of ideas, or are they hallowed temples, in which the beliefs of certain cultures are
cultivated and conserved?
Museums are archives of human culture, emphasized Brigitta Hauser-Schublin: places in which knowledge
should be communicated and not concealed. Places in which taboos could be displayed, and visitors given an
impression of different social orders. Markus Schindlbeck again reminded us that the objects per se were not
sacred, but only the knowledge surrounding them: it was, above all, this knowledge with which museums had
to deal in a respectful manner.
Gesa Steeger is a freelance journalist living and working in Berlin.
Link Program Workshop Discussing [Open] Secrets (PDF)
The evaluation workshop of the project [Open] Secrets was held on November 21, 2014 at the
Ethnologisches Museum.
Participants:
Philip Batty (Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australien)
Corinna Erckenbrecht (DFG-project on indigenous cultures in the West Cape-York-Peninsula, Australia)
Brigitta Hauser-Schublin (Professor of Anthropology, University of Gttingen)
Anita Herle (Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge)
Alexander Hofmann (Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, Berlin)
Emmanuel Kasharrou (Muse du Quai Branly, Paris)
Viola Knig (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
Indra Lopez Velasco (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
Klaas Ruitenbeek (Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, Berlin)
Birgit Scheps-Bretschneider (Grassi Museum fr Vlkerkunde, Leipzig)
Markus Schindlbeck (Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin)
Martina Stoye (Museum fr Asiatische Kunst, Berlin)
Agnes Wegner (Humboldt Lab Dahlem, Berlin)
Moderation:
Anja Schwarz (University of Potsdam)
Concept of the workshop: Indra Lopez Velasco, Markus Schindlbeck
EuropeTest - and now?

by Susanne Messmer
As a supplement to the project EuropeTest in November 2014, experts from museums and universities were
invited to Berlin-Dahlem to take part in a symposium and comment on the exhibition projects European
approaches to the extra-European collections.
While the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst begin the move to the Humboldt-
Forum in Berlin-Mitte in 2017, the Museum Europischer Kulturen will remain in Berlin-Dahlem. And yet:
300
Europe is embedded in almost every one of the exhibition pieces destined for the Humboldt-Forum, including
objects of extra-European origin in the Dahlem museums - not least in terms of their collection history. How
can this implicit Europe find a narrative in the future Humboldt-Forum?
Or, even more fundamentally: if one begins with the assumption that Europe is merely one narration, a
powerfully effective fiction, that can no longer claim its interpretative hegemony: what is Europe saying about
itself, by collecting artifacts from all over the world and exhibiting those that are or were felt to be exotic?
And as a consequence of that: how outmoded are categories like Europe itself or the division between us
and the others?
These were questions the Symposium EuropeTest and now? addressed in November 2014 in Berlin-
Dahlem. An introduction into the current stage of planning in the Humboldt-Forum was followed by a
presentation of the concept behind the Humboldt Lab Dahlem project EuropeTest by the curator Helmut
Groschwitz. This was followed by a group tour of the exhibition intervention in the form of six theme
islands.
One of the most pertinent questions to be asked of the European museums ethnological collections is
doubtless that of who is speaking, suggested Dr. Bambi Ceuppens from the Royal Museum for Central Africa
in Tervuren (Belgium) opening up the discussion. In her talk she was largely positive about the theme island
Europe collected. Here, in this interposed narrative, the central focus was on processuality and the history
behind the collections. The aim was to establish what the collections reveal about the subjective preferences
and scientific constructions made by the collectors in the case of the Dahlem Museums, Adolf Bastian and
Rudolf Virchow, as well as about the museums through which they regularly wandered. At the same time
Cueppens warned of one danger in connection with other exhibition interventions: concentrating too strongly
on revealing European thinking patterns, ethno-romanticism or similar subjective projections in the
presentation of extra-European artifacts, could easily lead to a relapse into colonial thinking patterns. The
idea that there was nothing primordial in Africa and that everything came externally is certainly not new
and can appear very plausible if, alongside every object, you place a European parallel next to it, in order to
suggest vague similarities, but without demonstrating concrete reciprocal influences.
We have to give the exhibits their dignity back, was a similar criticism made by Prof. Dr. Monica Juneja
from the University of Heidelberg of the theme island Provincializing Europe. This juxtaposed the cultural
hero Chibinda Ilunga a central figure for the African Chokwe - with Napoleon Bonaparte in the context of
the creation of world trade. What does this comparison tell us, she asked. And: How can we let exhibition
pieces speak for themselves and their history, despite the necessary contextualization? With this position,
Juneja explicitly countered those who are convinced one must deconstruct the museum as a 19th century
invention or at least expand the collections with pop-cultural artifacts and contemporary art. Just as she
argued against those who wish to send collections back to their places of origin or even blow up museums, as
Prof. Dr. Klaas Ruitenbeek, the director of the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst in Berlin-Dahlem, quipped with a
slight melancholy undertone. All in all Juneja praised the initiative of viewing Europe as transcultural and
formed from the start, and not as the cradle of civilization it was considered to be for so long.
The ethnologist and specialist on ancient America, Prof. Dr. Karoline Noack, from the University of Bonn and
director of the Ancient American Collection in Bonn, expressed the wish for a more intensive questioning of
our way of seeing. She also brought to discussion whether we can really differentiate between negotiations,
subversion, appropriation, as well as references to take-overs and impositions. As an illustration she talked
about material communication systems such as those used in the Andes, which dont even merit a mention
under the very Eurocentric label Schrift und Zeichen Amerikas (Script and glyphs of the Americas).
Therefore she appealed for even more intensive work on the burden of colonialism, for more transparency,
more consideration of historicity and the abolition of categories. With that in mind, she wished for more
spatial flexibility for European interventions in the Humboldt-Forum than had been suggested by the
exhibition EuropeTest - an issue that Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Tietmeyer, the director of the Museum
Europischer Kulturen, took up at the end of the panel discussion.
One major criticism of the exhibition interventions raised during the discussion concerned not the content but
the question of who the target audience was. Not sufficiently targeted, or still too encyclopedic,
commented Dr. Schoole Mostafawy from the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe and Dr. Klas Grinell from
Vrldskulturmuseerna in Gteborg. Schoole Mostafawy advocated more eye-level contact with future
visitors and, in order to achieve this, the pursuing of more narratives in order to establish increased
contemporary relevance and, for example, to enter into a dialog with contemporary art.
Klas Grinell however, felt that instead of an exhibition of a single region or a continent, it would be preferable
301
to find a single specific argument for which one could gather enough examples, and which wouldnt
necessarily have to be presented in a multi-medial form. The issue at hand was the relinquishing of
Eurocentric concepts of the world, as expressed in land maps and maritime charts, in favor of new world
concepts. Grinell, as well as Mostafawy, reminded us that it was about gaining an audience and having an
effect on them. Visitors to the Humboldt-Forum in Berlin-Mitte will be mainly tourists, many of them young
and pop-culturally oriented.
A large proportion of Germans play video games every day, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kaschuba, from the
Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin, reminded the public: Are you aware of the ethnicizations and stereotypes,
used in the Star Wars games, for example? But how can a society deal with postcolonial themes, if it is
hardly aware of its colonial past? Bambi Ceuppens was not the only person to ask herself. Only Prof. Dr.
Dieter Kramer, from the University of Vienna, saw this as false alarmism. The museum and its staff had their
own voice and could raise issues for discussion. The museum as an institution, would continue to address
itself not solely to current visitors at its new site, but also remain a public cultural realm which, as in the
past, would continue to seek the contemplative activity of a museum visit even in a world of global
challenges that were as chaotic as they are today.
Susanne Messmer is editor at the taz, die tageszeitung Berlin.
Link Program Symposium EuropeTest and now?
The symposium EuropeTest and now? took place on November 8, 2014 at the Dahlem Museums as part of
the EuropeTest project.
Participants:
Bambi Ceuppens (Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren)
Klas Grinell (Vrldskulturmuseerna, Gteborg)
Helmut Groschwitz (Concept EuropeTest, Berlin)
Martin Heller (Content planning Humboldt-Forum, Berlin)
Monica Juneja (Global Arts Studies, Universitt Heidelberg)
Wolfgang Kaschuba (Europische Ethnologie, Humboldt Universitt Berlin)
Dieter Kramer (Vlkerkundemuseum Frankfurt)
Lontine Meijer-van Mensch (Museum Europischer Kulturen, Berlin)
Schoole Mostafawy (Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe)
Karoline Noack (Altamerikanistik und Ethnologie, Universitt Bonn)
Bettina Probst (Stabsstelle Humboldt-Forum, Berlin)
Elisabeth Tietmeyer (Museum Europischer Kulturen, Berlin)
Concept of the symposium: Helmut Groschwitz
On the Productivity of Incompleteness

by Friedrich von Bose
The relationship between the Humboldt Lab Dahlem and the planned Humboldt-Forum is characterized by
asynchrony: while the Humboldt Lab was initiated to provide the plans for the exhibition spaces in the Berlin
Palace with practical and experimental stimuli, these plans were already quite advanced when the first
Probebhne began.
The basic idea of the Humboldt Lab is to question traditional exhibition practices and concepts by means of
diverse formats and methods, even to cause irritation and seek new ways of exhibiting. The fact that this is
being performed at the old location in Dahlem does indeed make sense and points to a further asynchrony:
the experiments are being conducted amidst permanent exhibitions that will long have been dismantled once
the Humboldt-Forum opens its gates. Yet this is precisely where the potential of the Humboldt Lab lies in
302
working with different temporalities, visualizing them and keeping them in a state of tension, and raising
questions as to what can constitute a way of dealing with ethnological collections that is relevant to the
present day, not only with regard to the Humboldt-Forum.
This potential was stressed by almost everyone during the final discussion of an internal workshop, in which I
participated as an observer. The central question of the short contributions by the invited experts and
museum representatives as well as the subsequent discussions pertained to the way in which two Humboldt
Lab projects could be realized in the Humboldt-Forum.1 Very different aspects to the two debated exhibition
projects were highlighted as being productive: above all, the radical process-oriented character and the open
interpretability of the installations. These are not frequent phenomena in the context of an ethnological
museum: what is a matter of course in the field of art must be justified time and again for an ethnological
museum. For in this context, the educational mandate is still the relevant argument according to which the
world meaning the world outside Europe is to be presented to the visitors.2 The discussants found the
searching processes of the two Humboldt Lab projects, which were not only made comprehensible for the
audience but into which it was also actively integrated, fruitful not just in regard to the challenge of active
reception; they were also deemed necessary for any kind of work with ethnographic objects. For it shouldnt
and it cant be about conveying knowledge that is already complete, but about a context-related
examination that is aware of its own particularity and scientific fallibility and leaves the difficult nature of the
historical material sufficient room. As a consequence of the Humboldt Lab, many participants thus called for
the provision of more leeway for experiments in the Humboldt-Forum as well. And not only the addition of
more flexible niches to the exhibition modules that are planned for several years, but also to make the
narratives themselves alterable and allow the juxtaposing and confronting of different perspectives.
Museum ethnology and present-day theory formation and research continue to take very different paths. The
two Humboldt Lab projects, in contrast, demonstrated how accessible for the audience (and certainly not in a
conflict-free fashion) a reflective exhibition practice interested in the history of science can be: one that does
not claim to know exactly what the right interpretation and approach ultimately is. It is this productivity of
incompleteness that makes many projects of the Humboldt Lab at its current location in Dahlem and
especially its controversial debates so appealing. What impact this process will have on the Humboldt-
Forum regarding a contemporary dealing with the ethnological collections remains to be seen.
1
In the workshop that was held on February 15, 2014, in Dahlem, around 20 participants discussed two exhibitions dealing with the artifacts of the
Amazonia collection: the Man Object Jaguar project realized by Andrea Scholz and Sebastin Meja in collaboration with the Eta Boeklund
office and further developed by the ethnomusicologist Matthias Lewy as well as the exhibition Touching Photography by Michael Kraus and the
chezweitz office for scenography. Both were developed in the frame of Probebhne 3 of the Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
2
Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Preuischer Kulturbesitz: Konzept zur Prsentation der auereuropischen Sammlungen
im Humboldt-Forum 2008. In: Viola Knig, Andrea Scholz (eds.): Humboldt-Forum. Der lange Weg 1999-2012. Baessler-Archiv Vol. 59, Berlin 2013.
Translated from German by Karl Hoffmann
Friedrich von Bose is a research assistant at the Department of European Ethnology of the Humboldt-Universitt zu
Berlin. He studied European ethnology and gender studies at the Humboldt-Universitt and the University of California
in Berkeley. In April 2014, he completed his dissertation, for which he conducted ethnographic research on the planning
process of the Humboldt-Forum over several years.
The internal evaluation workshop of the two projects Touching Photography and Man Object Jaguar
was held on February 15, 2014 at the Dahlem Museums.
Participants:
303

Sebastin Meja
Moderation:
Irene Albers (Freie Universitt Berlin)
Concept of the workshop: Michael Kraus, Andrea Scholz
Remembering as a Constructive Act Artistic

Concepts for Museum Collections
by Kito Nedo
It is generally agreed that ethnology museums are in a state of crisis today. Because of their history, they are
closely bound up with colonialism, their worldview is antiquated, and their collections often bear the taint of
stolen goods; the debate on restitution has smoldered on for yearsand finds expression in Berlin, say, in the
No Humboldt 21! campaign. Ethnology museums, as the art theorist and historian Susanne Leeb wrote
recently, served primarily as a means of scientifically studying other cultures, of demonstrating power of
control, and of advertizing for the colonial project. The debate on the future and legacy of ethnology
museums has gained further weight in the German capital as the opening of the Humboldt-Forum in 2019
draws closer.
Hence the symposium Remembering as a Constructive Act Artistic Concepts for Museum Collections
(Berlin, October 19, 2013) touched a wide range of acute museological and cultural-political issues: Can
ethnology collections remain intact in future? What task do they have to fulfill when the peoples they deal
with live in the call shop opposite? The job of thinking about the present world with its migratory movements
has meanwhile been taken over by others. Following on from the field of cultural studies that has emerged
since the 1960s, it has chiefly devolved to biennials and exhibitions of contemporary art, for instance, the
Project Migration, an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Contemporary art ostensibly
offers ethnology museums a way out of their legitimation crisis. What is the significance behind the increased
courting of the cooperation of contemporary artists by institutions? What significance does it have for the
institutions? What good does it do art? Or are critics such as Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie right when they
maintain that artists who work with Western museums in re-presenting their ethnology collections render
themselves suspect of complicity?
An example that Melissa Chiu referred to in the symposium shows that it depends on how such collections are
treated. A huge advertizing banner hung from the faade of the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore in
1992. It promised passersby a different history that could be discovered in the museum. What lay behind
this was a project by Fred Wilson, an Afro-American artist who had mounted a show titled Mining the
Museum at the Historical Society which to this day has set a standard for what institution-critical
interventions by contemporary artists can achieve in the context of history or ethnology museums. Wilson
juxtaposed objects from the museum collection and other material sensitively and radically, and thus invited
the public to engage critically with how history is presented in historical collections. Following the principle
that more can be learnt about a museum by researching its depot than by just visiting an exhibition, he
studied the Historical Societys stock and talked with all the museum staff. This research laid the basis for his
in the meantime oft-cited installation Mining the Museum, which shows how only minor interventions
can suffice to open up new angles on history. Wilson exhibited silverware, for instance, and in the same
showcase, formerly concealed in the depotslaves leg irons. In this way he highlighted the connection
between economic wealth and slavery both clearly and simply.
More than two decades later, artists seem to have roles to play in relation to museum collections other than
institution critique. Such at least was the impression conveyed by Jana Scholzes talk on the exhibition project
304
Tomorrow at the London V&A museum. The museum invited the artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset to design a
big site-specific installation in the former textile galleries. The two artists who, among other things, have been
casually citing the traditions of art-institution critique in their practice ever since the mid-1990s, created a
fictional character, through whose private domicile museum visitors were led. In the fake, South Kensington
apartment of Norman Swann, retired architect, objects from the museum collection were for once not
presented according to traditional museological practice, but instead were put in the service of the narrative
about the fictional character. Tomorrow, to follow Scholze, raises the issues of how objects are dealt with
in the museum and of the value added that the museum objects provide in contrast to other objects.
Because certain V&A objects were not available for the Elmgreen & Dragset show, similar antiques acquired
elsewherealongside things brought in by the artistswere integrated in the exhibition.
Might Tomorrow be a possible model for alternative collections? In Frankfurt am Main, on the other hand,
artists have actually become a central component in the practice of one ethnology museum. As Clmentine
Deliss explained at the start of her talk: My models and my method of work stem from contemporary art.
With the aid of pictures from the Frankfurt exhibition Trading StyleWorld Fashion in Dialogue (November
7, 2012October 27, 2013), Deliss showed how historical, ethnographic artifacts from the collection were
brought together with contemporary approaches in art and design at the Weltkulturen Museum originally
founded in 1904. For the exhibition project four young fashion labelsA Kind of Guise (Germany), Buki Akib
(Nigeria), CassettePlaya (Great Britain), and Perks and Mini (Australia) were invited to spend time working
at the Frankfurt institution and, over a period of weeks, on the basis of its extensive collection of pictures,
films, and artifacts, and in dialogue with restorers and in-house researchers, to develop their own collections
in the newly installed Weltkulturen Labor (World Cultures Lab). Historical photographs from the museum
archive, for instance, were combined with image material from the various designers lookbooks and
stylesheets in a bricolage-like technique indebted both to punk and mash-up cultures. As Deliss put it, in the
combination of anthropology, contemporary art, and fashion the exhibits from the museum collection
became source material for new and substantive insights, both for specialists as well as a broader public.
This practice coincides with the institutions self-understanding as a post-ethnographic museum (also
reflected in the museums renamings until 2001 it was known as the Museum fr Vlkerkunde, then
Museum der Weltkulturen, and since 2010 Weltkulturen Museum).
Since Deliss took over in Frankfurt, contemporary artists have regularly been invited to work on museum
stock with a view to reactivating objects and recontextualizing them. This is an effective way of breaking the
canon. Deliss also met with disagreement from her audience here. Ought not visitors first to be familiarized
with the canon in order to understand its critical deconstruction? Who then is responsible for broad-based
education, the classical task of museums?
Maybe the museum as educator and the inclusion of artistic concepts do not contradict each other? The
central questions occupying Stephen Little as a museum curator are precisely a result of the relations and
misunderstandings between the present and ancient Asian cultures. Little explained one useful curatorial
technique with reference to the exhibition Taoism and the Arts of China that ran at the Art Institute of
Chicago in 2000. The exhibition addressed, first and foremost, the impact of Daoism on Chinese art, taking a
look at Daoist philosophy through the window of art to inquire into how art functions in the context of a
religion. Because Daoism continues to be a living tradition in China, Daoism and the Arts of China,
according to Little, was also an exhibition about the present. Because [i]f one understands Daoism, modern
Chinese culture itself becomes easier to understand.
How do artists themselves see the role assigned to them? Does it degrade them to uncritical service providers?
In conversation with Christian Jankowski, the moderator Jrn Schafaff asked what it was like for an artist to
be invited to do something with a collection. How does one deal with this kind of assignment? Invitations
are always welcome, Jankowski explained. The ambitions behind articular invitations vary. One must see if
it makes sense. Naturally, I prefer having a completely free hand. Jankowski, whose works often turn on the
relations between artist, market, society, and institution, had previously screened his video Cleaning Up the
Studio (2010) commissioned by the Nam June Paik Art Center in South Korea. Shortly before he died in
2006, Paik sold his disorderly New York studio as a total installation to the Korean museum. After his death,
it was dismantled, shipped to Korea, and reassembled in its original state. For his video Jankowski paid a
cleaning company named Beautiful Cleaning to clean and tidy up the video-art pioneers studio. Cleaning Up
the Studio is a bit like a PR clip for the cleaning firm and can be read at different levels as an artists
commentary on the publics addiction to authenticity, or as a story about the strange discomfort felt when a
living artist uses what a dead artist has left behind as his material.
The reenactment of the pioneering exhibition When Attitudes Become Form in Venice in 2013 was also an
305
occasion for discomfort. For the reconstruction of the exhibition originally mounted by the young curator
Harald Szeemann (d. 2005) at the Kunsthalle Bern in spring 1969 that formed the start of the curators
international career, the Fondazione Prada commissioned the Italian curator Germano Celant, who had
worked with Szeemann in 1969, the architect Rem Koolhaas, and the artist Thomas Demand. In her talk
Beatrice von Bismarck inquired into the changes that occur when major exhibitions are reenacted. In the case
of When Attitudes Become Form the reenactment seems like a reversal of the original exhibitions anti-
commercial intention, a project that had combined conceptual and minimal approaches, fluxus and arte
povera.
Conclusions: Contemporary art cannot solve the pressing problems (such as restitution) of ethnology
museums. Nor, if it is smart, will it contribute to concealing such issues or to stifling their debate. However,
artistic projects such as Mining the Museum do seem able, as a critical instance, to change how publics view
an institution and its collection and to initiate critical, open-ended discussion the more independent their
position in the process (cf. Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt) the better. Artistic interventions can help break
certain preconceived or traditional readings. The interdisciplinary opening and extension of contemporary art
seems to facilitate a plurality. Constellations are possible that can form the starting point for discussion. Only
a radical opening up seems able to reanimate ethnological collections and link them to contemporary
discourse.
Translated from German by Christopher Jenkin-Jones
Kito Nedo is a freelance journalist and art critic living in Berlin.
Link Program Symposium Remembering as a Constructive Act
The symposium Remembering as a Constructive Act - Artistic Concepts for Museum Collections took place
on October 19, 2013 as part of the Game of Thrones project at the Dahlem Museums.
Participants:
Beatrice von Bismarck (Hochschule fr Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig)
Melissa Chiu (Asia Society Museum in New York)
Clmentine Deliss (Weltkulturenmuseum, Frankfurt)
Martin Heller (Content planning Humboldt-Forum, Berlin)
Christian Jankowski (Artist, Berlin)
Stephen Little (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
Angela Rosenberg (Curator Game of Thrones)
Jrn Schafaff (Freie Universitt Berlin)
Jana Scholze (Victoria & Albert Museum, London)
Concept of the symposium: Angela Rosenberg
Asking Questions / Credits

Overall concept: Paola Ivanov, Verena Rodatus
Contributions: Claudia Fritzsche, Jonathan Fine, Silvia Gaetti, Alexander Hofmann, Ute Marxreiter, Nadine
Ney, Carolin Nser, Margareta von Oswald, Andrea Scholz, Agnes Wegner, Monika Zessnik
306
Asking Questions / Imprint Documentation

Editors: Dagmar Deuring, Christiane Khl, Barbara Schindler
As of November 2015
Thin Ice: Facing the Environment and Climate Change in Ethnological Museums, 10/13/15, photo: Juliane
Eirich
307
Thin Ice: Facing the Environment and Climate Change in Ethnological Museums, 10/13/15, photo: Juliane
Eirich
Thin Ice: Facing the Environment and Climate Change in Ethnological Museums, 10/14/15, photo: Claudia
Obrocki
308
Thin Ice: Facing the Environment and Climate Change in Ethnological Museums, 10/14/15, photo: Claudia
Obrocki
Symposium Always in Crisis? Questions of Representation in Museums for Non-European Arts and
Cultures, 09/19/15, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
309
310
Workshop Chinese Medicine in Flux. Presenting and Explaining Chinese Medicine at the Humboldt-Forum,
07/22/2015, photo: Jan Windszus
311
312
07/21/2015, photo: Humboldt Lab Dahlem
Symposium Historical Collections and Contemporary Art: a Discussion on Curatorial Strategies, 07/03/15,
photo: Jan Windszus
313
photo: Jan Windszus
photo: Jan Windszus
314
Workshop Breaking Mesoamerican Codes, 01/29/2015, photo: Humboldt Lab Dahlem
Workshop Discussing [Open] Secrets, 11/22/2014, photo: Humboldt Lab Dahlem
315
Symposium EuropeTest and now?, 11/08/2014, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
Symposium EuropeTest and now?, 11/08/2014, photo: Sebastian Bolesch
316
Workshop Man - Object - Jaguar" / Touching Photography, 02/15/2014, photo: Humboldt Lab Dahlem
Symposium Remembering as a Constructive Act - Artistic Concepts for Museum Collections, 10/19/2013,
317
Symposium Remembering as a Constructive Act - Artistic Concepts for Museum Collections, 10/19/2013,
318
www.humboldt-lab.de - Projects - The Laboratory Concept
The Laboratory Concept.

The Path to the Forum:
The Humboldt Lab Dahlem
The Laboratory Concept / Teaser

The Laboratory Concept. The Path to the Forum: The Humboldt Lab Dahlem, the concluding exhibition of
the Humboldt Lab Dahlem, was 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
Probebhnen were displayed and reflected upon - including their premises, aims, experimental form and
their outcomes.
Of particular note within this exhibition on exhibiting were the protagonists perspectives: those who have
shaped the Humboldt Lab and who will be contributing to the development of the Humboldt-Forum itself:
What fascinated them especially about the Humboldt Lab? What ideas do they consider to be practical? In
what form? And how will the discourse be maintained?
The concluding publication The Laboratory Principle. Museum Experiments in the Humboldt Lab Dahlem is
published by the Nicolai Verlag. It documents and reflects upon the Humboldt Lab projects as a
contribution to the societal relevance of museums in the 21st century.
The Laboratory Concept. The Path to the Forum: The

Humboldt Lab Dahlem
The principle of an open, searching work attitude that is also clear about its requirements and goals,
determined the experiments at the Humboldt Lab. Due to the process of planning the Humboldt-Forum, there
wasnt much time available, and there was enormous pressure to achieve useful results. Because of this
situation, it was often difficult to see the Lab as a complex, yet organic whole, while communicating this to
the outside, as well. Even the Probebhnen only opened up a prospect of individual sections, questions and
results.
The desire to once again critically analyze and discuss the results of the Labs four years has to be considered
319
in front of this backdrop.
This is why the exhibition The Laboratory Concept. The Path to the Forum: The Humboldt Lab Dahlem
once more presented all of the projects developed and realized in the Lab. Our ambition was to make it
possible to grasp the myriad, heterogeneous presentations and events as a whole, and to synthesize it all, in
the sense of a laboratory concept. In the final exhibition, various elements of past installations including
media, components from each presentation, and tables with documentation evoked partly planned, partly
evolved modules of individual approaches and products.
The profound questions (Is everything stolen?) as well as the apparently trivial ones (Why are labels always
too small?), which propelled the Lab forward, were prominently identified. A video installation gave a voice
to the Humboldt Labs external and internal protagonists; in interviews, they described their experiences at
the Lab, along with their ambitions and visions for the Humboldt-Forum. The effects of the Labs work on the
designs for the museum exhibitions in the palace were visualized in large-scale plans. Objects from the
collections used in all of the Lab projects made it clear that the museums concentrate on mediating the
evidence of material culture, as well as on their ability to tell the world about it.
One result of the final exhibition was a series of new questions. The most important one is, what will the
Humboldt Forum take from the Laboratory Concept, and how much room will there be for a permanent
exploration of the new institutions conditions and goals? Inevitably, only the future can answer these
questions but the search for them must begin now.
Translated by Allison Moseley
The Humboldt Lab Dahlem and the Museum Planning

Process for the Humboldt-Forum
The two upper levels of the Humboldt-Forum in the new Berlin Palace will provide 17,000 m2 of exhibition
space for the collections of the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum fr Asiatische Kunst. The goal is to
arrange the rooms in such a way that they provide an attractive mix of topics, objects, and exhibition
arrangements.
The African, American and Oceanic collections, as well as the ethnomusicology collection, will be displayed
on the second floor, while the third floor will be devoted to Asian culture and art. The individual rooms, and
in some cases sections of rooms, will focus on specific topics; once the Humboldt-Forum is open, these will be
regularly updated and changed.
The planning of the two museum floors is progressing in stages. The enlarged floor plans show the current
status at the end of the draft design stage. At this point, most of the decisions regarding the (thematic)
arrangement of the objects have already been made and the scenography has been planned. In the next stage,
the designs will be more detailed and ready for implementation.
The Humboldt Lab Dahlem is involved in the planning process in a variety of ways. The involved academics,
the working group responsible for design (Ralph Appelbaum Associates / malsyteufel), as well as the central
administrative body of the Humboldt-Forum have raised a number of issues about content and scenography,
many of which are being addressed by the Humboldt Lab. Other Humboldt Lab projects deal with specific
aspects and building blocks of the exhibitions in the Humboldt-Forum, for which preliminary and feasibility
studies are being developed. Finally, the Humboldt Lab deals with issues relating to specific strategies and
processes - such as the inclusion of contemporary artists.
Accordingly, the Humboldt Lab takes a variety of approaches in its work - sometimes very targeted and
concrete, at other times more subtle and with a broader scope. A crucial point is that while the Humboldt Lab
Dahlem frequently draws on the expertise of external experts, it also incorporates museum staff, who is
involved both in the exhibition planning and in the Humboldt Lab. The experiences and results of the
Humboldt Lab can thus be incorporated into the manifold efforts to successfully establish both museums in
the Humboldt-Forum.
320
The floor plan attempts to delineate this complex approach. The individual Humboldt Lab projects are either
connected to particular exhibition modules or they address general exhibition issues.
This text was part of The Laboratory Concept and explained the following images: Floorplans of the exhibition layout
of the second and third storeys of the Humboldt-Forum showing input from the Humboldt Lab Dahlem (Status: June
2015) which were displayed in the exhibition magnified to a greater size, filling an entire wall. Copyright images:
Stiftung Berliner Schloss Humboldtforum, Franco Stella with FS HUF PG, Stiftung Preuischer Kulturbesitz, Ralph
Appelbaum Associates / malsyteufel, res d, Humboldt Lab Dahlem.
321
The Laboratory Concept. The Path to the Forum: The

Humboldt Lab Dahlem / Credits
Concept: Martin Heller
With: Viola Knig, Klaas Ruitenbeek, Agnes Wegner
Production management: Agnes Wegner
Assistants: Katharina Kepplinger, Andrea Scholz
Exhibition design: Ursula Gillmann and Matthias Schnegg (arge gillmann schnegg)
Graphic design: Antonia Neubacher, Dorothea Weishaupt (Groenlandbasel)
Texts: Martin Heller, Andrea Scholz, Agnes Wegner
Copyediting: Elke Kupschinsky, Antonia Meiners
Translations: Galina Green, Allison Moseley
Construction supervision: Gnter Krger (scala Ausstellungsgestaltung)
Restoration supervision: Diana Gabler
Exhibition construction and object handling: museumstechnik berlin
Lighting: Victor Kgli
Media technology: cine Plus media Project Berlin GmbH
InnerViews (film installation)

Concept, direction and production: Rouven Rech und Teresa Renn (Torero Film GbR Berlin)
Camera: Frank Marten Pfeiffer
Lighting: Andr Kauter
Make-up: Viktoria Handke
Media technology: GAHRENS + BATTERMANN GmbH
Thanks for support in the development of floorplans for the Humboldt-Forum: Antje Brrmann (Staff Unit
Humboldt-Forum), Wenke Merkel (Ralph Appelbaum Associates), Vanessa Offen (Ralph Appelbaum
Associates), Bettina Probst (Staff Unit Humboldt-Forum), res d design und architektur, Nina Wengatz
(Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning)
Thanks for support in the museum object selection: Thomas Arens, Ruth Bhner, Ines Buschmann, Kirstin
Csutor, Mira Dallige-Smith, Dorothea Deterts, Kai-Patricia Engelhardt, Jonathan Fine, Manuela Fischer,
Kerstin Flemming, Toralf Gabsch, Raffael Gadebusch, Leonie Grtner, Silvia Gaetti, Maria Gaida, Richard
Haas, Alexander Hofmann, Paola Ivanov, Peter Jacob, Birgit Kantzenbach, Lars-Christian Koch, Ricarda
Kopal, Indra Lopez Velasco, Lars Malareck, Barbara Michalski, Siegmar Nahser, Uta Rahman-Steinert, Eva
Ritz, Klaas Ruitenbeek, Ingrid Schindlbeck, Ines Seibt, Anna Seidel, Martina Stoye, Helene Tello, Elisabeth
Tietmeyer, Ching-Ling Wang, Juliane Wernicke, Albrecht Wiedmann
324
Exhibition view The Laboratory Concept, photo: Uwe Walter
325
326
327

Humboldt Lab Dahlem Project Documentation 2012-2015

Transféré par

Informations du document

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Humboldt Lab Dahlem Project Documentation 2012-2015

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

www.humboldt-lab.

de - Dokumentation - Probebhne 1 - Bedeutungen schichten

Asking Questions 285

The Laboratory Concept 319

The Humboldt Lab Dahlem was a project of the

In addition to this online documentation, The Laboratory Concept.

Featuring introductions by Hortensia Vlckers and Hermann Parzinger,

Humboldt Lab Dahlem (Ed.)

Probebhne 3 Probebhne 4 Probebhne 7

Appropriations. A performative conference

Workshop Discussing [Open] Secrets

Historical Collections and Contemporary Art

Workshop Chinese Medicine in Flux

Project Supervisor for the Kulturstiftung des Bundes:

Layering Meanings / Teaser

Layering Meanings / Project Description

Information in Extenso in the Quest for Concentration

Four out of Five Hundred Thousand

Points of Reference for further Humboldt Lab Work

Layering Meanings / Positions

The High Quality of the Process

M. Heller: What did you, Ms. Gaida, as a distanced observer learn?

M. Heller: That sounds like a worthwhile experience.

Gaida: ... which have nothing to do with the Maya.

A. Heller: Yes, and precisely that was not our aim.

Gaida: But that is exactly how it comes across.

This interview was recorded in July 2014 in Berlin.

Exhibiting Contexts: But how?

Layering Meanings / Credits

Layering Meanings / Imprint Documentation

Installation view Layering Meanings, photo: Jens Ziehe

Layering Meanings: Picchvai, photo: Jens Ziehe

Layering Meanings: Calligraphy sheet, photo: Jens Ziehe

"Layering Meanings: Maya head, photo: Jens Ziehe

Layering Meanings: Khipu, photo: Jens Ziehe

Funny Thought / Teaser

Funny Thought / Project Description

An Interactive Experience of Baroque Pictorial Worlds

Swiping, Morphing and Other Interactive Navigation Methods in Digital Spheres

Computer-Aided Applications for New Insights

Funny Thought / Positions

A Utopian Installation on Times and Spaces

Funny Thougt / Quote

Funny Thought / Credits

Funny Thought / Imprint Documentation

Installation view Funny Thought, photo: Jens Ziehe

Visitors at the opening, photo: Sebastian Bolesch

Installation view Funny Thought, photo: Jens Ziehe

Installation view Funny Thought, photo: Jens Ziehe

Museum of Vessels / Teaser

Museum of Vessels / Project Description

A Cultural Theory Approach

The Experimental Exhibition: a Trial Arrangement about Exhibiting per se

Museum of Vessels / Positions

Object Biographies Narrated Anew

Junge: It reduced it to a gag

In the Humboldt-Forum a systemization according to regional aspects is planned. Could a cultural-geographic

The interview took place in July 2014 in Berlin.

Museum of Vessels / Credits

Curator: Nicola Lepp

Museum of Vessels / Imprint Documentation

Museum of Vessels: Vessel Center, photo: Jens Ziehe

Museum of Vessels: Vessel Activities, photo: Jens Ziehe

Museum of Vessels: The Abundance of Vessels, photo: Jens Ziehe